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Period: Jan 1, 1400 to
Discovering Australia
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Jan 1, 1432
Chinese Traders
Zhang He was a Chinese explorer. He may have come in 1432. The Chinese sailed in fleets of ships called junks. They would have been headed to the Spice Islands to trade. Their ships may have sailed into the wasters north of Australia. The Aborigines told stories about people with golden skin, but this could have meant the Makassans. -
Jan 1, 1520
The Portuguese
There is no real evidence to prove that the Portuguese were on the land, but their mapes show the rocks and reefs of the Great Barrier Reef. -
Willem Jansz (Janszoon) Dutch
(from Nertherlans) First Europen to land on Australian soil (Cape York Peninsula). 1606 ship called Duyfken (Little Dove) sailed from Batavia to New Guinea. He was searching for gold for a Dutch company (v.o.c.). He reported that the country was full of savage,cruel,black barbarians who slew some of his saiors. -
Spanish Exploration
Quiros and Torres let 3 Spanish ships on an expedition from Peru, in South America to find the Great South Land. When they got to Vanuatu in the Pacific Ocean they split up. Quiros sailed to Mexico and Torres took the other 2 ships. His ships were blown off course and he sailed in between New Guinea and the top part of Australia. He name the Torres Strait. People are not sure if Torres sighted the Australian coast, but his exploration showed that Australia was not part of New Guinea. -
Dirk Hartog
in October 1616 the Eendracht captained by Dirk Hartog was the second Dutch vessel to land on the continent (the Duyfken was first). Hartog a Dutch sea captain was on his way to Batavia (now Jakarta) in Java and he arrived at the Great South Land by accident. -
Abel Tasman Dutch explorer from Holland/Netherlands
1st voyage 1642. Came from Batavia in 2 ships called Zeehaen and Heemskerck. He came to map New Holland. He named Tamania Van Dieman`s Land Discovered the Islands of New Zealand. -
Abel Tasman Dutch
2nd voyage 1644
He was sent back to try to map all of New Holland and to make contact with Indigenous Australians. He couldn't find a passage through the Torres Strait to get to the east coast. -
Makassan Contact
Makassan Contact with Australia Makassan`s came from the Indonesian Archipelago. 1650`s Aboriginal rock art shows evidence. They came in boats called Praus. The boats could only hold 30 crew. They came to fish for sea cucumber (Trepang) so they could sell it to the Chinese. They traded cloth,tobacco,axes,knives,rice and gin with Indigenous Australians most contact was peaceful. -
William Dampier
William Dampier was born in Somerset in 1651. He received a grammar school education and after his parents died he set off to see the world serving on the ships of buccaneers. Buccaneers or privateers were pirates who robbed the Spanish ships and those of other enemies of Britain. -
William Dampier
From January to March 1688 the ship anchored in and named Cygnet Bay, near present day Broome. While the ship's hull was being cleaned, Dampier went ashore to observe the Aboriginal people. -
James Cook maps the east coast of Australia
Cook sailed in the ship Endeavour. He came to calculate the distance of Venus from the Sun and to find Terra Australis. Cook with hostile and peaceful Indigenous Australians.
