Should Australia be listed as a place of birth, death and marriage prior to 1 January 1901 ?

Question

When listing the place of birth, death and marriage prior to 1 January 1901, should it be listed as Australia or the individual state where it occurred?

Comments

It is allowed, and acceptable.  Australia was first used in official documents in April 1817, by then Governor Lachlan Macquarie, followed by the 1824 agreement by the Admiralty that the continent should be known officially by that name.
We became a nation of our own on the 1st January 1901, but we were still considered British subjects until 1949, with another change in 1969, and the final severance of that subjectivity being made in 1984.

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The Australia Project location guidelines include three formats, one of which is state name followed by "Australia". All three are accepted before 1901. The guidelines state:

Usage of any of the "Acceptable" location formats will not generate any data suggestions. They should not be changed on member-managed profiles, without consultation with the profile manager.

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Holland_(Australia)
and then Colony of News South Wales (named by Cook), then the other colonies later (except Van Diemen's Land), then Australia in 1901. Although the name Australia was in use before 1901, it was the name of the continent, taking over from New Holland and Terra Australis. Any europeans who passed away in what was to become the continent of Australia prior to 1770 really should be shown to have died in New Holland.

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This is an old topic. See this G2G question for example. Different people have different approaches. In its Guidelines, the Australia Project has made the wise decision to allow each profile manager their own choice.

Answer 1

It is not historically correct to use State before 1901, the Australian Constitution names the 7 Colonies eligible to become States of Australia on federation or subsequently, and colony was the term used at the time. The 6 states only existed as such after federation. This is consistent with the Colony stickers that can be used on profiles.

 Australia was used to describe the continent, and the islands to the east, and until it was created a separate colony included the New Zealand islands.

Comments

I was imprecise in my comment above to say "state names". But none of the acceptable formats listed in the Guidelines uses the word "State". (There are now four or more acceptable formats for each case, not three: the page has been edited recently.)

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Gary, by writing Queensland for an instance between 1859 and 1901, I am not indicating the current State but the former Colony of the same name.  Of course, it is incorrect to us Tasmania before 1861 as it was Van Dieman's Land until then.

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This would have been my answer -- the same arguments could be applied to Ireland --, but I am a bit pedantic.  I am happy with the current practice.

Answer 2

I put Australia in brackets, indicating that the colony later became part of the Commonwealth of Australia; in the same way that I would display, for instance, Ceylon (Sri Lanka) or Rhodesia (Zimbabwe). I then explain (usually) in the bio that the CofA came into being on 1 Jan 1901 with the Federation of the six British Colonies.

Answer 3

Leslie Cooper, I agree with your comment on New Holland and here just add a few details. Melchissedec Thevenot published a map in 1663 (post Tasman by about 20 years) clearly indicating the western portion of Terre Australe (the French spelling), approximately where todays Queensland/Northern Territory border stands and continuing to the southern coast, as Hollandia Nova (New Holland) and the eastern portion (including the Gulf of Carpentaria) as Terre Australe.  In 1677 Pierre Duval published his 'Carte des Indes Orientales' indicating Novvelle Holande partie de La terre Australe.  It is interesting to note that Willem Janszoon named the eastern portion, when he landed near where Weipa stands today, New Zealand.  The name did not stick, however, and was used as the name of Tasman's later discovery to the east (which he thought was Staaten Island, South America).

 Terra Australis remained the cartographers’ choice of name for the eastern 'half' of the continent until Cook named it New South Wales.

At the time of Cook (1770), the Maories knew the continent as Ulimaroa.

Comments

Just a small aside: the preferred plural for Maori is Maori, although Maoris is also in use. These days they just call Australia "the West Island." :-)

Answer 4

They were not states, and there was not a nation called Australia (or Commonwealth of Australia) before 1901, but there was an island/continent called Australia with several British Colonies on it. I've seen in 19th century newspapers references to "the Australian colonies" as a group, maybe even in British legislation that dealt with them all as a group.

"South Australia, Australia" at the time was much like "Haiti, Hispaniola" or "Papua New Guinea, New Guinea" are now. - a country followed by the island it is part of.