34 Australian GeographicHowever, other large-scale and
ornately decorated maps, such as
Archipelagus Orientalis, sive Asiaticus
(1659–63) by master cartographer
Joan Blaeu, were intended for public
display. The Blaeu map – recently
acquired by the NLA – was the first
large-scale map of New Holland
published, and was “made very much
as an illustration of wealth and
political power”, Martin says.
Most recently, Matthew Flinders’
General Chart of Terra Australis brings
us to the shores with which we are all
familiar. Near the end of an all-
too-brief life full of accomplishment,
Flinders was imprisoned by the
French from 1804 to 1810 on the
island of Mauritius, where he
laboured on his chart.
As Martin explains, it was a
“frustrating finale” to the remarkable
career of the first explorer todiscoveries about and, ultimately,
claims on the Great South Land,
which Flinders’ chart made manifest.
Intriguingly, Flinders was not the
first to use “Australia” in print. On a
page from Astronomica: Teutsch Astronomei- an astronomical treatise published
in Frankfurt in 1545 by Cyriaco Jacob
zum Barth – there is a map no bigger
than a 50-cent piece. Clearly
discernable on this tiny representation
of a sphere is “Australia”, a continent
named before a single European was
ever known to have set foot on it. AG
Mapping Our World runs until 10 March.
See more images at: http://www.australiangeo-
graphic.com.au/journal/issue118.htmHISTORY
circumnavigate Australia. “Flinders
desperately hoped to return and finish
the job,” Martin says. “Having spent
months and months on small sections
of the east coast, he wanted to bring
the same accuracy to the west and
north. In the end, though, he was
forced to rely on the charts of the
Dutch explorers, [Abel] Tasman and
[Willem] de Vlamingh, to complete
his work.”
Famously, Flinders used the name
“Australia”, supplanting the Dutch
name of New Holland. “It was
as much a geopolitical statement as
a geographical one,” Martin says.
The Portuguese, Dutch, Spanish
and French had been eclipsed inAustralia, a continent named before a single
European was known to have set foot on it.
Name games. Flinders’ General Chart was also
a political statement. After it was published,
New Holland became Britain’s “Australia”.NLA