Matthew Flinders

Matthew Flinders (16 March 1774 - 19 July 1814) was one of the most accomplished navigators and chartmakers of his age. In a career that spanned just over twenty years, he sailed with Captain William Bligh, circumnavigated and named Australia, survived shipwreck and disaster only to be imprisoned as a spy, identified and corrected the effect of iron ships upon compass readings, and wrote the seminal work on Australian exploration A Voyage To Terra Australis.

Naming Australia

The first writer in English to use the word "Australia" was Alexander Dalrymple in his An Historical Collection of Voyages and Discoveries in the South Pacific Ocean, published in 1771, but he used it to refer to the whole South Pacific region, not specifically to the Australian continent. In 1793 George Shaw and Sir James Smith published Zoology and Botany of New Holland, in which they wrote of "the vast island, or rather continent, of Australia, Australasia or New Holland."

Related Topics:
Alexander Dalrymple - 1771 - 1793 - George Shaw - Sir James Smith

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Matthew Flinders, who proved that New Holland and New South Wales were part of the same land mass, possessed a copy of Dalrymple's book, and it seems likely he borrowed the word from this source and applied it to the Australian continent. In 1804 he wrote to his brother: "I call the whole island Australia, or Terra Australis." Later that year he wrote to Sir Joseph Banks and mentioned "my general chart of Australia." The first time the name Australia was ever used in a map was in this 92cm x 72cm chart made by Flinders in 1804, which he began while imprisoned by the French in Mauritius, and sent to Banks in England.http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/06/08/1086460291509.html He continued to promote the use of the word until his arrival in London in 1810. Here he found that Banks did not approve of the name and had not unpacked the chart he had sent him, and that "New Holland" and "Terra Australis" were still in general use. As a result, Flinders's 1814 book was published under the title A Voyage to Terra Australis despite his objections.

Related Topics:
New Holland - New South Wales - 1804 - Sir Joseph Banks - Mauritius - London - 1810 - 1814

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In this book, however, Flinders wrote: "The name Terra Australis will remain descriptive of the geographical importance of this country... had I permitted myself any innovation upon the original term, it would have been to convert it into Australia; as being more agreeable to the ear, and an assimilation to the names of the other great portions of the earth."

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Flinders's book was widely read and gave the term "Australia" general currency. Governor Lachlan Macquarie of New South Wales became aware of Flinders's preference for the name Australia and used it in his dispatches to England. In 1817 he recommended that it be officially adopted. In 1824 the British Admiralty finally accepted that the continent should be known officially as Australia.

Related Topics:
Lachlan Macquarie - New South Wales - England - 1817 - 1824

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