Early European explorers

Main article: European exploration of Australia

Exploration by Europeans until 1812

1606 Willem Janszoon
1606 Luis Vaez de Torres
1616 Dirk Hartog
1619 Frederick de Houtman
1644 Abel Tasman
1696 Willem de Vlamingh
1699 William Dampier
1770 James Cook
179799 George Bass
180103 Matthew Flinders

Dutch explorer Frederick de Houtman discovered extensive coral reefs off the coast of
Western Australia in 1619, naming them Houtman Abrolhos, Abrolhos being a Portuguese
word meaning 'look out'. This warning however did not prevent the loss of several ships,
most notably the Batavia in 1629.
Although a theory of Portuguese discovery in the 1520s exists, it lacks definitive evidence.[73]
[74][75][76]
The Dutch ship, Duyfken, led by Willem Janszoon, made the first documented
European landing in Australia in 1606.[77] That same year, a Spanish expedition sailing in
nearby waters and led by Portuguese navigator Pedro Fernandes de Queirs had landed in the
New Hebrides and, believing them to be the fabled southern continent, named the land
"Austrialia del Espiritu Santo" (Southern Land of the Holy Spirit), in honour of his queen

Margaret of Austria, the wife of Philip III of Spain.[78][79][80] Later that year, Queirs' deputy
Lus Vaz de Torres sailed to the north of Australia through Torres Strait, along New Guinea's
southern coast.[81]
The Dutch, following shipping routes to the Dutch East Indies, or in search of gold, spices or
Christian converts proceeded to contribute a great deal to Europe's knowledge of Australia's
coast.[82] In 1616, Dirk Hartog, sailing off course, en route from the Cape of Good Hope to
Batavia, landed on an island off Shark Bay, West Australia.[82] In 162223 the Leeuwin made
the first recorded rounding of the south west corner of the continent, and gave her name to
Cape Leeuwin.[83]
In 1627 the south coast of Australia was accidentally discovered by Franois Thijssen and
named 't Land van Pieter Nuyts, in honour of the highest ranking passenger, Pieter Nuyts,
extraordinary Councillor of India,[84] In 1628 a squadron of Dutch ships was sent by the
Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies Pieter de Carpentier to explore the northern coast.
These ships made extensive examinations, particularly in the Gulf of Carpentaria, named in
honour of de Carpentier.[83]
Abel Tasman's voyage of 1642 was the first known European expedition to reach Van
Diemen's Land (later Tasmania) and New Zealand, and to sight Fiji. On his second voyage of
1644, he also contributed significantly to the mapping of Australia proper, making
observations on the land and people of the north coast below New Guinea.[85]
A map of the world inlaid into the floor of the Burgerzaal ("Burger's Hall") of the new
Amsterdam Stadhuis ("Town Hall") in 1655 revealed the extent of Dutch charts of much of
Australia's coast[86] Based on the 1648 map by Joan Blaeu, Nova et Accuratissima Terrarum
Orbis Tabula, it incorporated Tasman's discoveries, subsequently reproduced in the map,
Archipelagus Orientalis sive Asiaticus published in the Kurfrsten Atlas (Atlas of the Great
Elector).[87]

Hollandia Nova, 1659 map prepared by Joan Blaeu

In 1664 the French geographer, Melchisdech Thvenot, published in Relations de Divers
Voyages Curieux a map of New Holland.[88] Thvenot divided the continent in two, between
Nova Hollandia to the west and Terre Australe to the east.[89] Emanuel Bowen reproduced
Thevenot's map in his Complete System of Geography (London, 1747), re-titling it A
Complete Map of the Southern Continent and adding three inscriptions promoting the benefits
of exploring and colonising the country. One inscription said:
It is impossible to conceive a Country that promises fairer from its Situation than this of
TERRA AUSTRALIS, no longer incognita, as this Map demonstrates, but the Southern

Continent Discovered. It lies precisely in the richest climates of the World... and therefore
whoever perfectly discovers and settles it will become infalliably possessed of Territories as
Rich, as fruitful, and as capable of Improvement, as any that have hitherto been found out,
either in the East Indies or the West.

Stern and archway of the Batavia, housed in the Western Australian Maritime Museum. In
1629, the ship struck a reef near Beacon Island off the Western Australian coast. A subsequent
mutiny and massacre took place among the survivors.

Dutch explorer Abel Tasman with his wife and daughter, the first Europeans to reach Van
Diemen's Land (now Tasmania)
Bowen's map was re-published in John Campbell's editions of John Harris' Navigantium
atque Itinerantium Bibliotheca, or Voyages and Travels (17441748, 1764).[90] This book
recommended exploration of the east coast of New Holland, with a view to a British
colonisation, by way of Abel Tasman's route to Van Diemen's Land.[91]
Although various proposals for colonisation were made, notably by Pierre Purry from 1717 to
1744, none was officially attempted.[92] Indigenous Australians were less able to trade with
Europeans than were the peoples of India, the East Indies, China, and Japan. The Dutch East
India Company concluded that there was "no good to be done there". They turned down
Purry's scheme with the comment that, "There is no prospect of use or benefit to the
Company in it, but rather very certain and heavy costs".
With the exception of further Dutch visits to the west, however, Australia remained largely
unvisited by Europeans until the first British explorations. John Callander put forward a
proposal in 1766 for Britain to found a colony of banished convicts in the South Sea or in
Terra Australis to enable the mother country to exploit the riches of those regions. He said:

"this world must present us with many things entirely new, as hitherto we have had little more
knowledge of it, than if it had lain in another planet".[93]
In 1769, Lieutenant James Cook in command of the HMS Endeavour, travelled to Tahiti to
observe and record the transit of Venus. Cook also carried secret Admiralty instructions to
locate the supposed Southern Continent: "There is reason to imagine that a continent, or land
of great extent, may be found to the southward of the track of former navigators."[94] This
continent was not found, a disappointment to Alexander Dalrymple and his fellow members
of the Royal Society who had urged the Admiralty to undertake this mission.[95] Cook decided
to survey the east coast of New Holland, the only major part of that continent that had not
been charted by Dutch navigators.[96]
On 19 April 1770, the Endeavour sighted the east coast of Australia and ten days later landed
at Botany Bay. Cook charted the coast to its northern extent and, along with the ship's
naturalist, Joseph Banks, who subsequently reported favourably on the possibilities of
establishing a colony at Botany Bay. Cook formally took possession of the east coast of New
Holland on 21/22 August 1770, and noted in his journal that he could "land no more upon this
Eastern coast of New Holland, and on the Western side I can make no new discovery the
honour of which belongs to the Dutch Navigators and as such they may lay Claim to it as
their property [italicised words crossed out in the original] but the Eastern Coast from the
Latitude of 38 South down to this place I am confident was never seen or viseted by any
European before us and therefore by the same Rule belongs to great Brittan [italicised words
crossed out in the original].[97][98]
In 1772, a French expedition led by Louis Aleno de St Aloarn, became the first Europeans to
formally claim sovereignty over the west coast of Australia, but no attempt was made to
follow this with colonisation.[99] The ambition of Sweden's King Gustav III to establish a
colony for his country at the Swan River in 1786 remained stillborn.[100] It was not until 1788
that economic, technological and political conditions in Great Britain made it possible and
worthwhile for that country to make the large effort of sending the First Fleet to New South
Wales.[101]