Can australia be both east and west of south america, explain.

Yes, it can.

Explanation:

Australia can be and it is both east and west of South America in practice. A confusion usually occurs because of the imaginary lines set for the human needs and the way the maps are made, so people may think that every continent can be only on side of the other continent. The Earth is rounded though, and naturally there isn't any lines for separation of the sides. So if we take the location of South America and Australia, we can see that Australia is both east and west from South America, as South America is to Australia as well. Australia is located west of South America's west coast, across the Pacific Ocean, but if we take the other side, Australia is located on the east of the eastern coast of South America, with the Atlantic Ocean, Africa, and the Indian Ocean being between them.