ABSTRACT
This chapter offers a striking analysis of the differences between the naming practices of Baudin and those of Freycinet and Peron, highlighting two quite different approaches and ultimately two very different perceptions of Terra Australis. The term 'perception' is richly evocative, for perception is essentially an individual activity. Non-prescriptive, the term also allows for a truly interdisciplinary approach to the topic, for perceptions can be expressed through works of imaginative art and literature, works of scientific observation, personal records and even through national policy-making, all of which present themselves as fruitful fields of scholarly enquiry. To trace the use of the term Terra Australis through the perceptions of philosophers, poets, artists, writers, geographers, cartographers, explorers, scientists and circumnavigators is to gain insights into a wide variety of cultural and historical experience. The epithet 'European' is added to the title in acknowledgement of the historical reality that the concept expressed by the two words Terra Australis is essentially European.
