The Globe, Number 80, 2016 Journal of the Australian and New Zealand Map Society Inc. 26 DINNINGS LAND: A CASE OF MISTRANSCRIPTION? Jan Tent 1 Abstract: On some early maps of Australia the name Dinnings Land or Terres de Dinning appears near the Swan River. Who or what was Dinning? This article explores this question, and argues it is a case of mistaken interpretation or erroneous transcription. arly maps of the Australian coastline (between the late-17 th century and the mid-19 th century) often show stretches of coastline with eponymous names (after explorers, their ships, or notable people), for example: ’t Landt van P. Nuyts, G.F. de Wits Landt, Arnhem Land, ’t Landt van de Leeuwin, Anthonij van Diemenslandt, Terre Napoléon, etc. On a number of maps— Anon. (1808), Canzler (1795, 1805, 1806 & 1813), de Vaugondy (1756), Djürberg (1780 & 1786-1800), Fenner (1835), Laurie & Whittle (1803), Mollo (1810), Plant (1793), Reinecke (1801, 1804, 1806 & 1812), Sayer (1787), Sotzmann (1796 & c.1840), Streit (1817, c.1830 & c.1834), and von Reilly (1795)—there appears near the Swan River an enigmatic coastal region name, Dinnings Land, Dinning’s Land, Dinning Land, Terres de Dinning, or Pais de Dinning (for an example, see Fig. 1.). Figure 1. Detail from von Reilly (1795), Karte von des Inselwelt Polynesien odei deim Funften Welttheile […] (National Library of Australia, MAP NK 1545) Who or what is Dinning? There was no Dutch or French explorer by that name, nor is there any evidence that it was the name of a ship or notable person. It is my contention that the name is a result of misspelling or mistranscription. My argument is based upon a map by Pieter Goos and Johannes van Keulen (c.1690) (Fig. 2.) on which appears 1 Jan Tent is a retired academic. He taught linguistics at the University of Sydney, the University of the South Pacific (Suva, Fiji) and Macquarie University (Sydney). His research interests include: varieties of English (especially Fiji English), early Dutch exploration of Australia and the Pacific, historical linguistics, lexicography and toponymy. He is the former Director of the Australian National Placenames Survey, and is currently an honorary senior lecturer in Linguistics at the Australian National University (Canberra), and an honorary fellow in Linguistics at Macquarie University. Contact: jan.tent@anu.edu.au E