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The name Australia is derived from the Latin word 'australis', meaning 'southern'. The name Australia was popularised by the explorer Matthew Flinders, who pushed for it to be formally adopted as early as 1804. The name Australia officially replaced 'New Holland' in a dispatch to the Colonial Office in London in December 1817, sent by the New South Wales Governor Lachlan Macquarie.
| Characteristics | Values |
|---|---|
| Explorer who popularised the name Australia | Matthew Flinders |
| Year the name Australia was popularised | 1804 |
| Year the name Australia was officially used | 1817 |
| Year the British Admiralty started to officially use the name | 1824 |
| Previous name of Australia | New Holland |
| Year New Holland was named | 1643 |
| Person who named New Holland | Abel Tasman |
| Language the name Australia is derived from | Latin |
| Meaning of the word Australia | Southern |
| Name of the imaginary land in the Southern Hemisphere | Terra Australis Incognita |
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What You'll Learn
- Explorer Matthew Flinders popularised the name Australia
- Terra Australis was the name given to the imagined land mass surrounding the south pole
- New Holland was the name given to Australia by the Dutch in the 17th century
- Ulimaroa was the name given to Australia by Swedish geographer Daniel Djurberg in 1776
- Australia was officially used for the first time in a dispatch to Lord Bathurst in 1817
Explorer Matthew Flinders popularised the name Australia
Explorer Matthew Flinders is credited with popularising the name Australia, which he used to refer to the continent in his 1814 book, A Voyage to Terra Australis. Born in Lincolnshire in 1774, Flinders joined the British Royal Navy at the age of 15. He sailed as a midshipman on William Bligh's second breadfruit voyage to Tahiti in 1792, which sparked his interest in cartography.
In 1791, Flinders first sailed to the south seas as a midshipman on a two-year voyage. He returned to Australia in 1794 and explored much of the southeast coast with his friend, Lieutenant George Bass, in a tiny dinghy named Tom Thumb. Flinders and Bass later sailed on the Norfolk and discovered that Tasmania was a separate island from mainland Australia.
Flinders was the first person to circumnavigate the continent, and he used the name 'Australia' to describe it on a hand-drawn map in 1804. He advocated for the formal adoption of the name as early as 1804. When preparing his manuscript and charts for A Voyage to Terra Australis in 1814, he was persuaded by his patron, Joseph Banks, to use the term Terra Australis as it was the name most familiar to the public. Flinders agreed but expressed his preference for 'Australia' in the published text, stating:
> "Had I permitted myself any innovation on the original term, it would have been to convert it to AUSTRALIA; as being more agreeable to the ear, a"
In 1817, Lachlan Macquarie, the Governor of New South Wales, became aware of Flinders' preference for the name Australia and used it in his dispatches to England. On December 12, 1817, Macquarie recommended to the Colonial Office that the name be officially adopted. In 1824, the British Admiralty agreed, and the continent officially became known as Australia.
Flinders' legacy is commemorated in numerous places and landmarks across Australia, including Flinders Ranges, Flinders University, Flinders Medical Centre, Flinders Street in Melbourne, and the Matthew Flinders Girls Secondary College in Geelong. He is also remembered for his association with Trim the cat, who sailed with him on his voyages and is often featured in statues of Flinders.
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Terra Australis was the name given to the imagined land mass surrounding the south pole
The name Australia is derived from the Latin word "australis", meaning "southern". It is specifically derived from Terra Australis, a hypothetical continent first posited in antiquity and which appeared on maps between the 15th and 18th centuries. The earliest known use of the name Australia in Latin was in 1545, when the word appeared on a woodcut illustration of the globe.
Terra Australis was not based on any actual surveying of the landmass but rather on the hypothesis that continents in the Northern Hemisphere should be balanced by land in the south. This theory of balancing land, also known as the theory of isthmuses, has been documented as early as the 5th century on maps by Macrobius, who used the term Australis on his maps. Other names for the hypothetical continent include Terra Australis Incognita, Terra Australis Nondum Cognita, Brasiliae Australis, and Magellanica. The earliest depiction of Terra Australis on a globe was probably on Johannes Schöner's lost 1523 globe, on which Oronce Fine is thought to have based his 1531 double cordiform (heart-shaped) map of the world. On this landmass, he wrote, "recently discovered but not yet completely explored".
During the Age of Discovery in the late 15th century, explorers proved that Africa was almost entirely surrounded by sea and that the Indian Ocean was accessible from both the west and the east. These discoveries reduced the area where the continent could be found, but many cartographers continued to argue for its existence, including Gerardus Mercator in 1569 and Alexander Dalrymple as late as 1767.
In 1804, the English explorer Matthew Flinders pushed for the name Australia to be formally adopted, and it has been in official use since 1817, replacing New Holland, the name given by Abel Tasman in 1643. In 1814, Flinders published a book titled "A Voyage to Terra Australis", in which he gave his rationale that there was no probability of finding any significant land mass anywhere more south than Australia. Thus, the name Terra Australis was given to the imagined land mass surrounding the South Pole, which is now known as Antarctica.
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New Holland was the name given to Australia by the Dutch in the 17th century
The name Australia is derived from the Latin word 'australis', meaning 'southern'. The name Australia was popularised by the explorer Matthew Flinders, who pushed for it to be formally adopted as early as 1804. However, the name Australia replaced the name New Holland, which was given to Australia by the Dutch in the 17th century.
The Dutch navigator Willem Janszoon first encountered the Australian mainland in 1606. The name New Holland was first applied to the western and northern coasts of Australia in 1644 by the Dutch seafarer Abel Tasman, who is also known for his discovery of Tasmania. The English translation of the Dutch name was first given by Abel Tasman in 1643.
The name New Holland appeared in an account of his two voyages to the region by the English Captain William Dampier. His first voyage was in 1688, and his second voyage of exploration was in 1699. The name New Holland was also used by other Dutch expeditions that visited the Australian coast during the 200 years after the first Dutch visit in 1606.
The name New Holland was used in atlases, literature, and common parlance for many decades. In the Netherlands, the continent continued to be called 'Nieuw Holland' until about the end of the 19th century. The name New Holland was retained for several decades after British colonisation, but in the 19th century, colonial authorities removed the Dutch name and adopted the name Australia.
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Ulimaroa was the name given to Australia by Swedish geographer Daniel Djurberg in 1776
The name Australia is derived from the Latin 'australis', meaning 'southern'. The name was popularised by explorer Matthew Flinders from 1804 and has been in official use since 1817, replacing 'New Holland'.
However, Australia has had several other names over the years, including 'Terra Australis' Incognita (Unknown Southern Land), which appeared on world maps from the 15th century. The continent was also once referred to as Australasia, a term used to describe Australia, New Zealand, and Papua New Guinea.
One of the more curious alternative names for Australia is 'Ulimaroa'. Ulimaroa was a name given to Australia by the Swedish geographer and cartographer Daniel Djurberg in 1776. Djurberg adapted the name from 'Olhemaroa', a Māori word found in the journals of Captain James Cook and Sir Joseph Banks.
Djurberg believed that Ulimaroa meant "big red land" in the Māori language and that it referred to a large country lying to the north-northwest of New Zealand. However, modern linguists believe that the Māori were actually referring to Grand Terre, the largest island of New Caledonia, and that the name meant "long arm" or "hand", echoing the geography of Grand Terre.
Despite this misunderstanding, other geographers followed Djurberg's lead, and Ulimaroa appeared on maps as a name for Australia until about 1819.
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Australia was officially used for the first time in a dispatch to Lord Bathurst in 1817
The name Australia is derived from the Latin word "australis", meaning "southern". It is specifically derived from the hypothetical "Terra Australis" in pre-modern geography. The name was popularised by the explorer Matthew Flinders from as early as 1804. Flinders first used the name 'Australia' to describe the continent on a hand-drawn map in 1804. He also pushed for the name to be formally adopted.
The first time the name Australia was officially used was in a dispatch to Lord Bathurst on 4 April 1817. In the dispatch, Governor Lachlan Macquarie acknowledged the receipt of Flinders' charts of Australia. On 12 December 1817, Macquarie recommended to the Colonial Office that the name be formally adopted.
Before the continent was called Australia, it was referred to as New Holland, an English translation of the Dutch name first given by Abel Tasman in 1643. The name Australia was first applied to the continent in 1794, with the botanists George Shaw and James Smith writing of "the vast island, or rather continent, of Australia, Australasia or New Holland" in their 1793 work Zoology and Botany of New Holland.
By 1824, the British Admiralty started to officially use the name Australia, and it appeared on hydrographic charts of the Australian coastline. The country of Australia, formed in 1901, is officially known as the Commonwealth of Australia.
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Frequently asked questions
The name Australia is derived from the Latin word 'australis', meaning 'southern'.
The name Australia was popularised by the explorer Matthew Flinders, who pushed for it to be formally adopted as early as 1804.
The land that is now known as Australia was called by various names by the Indigenous peoples who lived there for thousands of years before the arrival of Europeans. These names varied between different language groups and regions. The continent was also previously referred to as 'New Holland' by the Dutch and British, 'Terra Australis' or 'Terra Australis Incognita' by Europeans, and 'Australia del Espiritu Santo' or 'Austrialia del Espiritu Santo' by Spanish explorers.
