Several waves of European seafarers explored the coastline of Australia over time. Dutch navigators were the first Europeans known to have explored and mapped this coastline. The first documented encounter was that of Dutch navigator Willem Janszoon in 1606. Dutch seafarers also visited the west and north coasts of the continent, as did French explorers.
The most famous expedition was that of the UK Royal Navy's Lieutenant (and later Captain) James Cook, which took place in 1770 – 164 years after Janszoon's sighting. After an assignment to observe the 1769 Transit of Venus, Cook followed instructions from the British Admiralty to explore the South Pacific for the reported continent of ; on 19 April, Cook sighted the south-eastern coast of Australia and became the first recorded European to explore the eastern coastline. Explorers by land and sea continued to survey the continent for some years after settlement.
Pro-Iberian hypotheses and theories
Some writers have advanced the theory that the Portuguese were the first Europeans to sight Australia in the 1520s.K.G. McIntyre (1977), The Secret Discovery of Australia; Portuguese discoveries 200 years before Captain Cook. (Souvenir Press, Medindie, South Australia. )Trickett, P. (2007), Beyond Capricorn: How Portuguese adventurers discovered and mapped Australia and New Zealand 250 years before Captain Cook. (East St. Publications. Adelaide. )
A number of relics and remains have been interpreted as evidence that the Portuguese reached Australia. The primary evidence to support this theory is the representation of the continent of Jave la Grande, which appears on a series of French world maps known as the Dieppe maps that may be partially based on Portuguese charts. However, most historians do not accept this theory, and the interpretation of the Dieppe maps is highly contentious.Robert J. King, "The Jagiellonian Globe, a Key to the Puzzle of Jave la Grande", The Globe: Journal of the Australian Map Circle, No. 62, 2009, pp. 1–50.Robert J. King, "Regio Patalis: Australia on the map in 1531?", The Portolan, Issue 82, Winter 2011, pp. 8–17.Gayle K. Brunelle, "Dieppe School", in David Buisseret (ed.), The Oxford Companion to World Exploration, New York, Oxford University Press, 2007, pp.237–238. In the early 20th century, Lawrence Hargrave argued that Spain had established a colony in Botany Bay in the 16th century. Five coins from the Kilwa Sultanate were found on Marchinbar Island, in the Wessel Islands, in 1945 by Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) radar operator Morry Isenberg. In 2018, another coin – also thought to be from Kilwa – was found on a beach on Elcho Island, another of the Wessel Islands, by archaeologist and member of the research group Past Masters, Mike Hermes. Hermes speculated that the coins may suggest trade between Indigenous Australians and Kilwa, or they may have arrived via Makassan contact with Australia. Mike Owen, another member of Past Masters, offered two speculations: these coins may have arrived sometime after the installation of Muhammad Arcone on the Kilwa throne as a Portuguese vassal, from 1505 to 1506; or the Portuguese may have visited the Wessel Islands.
The French navigator Binot Paulmier de GonnevillePaulmier de Gonneville , http://www.bresilbresils.org/decouverte_bresil/index.php?page=relation/palmier , http://www.passocean.com/HistoiresdeHonfleur/gonneville/gonneville.html , http://www.lazareff.com/Le-disque-est-en-crise.html , etc. (all in French) claimed to have landed in an area that he described as "east of the Cape of Good Hope" in 1504, after being blown off course. For some time, it had been thought that he landed in Australia, but the place where he landed has now been shown to be Brazil (which is north-west of the Cape).Eric Newby: The Rand Mc.Nally World Atlas of Exploration, 1975. London: Mitchell Beazley. .
17th century Dutch exploration
The most significant exploration of Australia in the 17th century was by the Dutch. The Dutch East India Company ( [VOC], "United East India Company") was set up in 1602 and traded extensively with the islands which now form parts of Indonesia, and hence were already close to Australia.
The first documented and undisputed European sighting of and landing on Australia was in late February 1606, by the Dutch navigator Willem Janszoon aboard the Duyfken. Janszoon charted the Australian coast and met with Aboriginal people.George Collingridge (1895) The Discovery of Australia. p. 240. Golden Press Facsimile Edition 1983. Ernest Scott (1928) A Short History of Australia. p. 17. Oxford University Press Janszoon followed the coast of New Guinea, missed the Torres Strait, and explored and then charted part of the western side of Cape York, in the Gulf of Carpentaria, believing the land was still part of New Guinea. On 26 February 1606, Janszoon and his party made landfall near the modern town of Weipa and the Pennefather River, but they were promptly attacked by the Indigenous people. Janszoon proceeded down the coast for some . He stopped in places, but he was met by hostile natives, and some of his men were killed. At the last of these places, he initially had friendly relations with the natives, but after he forced them to hunt for him and appropriated some of their women, violence broke out, and there were many deaths on both sides. These events were recorded in Aboriginal oral history that has come down to the present day. There Janszoon decided to turn back, the place later being called Cape Keerweer, Dutch for "turnabout".
That same year, a Spanish expedition sailing in nearby waters and led by Pedro Fernández de Quirós landed in the New Hebrides; believing this to be the fabled southern continent, they 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. Later that year, De Quirós' deputy, Luís Vaez de Torres, sailed to the north of Australia through the Torres Strait, charting New Guinea's south coast, and possibly sighting Cape York in October 1606.Raymond John Howgego: Encyclopedia of Exploration to 1800, 2003. Potts Point, NSW: Hordern House. .Brett Hilder (1980) The Voyage of Torres. pp. 87–101. University of Queensland Press, St. Lucia, Queensland.
In 1611, Hendrik Brouwer, working for the VOC, discovered that sailing from Europe to Batavia was much quicker if the Roaring Forties winds were used. Until that time, the Dutch had followed a route copied from Arab and Portuguese sailors who followed the coasts of Africa, Mauritius and Ceylon. The new Brouwer Route involved sailing south from the Cape of Good Hope (at 34° south latitude) into the Roaring Forties (at 40–50° south latitude), and then sailing east before turning north to Java using the South Indian Ocean Current. The Brouwer Route became compulsory for Dutch vessels in 1617. The problem with this route, however, was that longitude could not easily be determined at the time, making Dutch landfalls on the west coast of Australia inevitable, as well as shipwrecks on the shoals. Most of these landfalls were unplanned. The first such landfall was in 1616, when Dirk Hartog, employed by the VOC, reached land at Shark Bay (on what is now called Dirk Hartog Island) off the coast of Western Australia. Finding nothing of interest, Hartog continued sailing northwards along this coastline previously unknown to Europeans, making nautical charts up to about 22° south latitude. He then left the coast and continued onward to Batavia.Robert J. King, "Dirk Hartog lands on Beach, the Gold-bearing Province", The Globe, No. 77, 2015, pp.12-52. He called Australia – shortened to Eendrachtsland – after his ship; this name remained in use until Abel Tasman named the land New Holland in 1644.
In 1619, two explorers in VOC ships – Frederik de Houtman in the Dordrecht and Jacob d'Edel in the Amsterdam – sighted land on the Australian coast near present-day Perth, which they called d'Edelsland. After sailing northwards along the coast, they made landfall at Eendrachtsland, which had previously been encountered and named by Hartog, before turning for Batavia.
Hessel Gerritsz was appointed on 16 October 1617 as the first exclusive cartographer of the VOC; his job included creating and maintaining charts of coastlines in the area. Gerritsz produced a map in 1622 which showed the first part of Australia to be charted, that by Janszoon in 1606.Martin Woods, "For the Dutch Republic, the Great Pacific", National Library of Australia, Mapping our World: Terra Incognita to Australia, Canberra, National Library of Australia, 2013, pp. 111–13. This area was considered part of New Guinea and called Nueva Guinea on the map, but Gerritsz added an inscription as follows: "Those who sailed with the yacht of Pedro Fernandes de Queirós in the neighbourhood of New Guinea to 10 degrees westward through many islands and shoals and over 2, 3 and 4 fathoms for as many as 40 days, presumed that New Guinea did not extend beyond 10 degrees to the south. If this be so, then the land from 9 to 14 degrees would be a separate land, different from the other New Guinea"....
All charts and logs from returning VOC merchants and explorer sailors were required to be submitted to Gerritsz, and these charts and logs provided new information for several breakthrough maps which he produced. Gerritsz's charts later accompanied all VOC captains on their voyages. In 1627 Gerritsz made a map, the Caert van't Landt van d'Eendracht, entirely devoted to the discoveries of the West Australian coastline; this was named "Eendrachtsland", though the name had been used since 1619.
On 1 May 1622, Englishman John Brooke in the Tryall – a vessel owned by the British East India Company weighing approximately 500 tons – on the way to Batavia, made the second English voyage to use Brouwer's southern route. Brooke sailed too far east and sighted the coastline of Western Australia at Point Cloates (about 22° south latitude); however, he mistook it for an island sighted in 1618 by Janszoon (and in 1816 named Barrow Island by Phillip Parker King). Brooke and his crew did not land there, and a few weeks later they were shipwrecked on an uncharted reef northwest of the Montebello Islands (about 20° south latitude, now known as Tryal Rocks). The shipwreck caused the deaths of 93 men. But Brooke, his son John and nine men scrambled into a skiff, and the ship's factor Thomas Bright and 35 others managed to save a longboat. Brooke sailed separately to Java. Bright and his crew spent seven days ashore on the Montebello Islands before sailing the longboat to Bantam in Java. These events were the first recorded shipwreck in Australian waters and the first extended stay in Australia by Europeans.
In March 1622, the Dutch galleon Leeuwin, captained by Jan Fransz, mapped parts of the Australian coast between Hamelin Bay and Point D'Entrecasteaux. This galleon was the first European vessel to round what is now called Cape Leeuwin.