![Karta över Polynesien eller femte delen af jordklotet, 1780](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/27/Karta_%C3%B6ver_Polynesien_eller_femte_delen_af_jordklotet%2C_1780.jpg)
Ulimaroa is a place mentioned in the journals of
James Cook
James Cook (7 November 1728 Old Style date: 27 October – 14 February 1779) was a British explorer, navigator, cartographer, and captain in the British Royal Navy, famous for his three voyages between 1768 and 1779 in the Pacific Ocean an ...
and
Joseph Banks
Sir Joseph Banks, 1st Baronet, (19 June 1820) was an English naturalist, botanist, and patron of the natural sciences.
Banks made his name on the 1766 natural-history expedition to Newfoundland and Labrador. He took part in Captain James ...
. Cook and Banks heard of it from the
Maoris, who claimed that it lay many days' sail from
New Zealand
New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...
. The Swedish geographer identified it with
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
, and ''Ulimaroa'' briefly became an alternative name for the continent as a result of this.
History
Cook and Banks picked up the name from a Maori they met in
Queen Charlotte Sound. The Maori was asked if a ship like the
''Endeavour'' had ever been seen in New Zealand before. He replied in the negative, but said that his country had once been visited by a boat from Ulimaroa. When asked where Ulimaroa was, he pointed north and said that it would take many days to sail there. This accorded with an earlier report Cook had heard in
Doubtless Bay
Doubtless Bay is a bay on the east coast of the Northland Region, north-east of Kaitaia, in New Zealand. It extends from Knuckle Point on Karikari Peninsula in the north to Berghan Point at Hihi in the south. There are rocky headlands, backed by ...
, where a party of Maoris had told him of a large country lying to the north-northwest, a month's journey away. Some of the Maoris' ancestors had sailed there, returning with depleted numbers. The inhabitants were said to live on pork, which made
Tupia wonder why the Maoris hadn't brought any pigs back for themselves.
In his ''Geografi'' (1776), Daniel Djurberg applied the name to Australia on the assumption that this was the "large country" the Maoris were talking about. ''Ulimaroa'', he argued, was a far more fitting name than the then-current ''
New Holland'', since the new continent bore little resemblance to
Holland
Holland is a geographical regionG. Geerts & H. Heestermans, 1981, ''Groot Woordenboek der Nederlandse Taal. Deel I'', Van Dale Lexicografie, Utrecht, p 1105 and former province on the western coast of the Netherlands. From the 10th to the 16th c ...
in Europe. Other geographers followed Djurberg's lead, and ''Ulimaroa'' continued to appear on maps as a name for Australia until about 1819.
Modern scholarship has cast doubt upon Djurberg's assumptions. His claim that the name means "big red land" in the
Maori language has no foundation in fact. It could instead come from ''o Rimaroa'', meaning "the long arm". Rather than referring to Australia, it could refer to
New Caledonia
)
, anthem = ""
, image_map = New Caledonia on the globe (small islands magnified) (Polynesia centered).svg
, map_alt = Location of New Caledonia
, map_caption = Location of New Caledonia
, mapsize = 290px
, subdivision_type = Sovereign st ...
or one of the
Fiji
Fiji ( , ,; fj, Viti, ; Fiji Hindi: फ़िजी, ''Fijī''), officially the Republic of Fiji, is an island country in Melanesia, part of Oceania in the South Pacific Ocean. It lies about north-northeast of New Zealand. Fiji consists ...
an islands. This is especially likely in view of the reference to pigs, which are not indigenous to Australia. Some, however, have surmised that the "pigs" mentioned by the Maoris could in fact be wombats, which would make Djurberg's identification tenable.
See also
*
Name of Australia
The name '' Australia'' (pronounced in Australian English) is derived from the Latin ''australis'', meaning "southern", and specifically from the hypothetical ''Terra Australis'' postulated in pre-modern geography. The name was popularis ...
*
Aotearoa
''Aotearoa'' () is the current Māori-language name for New Zealand. The name was originally used by Māori in reference to only the North Island, with the name of the whole country being ''Aotearoa me Te Waipounamu'' ("North Island and South ...
*
Terra Australis
(Latin: '"Southern Land'") was a hypothetical continent first posited in antiquity and which appeared on maps between the 15th and 18th centuries. Its existence was not based on any survey or direct observation, but rather on the idea that ...
*
New Holland (Australia)
''New Holland'' ( nl, Nieuw-Holland) is a historical European name for mainland Australia.
The name was first applied to Australia in 1644 by the Dutch seafarer Abel Tasman. The name came for a time to be applied in most European maps to the ...
References
* {{cite journal, last1=Tent, first1=Jan, last2=Geraghty, first2=Paul, date=2012, title=Where in the World is Ulimaroa? Or, How a Pacific Island Became the Australian Continent, url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/41710203, journal=The Journal of Pacific History, volume=47, issue=1, pages=1–20, jstor=41710203
Country name etymology
European exploration of Australia
Māori words and phrases