British Admiralty adopts the name Australia

Background. Captain Matthew Flinders, a British Royal Navy officer, led the first inshore circumnavigation of the continent then called New Holland. He is credited as the first person to utilise the name Australia to describe the entirety of the continent, regarding it as more agreeable to the ear than previous names, though he was not actually the first to use the word or apply it to the continent. In 1804, he wrote to his brother calling the whole island Australia, submitting the propriety of the name to the approbation of the Admiralty.

Official Adoption. In 1824, the British Admiralty agreed that the continent should be known officially as Australia. This decision formalized the name that Flinders had proposed in 1804, which he had submitted to the Admiralty for approval. The adoption marked the transition from the Dutch-derived name New Holland to the name Australia as the official designation for the continent.

Flinders' Proposal. Flinders put forward his rationale for naming the new continent Australia as an umbrella term for New Holland and New South Wales. He submitted the propriety of the name to the approbation of the Admiralty and the learned in geography. His suggestion was later taken up by Governor Macquarie, and in 1824 the Admiralty agreed that the continent should be known officially as Australia.