The best I can come up with is this reference from Encyclopedia Brittanica.
Sahul Shelf,
submarine stable structural shelf or platform of the ocean floor, extending
from the north coast of Australia to the island of New Guinea. A continental
shelf, it was once above sea level, and its surface still bears erosional
features formed when streams crossed it to the oceans. The shelf was slowly
warped downward by crustal forces. This subsidence is evidenced in coral
atolls along its edge (2,000 feet [600 m] deep), composed of coral that grew
as the land sank. The shelf's main divisions are the shallow
360,000-square-mile (930,000-square-kilometre) Arafura Shelf, covered by the
Arafura Sea and Gulf of Carpentaria; the Sahul Shelf (120,000 square miles
[310,800 square km]) under the Timor Sea; and the Rowley Shelf (120,000
square miles) underlying a part of the northwest Indian Ocean extending to
North West Cape, Western Australia. To the north lie the deeper Timor Trough
and the volcanic Lesser Sunda Islands, separating the Sahul from the Sunda
Shelf. The shelf's existence was suggested as early as 1845 by G.W. Earl.
As you can see it may not have been Earl that named the shelf and you
probably need to consult the Geology boys.
Regards,
Barry Meiklejohn.
find out all about the ANGFA '98 convention here at
http://www.ozemail.com.au/~fisher/news.htm
-----Original Message-----
From: Walter Ivantsoff <wivantso at rna.bio.mq.edu.au>
To: rainbowfish at pcug.org.au <rainbowfish at pcug.org.au>
Date: Friday, 23 January 1998 9:15
Subject: [RML] Sahul
>Does anyone know the derivation of the workd "Sahul"?
>I believe that the Sahul Shelf was first described by
>G.W. Earl in the mid 19th Century but I am not sure whether
>this geological feature was named by him.
>
>Where does the word "Sahul" come from and what does it
>mean?
>Yours sincerely,
>
>Walter Ivantsoff
>(e-mail wivantso at rna.bio.mq.edu.au)
>(phone 61 02 9850 8167)
>(fax 61 02 9850 8245)
>(and if all above fails write a letter to:
> School of Biol Sciences, Macquarie University
>N.S.W. 2109, Australia)
>