Terra Australis was a hypothetical continent first posited in antiquity and which appeared on maps between the 15th and 18th centuries. Its existence was not based on any survey or direct observation, but rather on the idea that continental land in the Northern Hemisphere should be balanced by land in the Southern Hemisphere. This theory of balancing land has been documented as early as the 5th century on maps by Macrobius, who uses the term Australis on his maps.
The maritime European exploration of Australia consisted of several waves of European seafarers who sailed the edges of the Australian continent. Dutch navigators were the first Europeans known to have explored and mapped the Australian coastline. The first documented encounter was that of Dutch navigator Willem Janszoon, in 1606. Dutch seafarers also visited the west and north coasts of the continent, as did French explorers.
New Holland is a historical European name for mainland Australia.
Cape Leeuwin is the most south-westerly mainland point of the Australian continent, in the state of Western Australia.
Investigator Strait is a body of water in South Australia lying between the Yorke Peninsula, on the Australian mainland, and Kangaroo Island. It was named by Matthew Flinders after his ship, HMS Investigator, on his voyage of 1801–1802. It is bordered by the Gulf St Vincent in the northeast.
Captain Matthew Flinders was a British navigator and cartographer who led the first inshore circumnavigation of mainland Australia, then called New Holland. He is also credited as being the first person to utilise the name Australia to describe the entirety of that continent including Van Diemen's Land, a title he regarded as being "more agreeable to the ear" than previous names such as Terra Australis.
St Matthew Island is a phantom island once thought to lie roughly one thousand kilometers northeast of Ascension Island in the Atlantic Ocean. It appeared on navigational charts until as late as the early twentieth century. It was supposedly located at approximately 2°S 8°W, and was alleged to have been discovered by the Portuguese on St. Matthew's Day 1516. It was shown and named on several maps going back to the beginning of the sixteenth century, and it was supposedly visited by García Jofre de Loaísa on 20 October 1525 while on a voyage to the Moluccas. It appeared on early Portuguese charts and world maps, and appears on Ortelius' 1570 map of the African continent Africae Tabula Nova. It thereafter regularly featured on charts and maps, and though it began to disappear from standard charts starting in the early nineteenth century, it was not completely removed from charts until the early twentieth century.
Tryal Rocks, sometimes spelled Trial Rocks or Tryall Rocks, formerly known as Ritchie's Reef or Greyhound's Shoal, is a reef of rock located in the Indian Ocean off the northwest coast of Australia, 14 kilometres (8.7 mi) northwest of the outer edge of the Montebello Islands group. It is named for the Tryall, the first known shipwreck in Australian waters, which sank after striking the then-uncharted rocks in 1622. Described as "the theme and dread of every voyager to the eastern islands", their location was sought for over three centuries before finally being determined in 1969.
The name Australia is derived from the Latin australis, meaning "southern", and specifically from the hypothetical Terra Australis postulated in pre-modern geography. The name was popularised by the explorer Matthew Flinders from 1804, and it has been in official use since 1817, replacing "New Holland", an English translation of the Dutch name, first given by Abel Tasman in 1643 as the name for the continent.
HMS Investigator was the mercantile Fram, launched in 1795, which the Royal Navy purchased in 1798 and renamed HMS Xenophon, and then in 1801 converted to a survey ship under the name HMS Investigator. In 1802, under the command of Matthew Flinders, she was the first ship to circumnavigate Australia. The Navy sold her in 1810 and she returned to mercantile service under the name Xenophon. She was probably broken up c.1872.
A Voyage to Terra Australis: Undertaken for the Purpose of Completing the Discovery of that Vast Country, and Prosecuted in the Years 1801, 1802, and 1803, in His Majesty's Ship the Investigator was a sea voyage journal written by British mariner and explorer Matthew Flinders. It describes his circumnavigation of the Australian continent in the early years of the 19th century, and his imprisonment by the French on the island of Mauritius from 1804 to 1810.
The second voyage of James Cook, from 1772 to 1775, commissioned by the British government with advice from the Royal Society, was designed to circumnavigate the globe as far south as possible to finally determine whether there was any great southern landmass, or Terra Australis. On his first voyage, Cook had demonstrated by circumnavigating New Zealand that it was not attached to a larger landmass to the south, and he charted almost the entire eastern coastline of Australia, yet Terra Australis was believed to lie further south. Alexander Dalrymple and others of the Royal Society still believed that this massive southern continent should exist. After a delay brought about by the botanist Joseph Banks' unreasonable demands, the ships Resolution and Adventure were fitted for the voyage and set sail for the Antarctic in July 1772.
Little Island is an island in the Australian state of South Australia located in Spencer Gulf off the east coast of Jussieu Peninsula on Eyre Peninsula approximately 28 kilometres (17 mi) south-east of Port Lincoln. It was named by Matthew Flinders in memory of John Little who was one of the eight crew lost from a cutter that capsized sometime after being launched from HM Sloop Investigator to search for water on 21 February 1802. Since 2004, the island has been part of the Memory Cove Wilderness Protection Area.
Troubridge Hill is a hill on the south coast of Yorke Peninsula in South Australia located in the locality of Honiton about 13.5 kilometres south west of Edithburgh and about 3.8 kilometres west of Troubridge Point. It was discovered, reported as being a ’hummock upon this low part ’ and named by Matthew Flinders on 24 March 1802 after Sir Thomas Troubridge, 1st Baronet. Since 1980, it has been the site of an operating lighthouse known as the Troubridge Hill Lighthouse. Its adjoining coastline borders a protected area of the same name - the Troubridge Hill Aquatic Reserve.
Topgallant Islands is an island group in the Australian state of South Australia located in the Investigator Group about 22 kilometres south west of Cape Finniss on the west coast of Eyre Peninsula. The group was discovered and named by Matthew Flinders on 13 February 1802. The island group has enjoyed protected area status since the 1960s and since 2011, it has been part of the Investigator Group Wilderness Protection Area.
Point Whidbey is a headland located at the southern western extremity of both Coffin Bay Peninsula and Avoid Bay on the west coast of Eyre Peninsula in South Australia about 34 kilometres west of the town of Coffin Bay. It was described in 2012 as being “fronted by low cliffs and rises to a round hill, 62 metres high, about 1 mile inland.” It is one of the features named by Matthew Flinders in February 1802 after his friend and Royal Navy officer, Joseph Whidbey. The point is currently located within the boundaries of the protected area, the Coffin Bay National Park.
Point Avoid is a headland located at the south eastern extremity of both Coffin Bay Peninsula and Avoid Bay on the west coast of Eyre Peninsula in South Australia about 15 kilometres south west of the town of Coffin Bay. It was described in 2017 as being “fronted on all of its seaward sides by limestone cliffs, about 46 metres high, which change abruptly to sand hills E of its S(outhern) extremity.” It was named by Matthew Flinders on 17 February 1802 to acknowledge the navigational hazards present around its shores. The point is currently located within the boundaries of the protected area, the Coffin Bay National Park.
Cape Radstock is a headland located on the west coast of Eyre Peninsula in South Australia about 45 kilometres south south-east of the town of Streaky Bay and about 9.3 kilometres (5 nmi) south east of Point Labatt. The cape is both the north western extremity of Anxious Bay and the southern extremity of the Calca Peninsula. The cape is described as being “steep and bold” and where the cliffs reach a height of 135 metres, being the high point of a line of cliffs starting at Point Labatt in the west and from within Anxious Bay in the east. It was named by Matthew Flinders on 9 February 1802 after William Waldegrave, 1st Baron Radstock. Since 2012, the waters adjoining its shoreline are within a habitat protection zone in the West Coast Bays Marine Park.
Cape Blanche is a headland located on the west coast of Eyre Peninsula in South Australia about 25 kilometres south south-west of the town of Streaky Bay and about 4 kilometres west of the town of Sceale Bay.
Pobasso, also spelt Probasso or Pobassoo, was the chief of a division of the Makassan fleet of perahu in the waters between northern Australia and Indonesia in the late 1700s and early 1800s. The fleet harvested trepang, or sea cucumber, trading it to China. Pobasso was a key informant on the early Makassan relationships with Australia's Indigenous peoples prior to European settlement.
