Australians celebrate naming anniversary

Australians have today commemorated the efforts of a British explorer whose tenacity prevented their country being named New Holland or Terra Australis.

The British settled the colony of New South Wales where Sydney now stands in 1788, but little was known about the rest of the country – and it had no official name.

On November 14, 1804, navy cartographer and navigator Matthew Flinders wrote to the British Admiralty to report on his exploration of the mysterious southern land, marking the first complete chart of its coastline “Australia”.

However, officials in London did not like the name, preferring instead Terra Australis. Some others had informally also been using the name New Holland.

But when New South Wales Governor Lachlan Macquarie received Flinders’ chart in 1817, he liked Australia and used it in the colony.

By 1824, the Admiralty finally accepted the continent should be officially known as Australia.

The British monarch’s representative in Australia, Governor General Michael Jeffrey, held a reception at his Canberra residence today to commemorate the 200th anniversary of Flinders’ first attempt to name the continent.

Royal Historical Society of Victoria state president Professor Weston Bate told the reception Flinders fought to have the continent officially known as Australia.

“He liked the way it rolled off the tongue,” Prof Bate said.

Australia did not become a nation until six colonies united under a federal government in 1901.