European exploration of Australia

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The European exploration of Australia encompasses several waves of seafarers and land explorers. Although Australia is often said to have been discovered by Royal Navy Lieutenant (later Captain) James Cook in 1770, he was merely one of a number of European explorers to have sighted and landed on the continent prior to English settlement, and he did so 164 years after the first such documented encounter. Nor did the exploration of Australia end with Cook; explorers by land and sea continued to survey the continent for many years after settlement.

Early European sightings

Although it is possible that Luis Váez de Torres, working for the Spanish Crown, sighted Australia when he sailed through the Torres Strait in 1605, the first documented and undisputed European sighting and landing of Australia was in 1606, by the Dutch navigator Willem Janszoon aboard the Duyfken.

Occasional claims have been made in support of earlier encounters, particularly for various Portuguese explorations. Evidence put forward in favour of this theory, particularly by Kenneth McIntyre,^[1] include rock paintings of what appear to be the type of ships used by the Portuguese, the Mahogany Ship, the Geelong Keys, coins found on the Victorian coast, and evidence based on the Dieppe maps. These are not accepted by most historians.

Dutch exploration in the 17th century

Hollandia Nova, 1659 map prepared by Joan Blaeu

The most significant exploration of Australia in the 1600s was by the Dutch. The Dutch East India Company traded extensively with the islands which now form parts of Indonesia, and hence were very close to Australia already. In early 1606 Willem Janszoon encountered and then charted the shores of Australia's Cape York Peninsula. The ship made landfall at the Pennefather River in the Gulf of Carpentaria. This was the first authenticated landing of a European on Australian soil. Other Dutch explorers include Dirk Hartog who landed on the Western Australian coast, leaving behind a pewter plate engraved with the date of his landing, and Abel Tasman for whom Tasmania was eventually named—he originally called it Van Diemen's Land after a senior member of the Dutch East India Company. Maps from this period and the early 18th century often have Australia marked as "New Holland" on account of the voyages of these Dutch explorers.

One Dutch captain of this period who was not really an explorer but who nevertheless bears mentioning was Francisco Pelsaert, captain of the Batavia which was wrecked off the coast of Western Australia in 1629.

Joan Blaeu's 1659 map on the right shows the clearly recognizable outline of Australia based on the many Dutch explorations of the first half of the 17th century.

1700-1769

Map of William Dampier's voyage.

Throughout the 18th century, knowledge of Australia's coastline increased gradually. Explorers such as William Dampier contributed to this understanding.

Explorers of this period:

• William Dampier

1770: Cook's Expedition

Cook's 1770 voyage shown in red

In 1768 British Lieutenant James Cook was sent from England on an expedition to the Pacific Ocean to observe the transit of Venus from Tahiti, sailing westwards in HMS Endeavour via Cape Horn and arriving there in 1769. On the return voyage he continued his explorations of the South Pacific, in search of the postulated continent of Terra Australis.

He first reached New Zealand, and then sailed further westwards to sight the south-eastern corner of the Australian continent on 20 April 1770. In doing so, he was to be the first documented European expedition to reach the eastern coastline. He continued sailing northwards along the east coast, charting and naming many features along the way.

He identified Botany Bay as a good harbour and one potentially suitable for a settlement, and where he made his first landfall on 29 April. Continuing up the coastline, the Endeavour was to later run aground on shoals of the Great Barrier Reef (near the present-day site of Cooktown), where she had to be laid up for repairs.

The voyage then recommenced, eventually reaching the Torres Strait and thence on to Batavia in the Dutch East Indies (now Jakarta, Indonesia). The expedition returned to England via the Indian Ocean and Cape of Good Hope.

Cook's expedition carried botanist Joseph Banks, for whom a great many Australian geographical features and at least one native plant are named.

His report on his discoveries along the Australian coast, in conjunction with the loss of England's penal colonies in America after they gained independence and growing concern over French activity in the Pacific led to the later foundation of a colony at Port Jackson in 1788.

French eighteenth-century explorers

Marc-Joseph Marion Dufresne visited Van Diemen's Land in 1772 and was the first to encounter the Tasmanian Aborigines (who had not been seen by Abel Tasman). Jean-François de Galaup, comte de La Pérouse visited Botany Bay in 1788. Bruni d'Entrecasteaux discovered Esperance in Western Australia and the D'Entrecasteaux Channel and the Derwent and Huon Estuaries in Van Diemen's Land. His expedition also resulted in the publication of the first general flora of New Holland.

Later exploration by sea

Voyages of Bass, who the Bass Strait is named after.

Voyages of Matthew Flinders

King's voyages around Australia.

The charting of Australia's coast continued well into the 19th century. Matthew Flinders was one of the most important explorers of this period, and was the first to circumnavigate the continent.

Land exploration 1788-1900

Blaxland's expedition to cross the Blue Mountains

John Oxley's expeditions

Route of the Sturt, Hume and Hovell expeditions

The opening up of the interior to European settlement occurred gradually throughout the colonial period, and a number of these explorers are very well known. Burke and Wills are the best known for their failed attempt to cross the interior of Australia, but such men as Hamilton Hume and Charles Sturt are also notable—if only because major geographical features, landmarks, and institutions have been named after them.

For many years, plans of westward expansion from Sydney were thwarted by the Great Dividing Range, a large range of mountains which shadows the east coast from the Queensland-New South Wales border to the south coast. The part of the range near Sydney is called the Blue Mountains. Governor Philip Gidley King declared that they were impassable, but despite this, Gregory Blaxland successfully led an expedition to cross them in 1813. He was accompanied by William Lawson, William Wentworth and four servants. This trip paved the way for numerous small expeditions which were undertaken in the following few years.

In 1824, Governor Thomas Brisbane asked Hamilton Hume and William Hovell to travel from Hume's station near modern-day Canberra, to Spencer Gulf (west of modern-day Adelaide). However, they were required to pay their own costs. Hume and Hovell decided that Western Port was a more realistic goal, and they left with a party of six men. After discovering and crossing the Murrumbidgee and Murray rivers, they eventually reached a site near modern-day Geelong, somewhat west of their intended destination.

In 1829-30, Charles Sturt performed an expedition similar to the one which Hume and Hovell had refused: a trip to the mouth of the Murray River. They followed the Murrumbidgee until it met the Murray, and then found the junction of the Murray and the Darling before continuing on to the mouth of the Murray. The discovery that the Darling, Macquarie, Murray and Murrumbidgee rivers all flowed west had led many to believe that the interior of Australia contained an inland sea. The search for an inland sea was an inspiration for many early expeditions west of the Great Dividing Ranges. This quest drove many explorers to extremes of endurance and hardship. Charles Sturt's expedition explained the mystery. It also led to the opening of South Australia to settlement.

Thomas Mitchell, the Scottish born Surveyor-General of New South Wales, made a significant discovery in 1836. He led an expedition along the Lachlan River, down to the Murray River. He then set off for the southern coast, mapping what is now western Victoria. There he discovered the richest grazing land ever seen to that time and named it Australia Felix. He was knighted for this discovery in 1837. When he reached the coast at Portland Bay, he was surprised to find a small settlement. It had been established by the Henty family, who had sailed across Bass Strait from Van Diemen's Land in 1834, without the authorities being informed.

Eyre's expeditions on the Nullarbor Plain and to the Flinders Ranges

Kennedy's expeditions in the interior of Queensland

Leichardt's exploration

The ill fated expedition of Burke and Wills

Perhaps the most famous Australian explorers were Robert O'Hara Burke and William John Wills who in 1860-61 led a well equipped expedition from Melbourne to the Gulf of Carpentaria. Due to an unfortunate run of bad luck, oversight and poor leadership, Burke and Wills both died on the return trip. See Burke and Wills expedition for a full account.

Expeditions (in chronological order):

Other explorers by land (in alphabetical order):

Stuart was the first to cross the country from south to north successfully.

Map of John Forrest's expeditions

20th century explorers

By the turn of the 20th century, most of the major geographical features of Australia had been discovered by European explorers. However, there are some 20th century people who are considered explorers. They include:

• Ted Colson (first to cross the Simpson Desert in 1936)
• Cecil Madigan (major scientific expedition to the Simpson Desert in 1939)
• Len Beadell
• Robyn Davidson

Indigenous Australians participating in European Exploration

A number of Indigenous Australians participated in the European exploration of Australia. They include:

• Tommy Windich, who joined John Forrest in his search for Ludwig Leichhardt
• Wylie, who accompanied Eyre's expedition across the Nullarbor

Naturalists and other scientists

There are a number of naturalists and other scientists closely associated with European exploration of Australia. They include:

• Joseph Banks and Daniel Solander (accompanied Cook's 1770 expedition)
• Jacques Labillardière (accompanied Bruni d'Entrecasteaux)
• Allan Cunningham (accompanied Oxley's 1817 expedition)
• John Gilbert accompanied Leichhardt's expedition
• Clement Hodgkinson (also an explorer in his own right)
• Ferdinand von Mueller (accompanied Augustus Gregory's expedition
• Jean Baptiste Leschenault de la Tour, François Péron and Charles Alexander Lesueur (accompanied Baudin's 1801 expedition)
• John Lhotsky
• Gerard Krefft
• Olive Pink

Uncategorised explorers

• William Patrick Auld
• Francis Barrallier
• James Calvert
• Emily Caroline Creaghe
• Louis de Rougemont
• Hedley Herbert Finlayson
• George Frankland
• John Graham
• Frank Gregory
• Alfred Howitt
• Robert Logan Jack
• Jackey Jackey
• Alexander William Jardine
• Frank Jardine
• Edmund Lockyer
• Carl Sofus Lumholtz
• John MacGillivray
• W. J. Peasley
• Nicholas Pateshall
• John Price^{[citation needed]}
• Arthur Bowes Smyth
• Michael Terry
• Frederick Walker
• Warrup
• Lawrence Wells
• William Wentworth
• Tommy Windiitj
• Charles Winnecke

References

External links

• Explorers page at Project Gutenburg Australia
• Australian Discovery page at Project Gutenburg Australia
• original documentation from 17th Century Dutch exploration at Project Gutenburg Australia

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