Australia Felix

Driving the camel loaded with books, southwest from Ballarat to the coast.

Nice country down that way. Green, loaded with crops at the start of spring. Fat merino sheep, contented herds of cows on their haunches dreaming the day away. Prosperous farmhouses and long driveways leading to mansions in the bush.

When Major Thomas Mitchell travelled through that part of the country in 1836 he called it 'Australia Felix', a term that's still in currency and which might be translated as 'Fortunate Australia', 'Favoured Australia' or even 'The Lucky Country' as Stephen Murray-Smith explained in his wonderful book about the Australian language, Right Words.

Murray-Smith included this passage from Mitchell, where he describes the western district of Victoria:

We traversed it in two directions with heavy carts, meeting no other obstruction than the softness of the rich soil; and, in returning, over flowery plains and green hills, fanned by the breezes of early spring. I named this region Australia Felix, the better to distinguish it from the parched deserts of the interior country, where we had wandered so unprofitably and so long.

The quote is from Mitchell's account of his journeys in Australia, Three Expeditions... , London 1839.