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The countries that make up the continental area of Oceania are  Australia, New Zealand, Micronesia, Fiji and all of Polynesia, New Guinea, Vanuatu, New Caledonia, the Soloman Islands, the Maluku Islands and Papua.

This area has been inhabited for over 50,000 years yet had little exploration or development until a much later time.

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50,000 BC to 9600 BC

Australia has been inhabited for at least 50,000 years. "The islands of the Pacific were originally settled from Southeast Asia by two different groups of people at widely separated points in time. The first settlers of the Pacific, ancestors of present-day Melanesians and Australian Aboriginals, reached New Guinea and Australia roughly 40,000–60,000 years ago. By 38,000 B.C., these Melanesian peoples had expanded as far east as the northern Solomon Islands. It would be more than 30,000 years, however, before the descendants of a second wave of Southeast Asian peoples, together with the Melanesians with whom they interacted, began to venture into the more remote islands of the Pacific." (Heilbrunn)
Changes in climate in the Late Pleistocene period at about 9600 BC submerged the continental shelf where Aboriginal people had settled. This in turn forced these people to relocate and move into areas where other people already lived.

Scarre, Christopher. The Human Past: World Prehistory & the Development of Human Societies, 3rd ed. New York, N.Y.: Thames & Hudson, 2005.

“Oceania, 8000–2000 B.C.” In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/ht/?period=02&region=oc (October 2000)

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6000 BC to 500 AD

During this time frame Melanesian people lived throughout the south Pacific. However, the more remote  islands of Oceana remained uninhabited.  It was not until about 1500 BC in a time known as the Second Migration that people from Southeast Asia began to expand and more into the more remote islands of Oceana. During this same time artists in New Guinea were starting to create stone sculptures and freestanding figures that represented both human and animal forms. These would become the oldest form of known Oceanic Sculpture.
“Oceania, 2000–1000 B.C.” In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/ht/?period=03&region=oc (October 2000)

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6000 BC to 500 AD

ca. 1500 B.C.–1 A.D.
Austronesian peoples settle the main archipelagos of Micronesia and begin to develop into distinctly Micronesian cultures.

“Oceania, 2000–1000 B.C.” In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/ht/?period=03&region=oc (October 2000)

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1000 BC to 1 AD

This period is known for the interactions between the diverse people that inhabited the remote islands of Oceana. Growth in trade and intermingling of the people lead to the beginnings of the Polynesian cultures that we see from that area today in Tonga, Samoa and Fiji.

In the Western Pacific islands we begin to see interactions between the people from Southeast Asia and the Asian mainland. Around 600 BC we see the emergence of the Dongson culture known for its bronze working traditions.

“Oceania, 1000 B.C.–1 A.D.” In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/ht/?period=04&region=oc (October 2000)

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500 AD to 1000 AD

A period known for intricate pottery known as Manga’asi pottery. Trade between Western Indonesia and New Guinea have a major impact on the art from this region.

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1000 AD to 1200 AD

During this period we start to see the thing that the region is most famous for. About 1100 AD the massive stone sculptures known as Moai are carved on Easter Island. Over the next 500 years more than 900 of these stone images depicting ancestral figures pop up along the island.

“Oceania, 1000–1400 A.D.” In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/ht/?period=07&region=oc (October 2001)

Few ancient marvels outside of Stonehenge have had as much professional disagreement at the Moai of Easter Island. Researchers have debated many thing such how they were moved into place, whether or not it took thousands of people cutting down millions of trees to move them, and if the Rapa Nui destroyed caused their own extinction by destroying all of their natural resources on the island.
Hunt and Lipo argue that it took only a hand full of people to move the huge statues and demonstrate their technique using four people with ropes "walking" the statues back and forth. They also argue the theory that violent conflicts destroyed many of the statues that are knocked over stating that it is equally possible that they could have fallen during an earthquake.

"Terry Hunt and Carl Lipo: The Statues That Walked | Nat Geo Live." YouTube. August 13, 2013. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rut16-AfoyA.

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C. 1500 AD

During this timeframe trading galleys from Portugal and Spain are actively trading with Asia. These traders begin to interact with the islanders and establish trade with the  Pacific archipelagos.

“Oceania, 1400–1600 A.D.” In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/ht/?period=08&region=oc (October 2002)

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1600 AD to 1800 AD

The first European explores reach Australia and the Aboriginal people there in the early 1600s AD. "Between 1623 and 1636, the Dutch explore the north coast of Australia and become the earliest known Europeans to reach (and name) Arnhem Land, one of the most prolific centers of Aboriginal art."

Later in the early 1700s James cook explored the Northern coast of Australia and brought back the first Aboriginal weapons and utensils into Europe.

“Australia, 1600–1800 A.D.” In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/ht/?period=09&region=oca (October 2003)

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1600 AD to 1800 AD

Cook also explored other areas of Oceana during his voyages. In the late 1700s Cook made three voyages to Oceana and amassed the first large scale collections of Oceanic art that made its way back to Europe.
"Collections made by Cook in Hawai’i, Tahiti, Tonga, Easter Island, and the Austral, Cook, and Marquesas Islands show that the classical Polynesian artistic traditions were already flourishing throughout the region."

“Polynesia, 1600–1800 A.D.” In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/ht/?period=09&region=ocp (October 2003)