Slowly but surely, Australia has been gaining in national identity ever since the name “Australia” was chosen by the noted navigator, Matthew Flinders, to refer to the combined area of New South Wales — the eastern two-thirds of the continent — and New Holland — the western third — after Flinders was the first person to circum-navigate the country in 1803.

But the new name “Australia” gathered popularity only slowly until 1817, when the Governor of the colony of New South Wales, Lachlan Macquarie, who happened to like it himself, asked the British Colonial Office to start officially using it. So, much to our benefit, they did.