Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand are geographically situated at the southern edge of the Asia-Pacific region and have therefore sometimes been referred to as the ‘backyard’ of the wider Asia region. It is from this vantage point that we comment on the broad focus of this Special Issue - ‘Environmental Education in Asia’. The intent is to open up and extend a dialogue with, across and outside of Asia as it pertains to environmental education and its research. We do this by framing our discussion around the biogeography, sociocultural and socioecological history of the region, beginning with Australasia, and then speculating on how this framing might be applied to connect environmental education in Australasia and Asia.