Excerpted from my book: Our Summer in Australia and New Zealnad...Amazon.com
We are about as far away from Sydney as one can get, during our crisscrossing of Australia. About 2,500 miles away. As far as from Boston to San Diego, but let me say that Point Leeuwin is no San Diego. This a point where the Great Southern Ocean and the Indian Ocean meet. It was named by the Dutch and noted by Mathew Flinders' sighting on December 7, 1801 during his historic circumnavigation of the Australian coastline. Flinders' mission-to survey the entire coastline of Australia-was conducted due to growing concern that the French, under Napoleon, were taking a greater interest in Australia, and soon might settle a colony, claiming part of the continent.
It was Flinders who first suggested the name Australia from the Latin Terra Australis, or southern land. He proved definitively that New South Wales was not separated from what was then known as New Holland, and in fact Australia was a large, very large contiguous landmass. Unfortunately it was raining when we stopped in this most desolate of places and we were unable to get a photograph of the reknowned Pt. Leeuwin lighthouse. But what you see in the picture is what you get when you stop by. Rocks and ocean, period. As a French girl remarked to me about Australia, sometimes you are absolutely nowhere.
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