Talk:Terra Australis

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Why is Terra Australis being described as an "imaginary" continent? There IS a continent where the ancient cartographers theorized there would be, Antarctica. It may not be quite as large as they thought it would be, but it's there. Details of the New World were wrong at first too, but we don't call the regions described by those erroneous descriptions "imaginary." I propose that this article be merged into the article about Antarctica, as part of the history of the exploration of that continent. --68.52.242.229 02:02, 12 November 2006 (UTC)

Terra Australis should be kept separate from Antarctica. They are separate concepts. If we merge the two together, based merely upon some apparent coincidental geographical similarity, then the same rationale dictates we should merge Atlantis with America (or the Azores), or Mu with Tahiti, or Fusang with Mexico. Or how about India with Madagascar because India used to be located where Madagascar is now?

Oppose - Terra Australis is a legendary/theoretical continent, not based on sightings of the real Antarctica, and often located north of Antarctica's location, e.g. in South Pacific/Indian Ocean. Also, it was linked with Australia, not Antarctica early on. --MacRusgail 14:16, 20 November 2006 (UTC)
Oppose I think this page would fit most readers 'line of enquiry'. Fred.e 11:42, 17 December 2006 (UTC)
Oppose Terra Australis does not, and has never referred to Antartica for anything other than a geographical similarily of location. It was a theoretical (as opposed to "imaginery") continent thought to exist to balance out the large mass of land north of the equator and has far more in common with modern day Australia than Antarctica, as those who proposed the idea never considered it to be a solely polar region and imagined it to be an inhabitable place with a climate range similar to Europe. Tx17777 15:22, 27 December 2006 (UTC)
Oppose. From an Australian educational perspective, we consider Terra Australis to have been in the general location of Australia. It wasn't as simple as that of course, but joining it to Antarctica would certainly confuse schoolchildren in Oz -- and most Australians for that matter. --McManly 04:03, 31 December 2006 (UTC)
Oppose - Let's grant you that Antarctica is in fact Terra Australis for argument's sake. The fact would remain that these are conceptually different things. Are the atoms we speak of today the same as those Democritus spoke of? Perhaps you could argue so but it's clear enough that we have a different concept of the atom then he had. Jimp 05:22, 11 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Origin of the the term

The article asserts that "The country of Australia was first termed Terra Australis by Flinders when he wrote a book of this title containing the maps he had made on his several voyages, and the name Australia is derivative of the word Australis, which means southern in Latin."

Presumably this book was written after his voyage in 1803.

The assertion that this was the first time the phrase Terra Australia was coined is contradicted by James Cook#First voyage (1768 – 1771), which states that Cook's sealed orders, issued in 1768, were to investigate Terra Australis.

Frankly, I'm inclined to believe the latter as the notion of a counterbalancing southern continent had been circulating for some time before Cook's voyage, and Terra Australis is an obvious name for it. --Saforrest 04:57, 19 April 2007 (UTC)

It states "Incognita" when the term should be "incognito". The term "Incognita" refers to a female person when "incognito" refers to an item. Even tho country names were always named after females this is not the case with the "incognito/incognito" term.

All wrong, Anonymous! Incognito is Italian, from Latin incognitus (which has its second syllable stressed: "inCOGnitus"). That is the masculine form of this Latin adjective. The feminine singular form is incognita ("inCOGnita"), and this is therefore the form that belongs with the Latin noun terra, which is feminine. The form incognita is used by itself also, in which case it is a neuter plural, and means "unknown things".
– Noetica♬♩ Talk 07:35, 11 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Disproval

The idea that Australia was part of a larger "Terra Australis" was disproved by Abel Tasman who sailed under Australia to New Zealand. This was about 150 years before Matthew Flinders. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 124.168.189.185 (talk) 12:34, 22 March 2008 (UTC)