The search for Terra Australis: cartographic narratives of Australia from the seventeenth to nineteenth centuries and their legacies

Maps, at their simplest, are representations of space. However, they also inform or change the perception of spaces by imbuing lands and oceans with substantive ideological, social, cultural, or political meaning. Thus a map can transform spaces into places. In the case of Australia, European representations of the landmass through mapping have depicted the mysterious southern land as teeming with imperial potential; as a theatre of colonial rivalry; and as a nation with conflicting regional and cultural characterisations. In reviewing a selection of European maps from the seventeenth to nineteenth centuries, this article challenges existing narratives on Europe’s first engagement with Australia, offering a fresh way to consider the artificial construction of Australia’s geography and identity.