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What was Australia's original name? New France New Germany New Holland New England ******** Answer: Australia's original name was New Holland, given by the Dutch, who found the land in the early 1600s. It was the English explorer and cartographer Matthew Flinders who suggested and popularized the name we use today. Flinders was the first to circumnavigate the continent in 1803, and used the name "Australia" to describe the continent on a hand-drawn map in 1804. The name Australia was officially adopted in 1817, replacing "New Holland," an English translation of the Dutch name provided by Abel Tasman in 1643.