[LINK] Australia 400 years old.

[Tom Koltai]

In Europe, it is common to celebrate a persons name day. i.e.: each day
of the year is attributed to several names and it is more common to see
a bar full of people celebrating Tom's day than it is to observe the
same crowd celebrating a birthday.

As Australia is named after the Austrian Hapsburgs, I thought it
appropriate to consider that today could be considered 
Australia's name day. 

Therefore it might behove Aussies to refresh their school hood history
lessons on how we were discovered and named.
An excerpt from:
Title:      A Short History of Australia
Author:     Ernest Scott (1868-1939)
            PROFESSOR OF HISTORY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF MELBOURNE
* A Project Gutenberg of Australia eBook *
eBook No.:  0200471h.html
Quote/

.
PREFACE
This Short History of Australia begins with a blank space on the map,
and ends with the record of a new name on the map, that of Anzac. It
endeavour to elucidate the way in which the country was discovered, why
and how it was settled, the development of civilized society within it,
its political and social progress, mode of government, and relations,
historical and actual, with the Empire of which it forms a part.
The aim of the author has been to make the book answer such questions as
might reasonably be put to it by an intelligent reader, who will of
course have regard to the limitations imposed by its size; and also to
present a picture of the phases through which the country has passed. 


CHAPTER I - THE DAWN OF DISCOVERY


Torres, therefore, after satisfying himself that the land whereat they
had been lying was an island, and not a portion of a continent, sailed
till he fell in with the southern coast of New Guinea. Then for two
anxious months he threaded his way through the reefs and islands of the
intricate and dangerous strait which separates that country from
Australia. He sighted the hills of Cape York (which he took to be a
cluster of islands), made an acquaintance with the savage islanders of
the strait, and, emerging into the open sea, steered at length for the
Philippines, where he wrote an account of the voyage.
Quiros stoutly professed that he had discovered the Great Southern
Continent, and in 1610 a narrative of the voyage was published wherein
it was announced that 'all this region of the south as far as the Pole '
should be called 'Austrialia del Espiritu Santo.' The word 'Austrialia'
was intended to pay a compliment to Philip III of Spain (a Hapsburg
sovereign, and as such a member of the House of Austria) as well as to
convey the meaning that this new land was a southern continent. The word
was chosen, says Quiros, 'from his Majesty's title of Austria.' But
Torres could have told him, and perhaps did, that he had by no means
discovered a continent, but merely an island of no very large
proportions. Quiros had never been within five hundred miles of the real
continent. Torres had seen it, but did not know that he had.
But the dawn of discovery had now broken.
/Quote

So Quiros thought he had discovered Austrialia, when in fact it was
Torres therefore our name originates from one that hadn't even seen the
continent.
Historians place the discovery circa 1607-1607 however it was not until
Scottish geographer Alexander Dalrymple translated the 
account into English and published same in a journal in 1610 that the
world learnt of Australia's discovery.

If we consider the rules (S.O.P.) of publishing (e.g.: patent filing
dates) then Australia was discovered when the Journal was printed.

i.e.: About April 1610 which makes us 400 years old this year.

(Based on: 
Quote/ Prado's Relación of the voyage begun in company with Quirós and
Torres in 1607, together with a report of the Spanish Council of State
concerning Quir¢s, 1618, and letters of Torres and Prado, 1607-13.
Contents: New light on the discovery of Australia.-Note on Prado's
Relación.-Relación de don Diego de Prado (Spanish and
English)-Appendices: I. Report of Council of State with letter of Luis
Vaez de Torres (Spanish and English) II. Mr. Barwick's translations of
Prado's two letters sent from Goa in 1613. III. Mr. Barwick's
translations of the legends on the four Prado maps./Quote )

Then again, it could be the date of the translation of the Goa letters
that we should be considering.


Therefore, on this Australia day, 2010, I leave linkers with two
conundrums to cogitate over
.

Given that geographical features, ports and settlements were often named
after Regents and royalty, and recognising that historians have elected
to recognise an Englishman, Cook, as our discoverer, should we leave our
name as it is based on the fact that the person that named us was
attempting a land grab and was not the actual explorer that discovered
us.
Torres straight is named after Australia's actual discoverer, which to
me seems a very small recognition of such a momentous (for the 1500's)
feat of navigation and cosmography.

Secondly, Australia day is set down in memory of the formation of a
penal colony called New South Wales.

26th of January 1788, New South Wales Established.

But was it?

>From Wiki   Quote/

Note that the formal establishment of the Colony of New South Wales did
not occur on 26 January, as is commonly assumed. That did not occur
until 7 February 1788, when the formal proclamation of the colony and of
Arthur Phillip's governorship were read out. The vesting of all land in
the reigning monarch George III also dates from 7 February 1788 /Quote

The Commonwealth of Australia was not formed until the 1st of January
1901.

There does not appear to be any valid rational for Jan 26th as the basis
for Australia Day except for the 1808 arrest of Bligh.

Quote/
Although there was no official recognition of the colony's anniversary,
with the New South Wales Almanacks of 1806 and 1808 placing no special
significance to 26 January,[8] by 1808 the date was being used by the
colony's immigrants, especially the emancipated convicts, to "celebrate
their love of the land they lived in"[9] with "drinking and
merriment".[10] The 1808 celebrations followed this pattern, beginning
at sundown on 25 January, and lasted into the night, the chief toast of
the occasion being Major George Johnston. Johnston had the honour of
being the first officer ashore from the First Fleet, having been carried
from the landing boat on the back of convict James Ruse. Despite
suffering the ill-effects of a fall from his gig on the way home to
Annandale, Johnston led the officers of the New South Wales Corps in
arresting Governor William Bligh on the following day, 26 January 1808,
in what became known as the "Rum Rebellion"./Quote

Nor does there seem any rational or justification for the formation of
NSW to be recognised as the birth of a Nation.

Therefore our official Australia Day celebrations appear to be the
result of a party held celebrating the arrest of Bligh.

They say that History remembers the bad guys the longest.... But to have
a national Holiday on the basis of a police arrest ???

Although, history would suggest it was an all day party, with lots of
alcohol and revellers appeared to ignore official "police". 
I guess that's pretty Australian. 

References:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/55/Australia_history.gif
http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks02/0200471h.html#0200471h-02
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australia_Day

Dalrymple, Alexander: An historical collection of the several voyages
and discoveries in the South Pacific Ocean. Being chiefly a literal
translation from the Spanish writers (London 1770-71, 2 vols in one;
London 1775; French trans., Paris 1774; German trans., Hamburg 1786;
Amsterdam 1967). 
Kelly, Celsus (ed.): La Austrialia del Espiritu Santo: the journal of
Fray Matin de Munilla and other documents relating to the voyage of
Pedro Fernandez de Quiros to the South Sea (1605-1606) and the
Franciscan missionary plan (1617-1627) (Hakluyt Society, Cambridge 1966;
2 vols).