List of place names of Dutch origin in Australia



Of an estimated 200 place names the Dutch bestowed on Australian localities in the 17th century as a result of the Dutch voyages of exploration along the western, northern and southern Australian coasts, only about 35 can still be found on current maps. Five out of six names were either renamed or forgotten or their locations were lost. Other places were named after the early Dutch explorers by later British explorers or colonists, for instance the Australian state of Tasmania is named after Abel Tasman. Australia itself was called New Holland by the English and Nieuw Holland by the Dutch.

Queensland
The Dutch charted the western side of Cape York Peninsula and the coast of the Gulf of Carpentaria. Willem Janszoon made the first recorded European landfall in Australia during the Janszoon voyage of 1605-6.

Places named after the Dutch
Other places were given Dutch names by later explorers or colonists in honour of the Dutch. These include:


 * Duyfken Point - -12.56667°N, 141.58333°W near Weipa where Willem Janszoon first sighted the Australian coast in 1606.
 * Tasmania - Australian state, along with 31 other places with the name of Tasman in Tasmania
 * Mount Heemskirk and Mount Zeehan - -41.88333°N, 145.33333°W named by George Bass and Matthew Flinders after Abel Tasman's ships Heemskerck and Zeehaen in 1798. It is near where Tasman first sighted Tasmania. The township of Zeehan, Tasmania near Mount Zeehan was established after the discovery of tin, lead and silver deposits in 1890.
 * Geelvink Channel was named after a ship, but the ship was named after Joan Geelvinck
 * Vansittart Bay on the coast of Western Australia is a unique anomaly. It was named by Phillip Parker King after Nicholas Vansittart, who was an English politician of Dutch descent.