Terra Australis

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image:typusor.jpgTerra Australis (also: Terra Australis Incognita (with "incognita" stressed on the second syllable), Latin for "the unknown land of the South"), was a theorised continent appearing on European maps from the 15th century to the 18th century.

It was introduced by Aristotle. His ideas were later expanded by Ptolemy in the 1st century, who believed that the Indian Ocean was enclosed on the south by land, and that the lands of the Northern hemisphere should be balanced by land in the Southern hemisphere. During the Renaissance, Ptolemy was the main source of information for Europe cartographers as new land started to appear on their maps. Although Exploration did sometimes reduce the area where the continent could be found, cartographers held to Aristotle's opinion. Scientists argued for its existence, with such arguments as that there should be a large landmass in the Southern Hemisphere as a counterweight to the known landmasses in the Northern Hemisphere. Usually the land was shown as a continent around the South Pole, but much larger than the actual Antarctica, spreading far north -- in particular in the Pacific Ocean. New Zealand, first seen by a European (Abel Tasman) in 1642, was regarded by some as a part of the continent, as well as Africa and Australia.

image:terraaustralis.jpg

The idea of Terra Australis was finally corrected by Matthew Flinders and James Cook.

Cook circumnavigated New Zealand, showing it could not be part of a large continent. On his second voyage he circumnavigation the globe at a very high southern latitude, at some places even crossing the south polar circle, showing that any possible southern continent must lie well within the cold polar areas. There could be no extension into regions with a temperate climate, as had been thought before.

Flinders took command of an expedition to investigate the coastline of Australia in 1801, which he circled in an anti-clockwise direction, threading the Great Barrier Reef through what is now called Flinders Passage and surveying the Gulf of Carpentaria in the north. His charts of the coastline were remarkably accurate. After completing his work in 1803, he sailed for England. His ship was wrecked on an uncharted reef, however, and he returned to Australia in the ship's Cutter (ship), a remarkable 1,130 km (700 mile) journey.

See also

List of Antarctica expeditions
Terra incognita

External links

Terra Australis - The State Library of NSW