Naming places on the 'Southland': European place-naming practices from 1606 to 1803

The history of charting Australia's coastline is well documented from most perspectives, but not from a toponymic standpoint. Between 1606 and 1803, some nine hundred European placenames were bestowed along the Australian coast. We report here on an investigation and analysis of the place-naming practices of the Dutch, French, and English along the Australian coastline between 1606 and 1803, and show how these names reflect the social and political attitudes and motivations of the name-givers.