What is Terra Australis?
[[File:Mercator 1569.png|thumb|350px|right|The Mercator Map of 1569 showing Terra Australis.]] '''Terra Australis''' ([[Latin]]: Southern land) was a [[Hypothesis|hypothetical]] [[continent]] from the [[15th century]] to the [[18th century]]. The name was eventually given to [[Australia]], while the 7th polar continent discovered was given the name of [[Antarctica]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Cameron-Ash |first1=M. |title=Lying for the Admiralty: Captain Cook's Endeavour Voyage |date=2018 |publisher=Rosenberg |location=Sydney |isbn=978-0-648-04396-6 |pages=19–20}}</ref> The idea was that the [[Northern Hemisphere|northern hemisphere]] needed a '[[counterbalance]]'.<ref name=Wilford>John Noble Wilford: The Mapmakers, the Story of the Great Pioneers in Cartography from Antiquity to Space Age, p. 139, Vintage Books, Random House 1982, {{ISBN|0-394-75303-8}}</ref> == References == {{reflist}} {{Continents of the world|state=collapsed}} [[Category:History of Australia]]