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Australia
30/10/2017 | admin
he name Australia (pronounced [əˈstɹæɪljə,
-liə] in Australian English[18]) is derived from the Latin Terra Australis("southern
land"), a name used for a hypothetical continent in the Southern
Hemisphere since ancient times.[19] When Europeans first began visiting and mapping Australia
in the 17th century, the name Terra Australis was naturally
applied to the new territories.[N 4]
Until the early 19th century, Australia was best known as "New Holland",
a name first applied by the Dutch explorer Abel Tasman in 1644 (as Nieuw-Holland)
and subsequently anglicised. Terra Australis still saw
occasional usage, such as in scientific texts.[N 5] The name Australia was popularised by the
explorer Matthew Flinders,
who said it was "more agreeable to the ear, and an assimilation to the
names of the other great portions of the earth".[25] The first time that Australia appears to
have been officially used was in April 1817, when Governor Lachlan Macquarie acknowledged the
receipt of Flinders' charts of Australia from Lord
Bathurst.[26] In December 1817, Macquarie recommended to the Colonial Office that it be formally
adopted.[27] In 1824, the Admiralty agreed that the continent
should be known officially by that name.[28] The first official published use of the new name came with
the publication in 1830 of The Australia Directory by
the Hydrographic
Office.[29]
Colloquial names for Australia include "Oz" and
"the Land Down Under" (usually shortened to just "Down Under"). Other epithets include
"the Great Southern Land", "the Lucky Country", "the Sunburnt
Country", and "the Wide Brown Land". The latter two both derive
from Dorothea Mackellar's
1908 poem "My Country".[30]
History
Main article: History of Australia
Pre-colonial history
See also: Indigenous Australians
Aboriginal rock art in the Kimberleyregion
of Western Australia
Human habitation of the Australian continent is estimated to
have begun around 65,000 to 70,000 years ago,[31][32] with the migration of people by land bridgesand short sea-crossings from what
is now Southeast Asia.
These first inhabitants were the ancestors of modern Indigenous Australians.[33] At the time of European settlement in the late 18th
century, most Indigenous Australians were hunter-gatherers with complex economies
and societies.[32] Indigenous Australians have an oral culture with spiritual values based
on reverence for the land and a belief in the Dreamtime. The Torres Strait
Islanders, ethnically Melanesian, obtained their livelihood from
seasonal horticulture and the resources of their reefs and seas.[34]The northern coasts and waters of Australia were visited
sporadically by fishermen from Maritime Southeast
Asia.[35]
European arrival
See also: European
exploration of Australia
Portrait of Captain James Cook, the first European to map the
eastern coastline of Australia in 1770
Until the early 19th century, Australia was best known as "New Holland", a name first applied by the Dutch explorer Abel Tasman in 1644 (as Nieuw-Holland) and subseque