Who explored Australia?

Answer 1

Many people have explored Australia during its known history. All of them cannot be listed, but here is a reasonably comprehensive list of the main explorers.

The Portuguese penetration to the east of the Indian ocean culminated in their exploring the northern and eastern Australia in the 1520s. While no literary record remains due to the flooding of their archives in the 18th Century, illicit copies of their charts were incorporated in maps produced by the Dieppe mapmakers in th 1540s-1560s. One good representation of Australia was given to Henry VIII by Anne of Cleves as a wedding present.

Dutch seafarers came in contact with the continent, beginning with Willem Jansz/Janszoon, a Dutchman who was seeking new trade routes and trade associates. He became the first recorded European to step foot on Australia's shores on the western shore of Cape York Peninsula, on 26 February 1606. In 1616, Dirk Hartog landed at Cape Inscription on 25 October 1616 where he left a pewter plate with an inscription recording his landing.

On 24 November 1642, Abel Tasman discovered Tasmania, originally calling it "Antony Van Diemen's Land" in honour of the High Magistrate, or Governor-General of Batavia.

The first Englishman to set foot on Australian soil was William Dampier. On 4 January 1688, his ship the 'Cygnet' was beached on the northwest coast of Australia, at King Sound near Buccaneer Archipelago on the north-west coast of Australia. While the ship was being repaired Dampier made notes on the fauna and flora he found there. He was unimpressed by the dry, barren landscape, the lack of water and what he described as the "miserablest people in the world" - the native population. His negative reports led to the delay of England's colonisation of what is now Australia.

It was not until 1770 that Captain James Cook reported positively on the green, fertile countryside of New South Wales, and England sought to colonise the previously unknown continent.

Following Cook's charting of the eastern coast in 1770 and the arrival of the First Fleet in 1788, many more explorers sought to unravel the secrets of the continent: French explorers Marion du Fresne 1772, Bruno D'Entrecastaux 1792, Nicholas Baudin 1802-4, Jean-Claude de Freycinet 1818, were followed by others such as Matthew Flinders and George Bass in exploring the coastline. Bass was famous for proving that Van Diemen's land (now Tasmania) was from an island, whilst Flinders was famous for his two-year circumnavigation of the entire continent.

Captain Arthur Phillip, Governor of the first colony, explored extensively around the Sydney/Parramatta area, but was unable to breach the Blue Mountains.

Settlement did not extend beyond Sydney until 1813, when Blaxland, Lawson and Wentworth climbed Mount York, at the western end of the Blue Mountains, from which they sighted the rich grasslands on the other side of the mountain barrier. George Evans continued on from Blaxland, Lawson and Wentworth's expedition, finding the Macquarie River and surrounding fertile plains.

After this, there were a number of other explorers who filled in the gaps.

• Captain John Oxley and Allan Cunningham explored inland and northern New South Wales and southern Queensland (c. 1823).
• James Kelly explored Tasmania (1816).
• Hamilton Hume and William Hovell explored overland between Sydney and Port Phillip Bay (1824).
• Charles Sturt followed Murrumbidgee River to the Murray River, and on to the southern coast. He also determined that the Darling River flowed into the Murray, thereby discovering Australia's biggest inland river system (1829-30).
• Major Mitchell contributed much to the discovery of good land in Victoria, although he spent much time trying to dispute Sturt's theory that the Darling flowed into the Murray. He found excellent fertile land in western Victoria (1836). He also explored in southern Queensland.
• Paul Edmund de Strzelecki was the first to climb and name Mt Kosciuszko, Australia's highest mountain (1840).
• Edward Eyre made numerous expeditions, exploring north of Adelaide, and later crossed the Nullarbor Plain from Streaky Bay to Albany (1839-41).
• Ludwig Leichhardt explored inland Queensland and up to the north coast, at Port Essington (1844-45).
• Edmund Kennedy explored the Queensland coast, tragically losing his life when almost within sight of the ship sent to meet him at the northern tip (1848).
• John MacDouall Stuart led a total of six expeditions into Australia's interior, with five of them being attempts to be the first to cross the continent from south to north, commencing from Adelaide. He succeeded on his fifth attempt, reaching the northern waters at Chambers Bay in July 1862.
• Burke and Wills led an unfortunate expedition from Melbourne to the Gulf of Carpentaria. While their expedition filled in gaps of knowledge, they also died during their attempt to return safely (1861).
• Ernest Giles made several expeditions in the Australian desert, through central and Western Australia (1872-1875).
• Peter Warburton undertook numerous smaller expeditions, but his goal was to complete the first crossing of the central Australian continent from east to west, a goal he achieved in 1873.
• The Forrest brothers of Western Australia explored much of the northwest regions in the 1870s.

Answer 2

Captain James Cook and his crew were the first recorded Europeans to extensively explore and chart the eastern coast of Australia in 1770. However, some parts of Australia were already known and explored by the Indigenous peoples who have lived there for thousands of years.