English 'Australia' comes from Latin australis meaning 'southern', from auster (south wind) — sharing a PIE root *h₂ews- (to shine) with 'aurora' and 'east', making Australia etymologically 'the land of the dawn-wind'.
A country and continent in the Southern Hemisphere, the smallest continent and sixth-largest country by total area.
English 'Australia' derives from Latin 'Terra Australis' meaning 'Southern Land'. The concept of a 'Terra Australis Incognita' (Unknown Southern Land) existed in European geography since antiquity — Aristotle and Ptolemy theorized that a great southern landmass must exist to balance the northern continents. The Latin 'australis' means 'southern', from 'auster' (the south wind), from PIE *h₂ews- (to shine, dawn — the same root as 'east' and 'aurora', since the south wind in the Mediterranean comes from the direction
Australia, aurora, and east all share the same PIE root *h₂ews- (to shine). The connection is the dawn: 'east' is where the sun rises, 'aurora' is the dawn light, and 'auster' (south wind) was the warm wind that came from the sunny direction in Mediterranean geography. The continent at the bottom of the world is thus literally named 'Dawn-land'.