Some researchers suggest that the Portuguese were the first Europeans to reach the shores of Australia back in the 20s of the 16th century.
As the main evidence, supporters of this theory cite the following points:
- maps of Dieppe, published in France in the mid-16th century. They depict a large area of land between Indonesia and Antarctica, called Java la Grande, and the symbols and explanations are in French and Portuguese;
- the presence of Portuguese colonies in Southeast Asia at the beginning of the 16th century. In particular, the island of Timor is located only 650 km from the Australian coast;
- Various finds discovered on the Australian coastline have been attributed to early Portuguese explorers.
In addition, the French navigator Binot Polmier de Gonneville claimed to have landed on certain lands east of the Cape of Good Hope in 1504, after the ship was blown off course by the wind. For some time he was credited with the discovery of Australia, but it was later discovered that the lands he visited were part of the coast of Brazil.
Discovery of Australia by the Dutch
The first indisputable discovery of Australia was documented at the end of February 1606. The expedition of the Dutch East India Company, led by Willem Jansson, landed on board the ship "Duifken" ("Dove") on the coast of the Gulf of Carpentaria. Jansson and his comrades explored the shores of New Guinea. Sailing from the island of Java to the southern coast of New Guinea and moving along it, after some time the Dutch reached the shores of the Cape York Peninsula in northern Australia, believing that they were still observing the shores of New Guinea.
Apparently, for some reason, the expedition did not notice the Torres Strait, which separates the coasts of New Guinea and Australia. On February 26, the team landed near the place where the city of Weipa is located today and was immediately attacked by the aborigines.
Subsequently, Jansson and his people sailed along the coast of Australia for about 350 km, making landings from time to time, but everywhere they came across hostile natives, as a result of which several sailors died. The captain decided to return back, without realizing that he had discovered a new continent.
Since Jansson described the coast he explored as deserted and swampy, the new discovery did not arouse any interest. The East India Company equipped its ships in search of new lands rich in spices and jewelry, and not for the sake of geographical discoveries as such.
In the same year, Luis Vaez de Torres sailed through the same strait, which, apparently, was not noticed by Jansson’s expedition and was later named Torres. It is possible that Torres and his comrades visited the northern coast of the continent, but no written evidence of this has survived.
In 1616, another ship of the Dutch East India Company, led by Dirk Hartog, reached the shores of Western Australia, in the Shark Bay area (Shark Bay) at approximately 25 degrees south latitude. The navigators spent three days exploring the coast and nearby islands. Having found nothing of interest, Hartog continued sailing north along the previously unexplored coastline to 22 degrees S, after which he set course for Batavia.
In 1619, Frederic de Houtman and Jacob d'Herdel explored the Australian coast at 32 degrees south in two ships. w. moving gradually north, where at 28 degrees S. latitude. discovered a strip of reefs called Houtman Rocks.
In subsequent years, Dutch sailors continued to sail along the coast of Australia, calling this land New Holland, without bothering to explore the coast properly, since they did not see any commercial benefit in it. The extensive coastline may have aroused their curiosity, but it did not encourage them to explore the country's resources. Exploring the western and northern coasts, they formed the impression of the newly discovered lands as swampy and barren. At that time, the Dutch had never seen the southern and eastern shores, which were much more attractive in appearance.
On July 4, 1629, the Dutch East India Company ship Batavia was shipwrecked off the Houtman Rocks. After a mutiny soon followed, some of the crew built a small fort for their protection - it was the first European structure in Australia.
By some estimates, between 1606 and 1770, more than 50 European ships visited the shores of Australia. Most of them belonged to the Dutch East India Company, including the ships of Abel Tasman. In 1642, Tasman, trying to go around the so-called New Holland from the south, discovered an island which he called Van Diemen's Land (this island was later renamed Tasmania). Moving further east, after some time the ships reached New Zealand. However, on his first voyage, Tasman never came close to Australia. Only in 1644 did he manage to explore in detail its northwestern coast and prove that all the territories previously discovered during Dutch expeditions, with the exception of Van Diemen's Land, are parts of a single continent.
English Studies
Almost until the end of the 80s of the 17th century, practically nothing was known in England about the lands discovered by the Dutch. In 1688, a pirate ship carrying the Englishman William Dampier dropped anchor on the northwest coast, near Lake Melville. There was not much to plunder, and after several weeks of repairs the ship left the inhospitable shores. However, this voyage had some consequences: upon returning to England, Dampier published a story about his journey, which interested the English Admiralty.
In 1699, he set off on a second voyage to the shores of Australia, on the ship "Roebuck" provided to him. As on the previous occasion, he visited the barren northwestern coast and, after 4 months of exploration, was forced to return without finding anything worthy of attention. Since Dampier was unable to report any facts that could interest the Admiralty, interest in the new lands faded for almost three-quarters of a century.
In 1770, an expedition led by Lieutenant James Cook sailed to the South Pacific Ocean on the sailing ship Endeavor. The navigators were expected to make astronomical observations, but Cook had secret orders from the British Admiralty to search for the southern continent of Terra Australis Incognita, which geographers of the time believed extended around the pole. Cook reasoned that since the so-called New Holland has a western coast, it must also have an eastern one.
The expedition landed on the east coast of Australia at the end of April 1770. The landing site, originally named Stingray Bay, was later renamed Botany Bay due to the strange and unusual plants growing there.
Cook named the open lands New Wales, and subsequently New South Wales. He had no idea of the scale of his discovery, or that this island was an entire continent, 32 times larger than Britain itself. Among other things, Cook was the first European to visit the Great Barrier Reef. The ship that chanced upon it spent the next seven weeks undergoing repairs.
The British returned in 1778 to colonize new lands.
British colonies
It was decided to begin colonizing the lands discovered by James Cook, using convicts as the first colonists. The first fleet, led by Captain Arthur Philip, consisting of 11 ships carrying a total of about 1,350 people, arrived at Botany Bay on the 20th of January 1788. However, the area was considered unsuitable for settlement and they moved north to Port Jackson.
Governor Philip issued orders establishing the first British colony in Australia. The soil around Sydney Harbor was poor. The young colony relied both on the development of farms along the Parramatta River, 25 kilometers upstream to the west, and on purchasing food from the indigenous people.
The Second Fleet in 1790 delivered desperately needed supplies and various materials; however, among the newly arrived prisoners there were a large number of sick people, many of them were close to death and useless for the colony. The Second Fleet became known as the "Deadly Fleet" - 278 convicts and crew died on this voyage, compared to just 48 deaths on the first.
The colony experienced many other difficulties, including a significant numerical superiority of men - about four men per woman, which was a problem in the settlement for many years.
Several other British colonies were also created.
Van Diemen's Land
The first British settlement on the island was established at Risdon in 1803, when Lieutenant John Bowen landed with about 50 settlers, crew, soldiers and convicts. In February 1804, Lieutenant David Collins founded a settlement in Hobart. The colony of Van Diemen's Land was created in 1825, and in 1856 it officially became known as Tasmania.
Western Australia
In 1827, Major Edmund Lockyer built a small British settlement at King Georges Sound (Albany). Captain James Stirling became its first governor. The colony was created specifically for convicts, and the first prisoners arrived in 1850.
South Australia
The British province of South Australia was founded in 1836 and became a Crown colony in 1842. Although South Australia was not created for convicts, a number of former prisoners subsequently moved there from other colonies. About 38,000 immigrants arrived and settled in the area by 1850.
Victoria
In 1834 the Henty brothers arrived in Portland Bay and John Batman settled in what would become Melbourne. The first immigrant ships arrived in Port Phillip in 1839. In 1851, Victoria (Port Phillip area) separated from New South Wales.
Queensland
In 1824, a colony known as the settlement of Moreton Bay was established at Redcliffe by Lieutenant John Oxley, which later became known as Brisbane. About 19 hundred people were sent to the settlement between 1824 and 1839. The first free European settlers moved into the area in 1838. In 1859, Queensland separated from New South Wales.
Northern Territory
In 1825, the land now occupied by the Northern Territory was part of New South Wales. In 1863, control of the area was given to South Australia. The capital Darwin was founded in 1869 and was originally known as Palmerston. On 1 January 1911, the Northern Territory separated from South Australia and became part of the Commonwealth of Australia.
After the colonization of the coast, a period of active exploration began. However, until 1813, not a single expedition was able to overcome the high mountain range located along the eastern coast. After the passage was discovered, Governor Macquarie crossed the Blue Mountains in 1815 and founded the city of Bathurst on the other side. Many explorers rushed deeper into the continent.
John Oxley was the first serious explorer to explore the beds of the Lochlan, Macquarie and several other rivers. Charles Sturt, in search of the mythical inland sea, discovers the Darling River, explores the Lochlan and Marumbidgee river system. John McDouall Stewart explores the territories north of Adelaide, Friedrich Leichhardt crosses Cleveland and the Northern Territories, along the way discovering many small rivers and lands suitable for agriculture, and in 1858-60 Robert Burke crosses the mainland for the first time from north to south. Nathaniel Buchanan finds vast pastures on the Barkly Plateau, which later became the center of sheep farming in Northern Australia.
In addition to those listed, many other researchers continued to study the mainland, discovering new lands and contributing to the further development of Australia.
Australia is one of the most exotic English-speaking countries in the world. Thanks to its high standard of living and attractive immigration policies, many are considering it as a place to live or work. If you are learning English to move to Australia, either for work, study or pleasure, it will be useful to gain a basic understanding of the country's history.
Prehistoric Australia
About 50 thousand years ago, the first people arrived on the southern continent of Australia - the earliest sea travelers in the world. Geologists believe that at that time the island of New Guinea in the north and Tasmania in the south were part of the continent.
After several thousand years, the continent began to be actively populated. The earliest archaeological discovery of human remains in Australia is the so-called Mungo man, who lived approximately 40 thousand years ago. From it, scientists determined that the first inhabitants of Australia were massive and tall people.
In prehistory, Australia was settled by people over several waves. About 5 thousand years ago, with another stream of settlers, the dingo dog appeared on the mainland - the only non-marsupial Australian predator. Only by the 2nd millennium BC did the Australian aborigines acquire their modern appearance, evolving and mixing with newly arrived settlers.
The Aborigines formed diverse tribes with their own languages, cultures, religions and traditions. At the time of the discovery of Australia by Europeans, about 500 tribes lived on the mainland, speaking about 250 different languages. None of them had a written language, so their history is poorly known. They used symbolic drawings, retelling ancient legends in them. These myths and archaeological finds are the only data that historians studying Australia can use.
Since people began to inhabit Australia quite a long time ago (for comparison, people arrived in America only 13 thousand years ago, a full 27 thousand years later) and did not experience the influence of the rest of the world before the arrival of Europeans, the Australian Aboriginal civilization is considered one of the oldest continuous cultures in the world.
European continental exploration
It is officially believed that Australia was discovered by the Dutch navigator Willem Janszoon in 1606. He sailed to the Gulf of Carpentaria in the north of the mainland and landed on the Cape York Peninsula - the northernmost point of Australia, which is located only 160 kilometers from New Guinea. A year before him, the Spaniard Luis Vaez Torres swam in these waters, who passed very close to the Australian coast and even supposedly saw land on the horizon, but mistook it for another archipelago.
There are several other alternative theories for the discovery of Australia. According to one of them, Portuguese sailors discovered the mainland before Willem Janszoon. The flotilla under the leadership of de Siqueira explored the route to the Moluccas and sent several expeditions around the archipelago. One such expedition, led by Mendonça in 1522, supposedly visited the northwestern shores of Australia.
The theory of the early discovery of Australia seems plausible, since it was on the west coast that 16th century cannons were found in the 20th century. Unusual finds have been repeatedly discovered on the mainland, which can only be explained by the early voyages of Europeans to the Australian shores. However, these theories are considered controversial. In addition, the discovery of Australia remained unknown to Europe until the voyages of the Dutch.
Janszoon declared the found territories the possession of the Netherlands, although the Dutch never began to develop them. Over the next few decades, the Dutch continued to explore Australia. In 1616, Derk Hartog visited the west coast; three years later, Frederic de Houtman explored several hundred kilometers of coastline. In 1644, Abel Tasman began his famous sea voyages, during which he discovered New Zealand, Tasmania, Fiji and Tonga, and also proved that Australia is a separate continent.
The Dutch explored only the west coast of Australia; the rest of the coastline and inland remained unexplored until the voyages of James Cook a century later, in 1769. It was believed that New Holland (the first name of Australia) discovered by the Dutch did not belong to the hypothetical southern continent Terra Australis Incognita, the existence of which had been suspected since ancient times. New Holland was an inhospitable place with a difficult climate and hostile natives, so for a long time they showed no interest in it.
In the mid-18th century, the British came up with the idea of exiling convicts to the islands of the Southern Ocean or to a supposedly existing continent called the Unknown Southland. In 1769, English Lieutenant James Cook set sail on the ship Endeavor to Tahiti on a secret mission to find the Southern Continent and explore the shores of New Holland.
Cook sailed to the east coast of Australia and landed at Botany Bay. Having examined the coastal lands, he concluded that they were quite favorable for founding a colony. Cook then traveled along the coast in a northwesterly direction and found a strait between Australia and New Guinea (thus proving that this island was not part of the mainland). The navigator did not complete the task of finding the Southern Continent.
During his second expedition around the world, Cook explored the southern latitudes and came to the conclusion that there were no large lands in them except Australia. The dreams of Terra Australis were destroyed, but a free name remained. In 1814, the English navigator Matthew Flinders proposed calling New Holland Australia. By that time, colonies from several states already existed on the mainland, which did not immediately accept the proposal, but over time began to use this name. In 1824 it became official.
British colonization of Australia
Cook recommended Botany Bay for settlement. The first fleet with settlers set off here in 1787. These were convicts - but for the most part not malicious criminals, robbers and murderers, but former traders and farmers sentenced to short terms for minor crimes. Many of them were soon given pardons and allocated plots for farms. The rest of the settlers were infantrymen with their families, officers and other employees.
The ships found a convenient place for colonization near Botany Bay - Port Jackson Bay, where they founded a settlement in Sydney Cove. The founding date of the colony, 26 January 1788, later became a national holiday, Australia Day. A month later, the governor of the settlement officially announced the creation of a colony, which was called New South Wales. The settlement began to be named after the British Minister of the Interior, Viscount Sydney. This is how the city of Sydney appeared - now the largest and most developed in Australia.
The governor of the colony tried to improve relations with the aborigines, helped convicts reform, and established trade and agriculture. The first years were difficult for the settlers: there was not enough food, the convicts had few professional skills, and new convicts arriving in the colony turned out to be sick and disabled after a long and difficult voyage. But the governor managed to develop the colony, and from 1791 its affairs began to go uphill.
Living conditions for convicts were harsh. They had to do a lot of work to create a colony: build houses and roads, help farmers. They starved and suffered severe punishments. But the pardoned prisoners remained in Australia, received their allotments and could employ convicts themselves. One of these former prisoners grew the first successful wheat crop in 1789. Soon the colony began to provide itself with food.
In 1793, the first free settlers arrived in Sydney (not counting the military guarding the convicts). They were given land free of charge, provided with agricultural equipment for the first time, and given the right to free movement and use of prison labor.
Mainland exploration
After the founding of the colony, exploration of Australia continued. Europeans used the services of local guides, so most trips were successful. In 1813, the Blaxland, Lawson and Wentworth expedition traversed the Blue Mountains ranges west of Sydney and found extensive grazing lands. In 1824, the expedition of Hume and Howell made many important discoveries, discovered the Murray River and its tributaries, and discovered many new pastures.
In 1828, Charles Sturt discovered the Darling River and reached the point where the Murray River flows into the Great Australian Bight. Then a whole series of expeditions followed, filling in the gaps of previous research. European and Australian explorers retained many of the original place names instead of giving them their own. In 1839, Polish explorer Strzelecki climbed Australia's highest peak, Mount Kosciuszko in the Australian Alps.
In 1829, Great Britain claimed the entire western part of Australia. The colony of New South Wales was divided into several, the colonies of Victoria, South Australia, Queensland, Northern Territory, and Swan River appeared. Settlers gradually spread throughout the continent. The major cities of Melbourne and Brisbane were founded at this time.
The Aborigines, under the pressure of European colonists, retreated from the coasts inland. Their numbers were greatly reduced due to diseases brought by the settlers. In the mid-19th century, the entire indigenous population was moved to reservations, many by force.
By 1840, the tradition of sending convicts to Australia began to be forgotten, and after 1868 it was no longer practiced.
Golden fever
In the 1850s, the gold rush began in Australia. The British authorities established licenses for gold mining, which did not please the gold miners. In 1854, prospectors from Ballarat launched what is now known as the Eureka Rebellion. The rebels created the Ballarat Reform League and presented a number of demands to the government: introduce universal suffrage, cancel gold mining licenses, and abolish property restrictions for parliamentary candidates.
The resistance of the gold miners was crushed, they were arrested and put on trial. But the court did not find the rebels guilty. Many of the miners' demands were satisfied: their licenses were canceled and they were given the right to appeal to parliament. The Eureka Rebellion stimulated the development of liberalism in Australia. This event became one of the key events in the history of the country.
In 1855, New South Wales gained the right to self-government, remaining part of the British Empire. Other Australian colonies soon followed. Their governments dealt with internal affairs, while Great Britain continued to be in charge of foreign policy, defense and trade.
The Gold Rush sparked an economic boom in Australia. The next few decades were prosperous for Australians. In the 1890s, the economic situation began to deteriorate, at the same time the labor movement began to grow, new political parties began to emerge, and the Australian colonies began to think about unification.
Commonwealth of Australia
For ten years, the colonies discussed the issue of unification and prepared to create a single country. In 1901, they created the Commonwealth of Australia, a federal state that was a dominion of the British Empire. In the early years, the capital of the Union was the city of Melbourne, but already in 1911, the future capital of Australia, the city of Canberra, began to be built on the specially designated Federal Capital Territory. In 1927, the city was completed and the Union government settled in it.
A little later, the Federation included several territories that had previously been subordinate to Great Britain: the islands of Norfolk, Cartier and Ashmore. It was assumed that New Zealand would join Australia, but it chose to seek independence from Great Britain on its own.
Australia's economy was heavily dependent on exports. The country had to import large quantities of grain and wool. The Great Depression, which began in the United States in 1929, and the subsequent global economic crisis severely affected Australia. The unemployment rate rose to a record 29%.
In 1931, the British Parliament adopted the Statute of Westminster, which established the position of the dominions. According to it, the British dominions received full official independence, but retained the right of the British monarch to hold the post of head of state. Australia only ratified this statute in 1942, becoming effectively independent from Great Britain.
History of Australia after independence
The Second World War boosted Australia's economy. The Australians received a promise of protection from the United States in the event of a Japanese attack, so they took part in hostilities without risk to themselves. After the war, many residents of dilapidated Europe decided to move to Australia. The Australian government encouraged immigration, wanting to increase the country's population and attract talented professionals.
By 1975, two million immigrants had arrived in Australia. Most of them are former residents of Great Britain and Ireland. Thus, most of the Australian population are native speakers of English, which has transformed into the Australian dialect. The state does not have an official language.
In the 70s, the Australian government carried out a number of important reforms, the significance of which remains to this day: free higher education, abolition of compulsory military service, recognition of Aboriginal land rights and others. From a former convict colony, Australia has become a highly developed country with one of the highest levels of immigration.
50 thousand years before its discovery by European sailors. In the arid deserts, tropical jungles and coastal plains of this continent, people with their own rich traditions of culture, religion and original lifestyle have lived for centuries. By the time Australia was discovered by James Cook, the continent's indigenous population numbered over 300 thousand people who spoke 500 languages. And now Australia, whose continent was discovered twice before the world understood its full significance for the global economy and culture, continues to reveal the mysteries of its thousand-year history.
History of discoveries
The discovery of Australia is the result of centuries-long searches by the Portuguese, Dutch and British for the southern country (terra australis incognita). In 2006, archaeologists discovered ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs in Australia, which gave rise to the hypothesis among some scientists that the Egyptians were the first to discover this continent 5,000 years ago.
If we take recent history, scientists agree that the year of discovery of Australia is 1606. It was in this year that the Dutchman V. Janszoon studied the northeastern part of Australia - the Cape York Peninsula.
But the history of the discovery of Australia is filled with numerous mysteries that scientists have yet to solve. Thus, the cannons found by archaeologists give reason to some researchers to believe that back in the 16th century. The Portuguese visited Australia, but there is no evidence of this in documentary sources yet.
Exploring "New Holland"
The entire 17th century is the story of the discovery and exploration of Australia by sea travelers from the Netherlands, who first called it New Holland.
After the aforementioned Janszon, in 1616 D. Hartog described part of the western coast of the continent, in 1623 J. Carstensz compiled a map of the western coast of the York Peninsula, and in 1627 the southern coast of the still unknown continent was explored by F. Theisen and P. Neates.
The main ruler of the Netherlands Indies, Anton Van Diemen, in 1642 sent the famous navigator A. Tasman on an expedition, who discovered the land named after Van Diemen (modern Tasman Island). On January 29, 1644, a new expedition headed by Tasman set sail. The expedition proved that New Holland is a separate continent.
For Holland, the discovery of Australia did not seem worthy of much attention, since it already had convenient naval bases in southern Africa and Java, and the island itself did not grow expensive oriental spices, which were valued on European markets. Nothing also indicated the presence of mineral deposits here; animal species that could have aroused interest among the Europeans of that time had not yet been discovered.
British exploration of the Australian continent
More than half a century passed before English explorers and travelers continued the exploration of the mainland after the Dutch. Thus, the expedition of V. Dampier managed to study the northwestern part of Australia in more detail and discovered previously unknown islands in this area.
And in 1770, the “next” discovery of Australia took place - this time by James Cook.
After Cook, the discovery and exploration of Australia by the British continued: in 1798, D. Bass discovered a strait between the mainland and the island of Tasmania; in 1797 - 1803, M. Flinders walked the continent and drew up a map with more accurate outlines of its southern coast. It was Flinders who came up with the proposal in 1814 to change the name "New Holland" to "Australia", and by the 1840s F. King and D. Wicken completed the study and mapping of the Australian coastline.
The 19th century brought new geographical discoveries to Australia by travelers and researchers from different countries, but within the continent. As a result, the Great Dividing Range with the highest point of the continent, Mount Kosciuszko, appeared on the map of Australia; deserts, endless plains, as well as Darling and Murray are the deepest.
A complete map of the British colony, which was Australia, was compiled by English scientists at the beginning of the twentieth century.
James Cook and his contribution to the study of Australia
James Cook was born in 1728 into a farmer's family from North Yorkshire. But not living up to his father’s hopes, he became a cabin boy at the Freelove coal miner in 1745. James was fascinated by maritime affairs, and he began to independently study astronomy, algebra, geometry and navigation, and his innate abilities contributed to his career growth: already in 1755 he received an offer to take the place of captain on the Friendship ship. But James decided to enlist in the Royal Navy, where he again began serving as an ordinary sailor. Cook quickly rose to the rank of mate, and already in 1757 he passed the exams for the right to control the ship independently.
James Cook
In 1768, Cook set out on an expedition that was supposed to observe the passage of Venus across the solar disk, as well as discover new lands for the British crown. It is believed that in 1770, during this trip around the world on the ship Endeavour, James Cook discovered Australia. Then he was forced to make a stop on a hitherto unknown continent due to the resulting hole. Having repaired the ship, Cook sent it along the Great Barrier Reef, opening a hitherto unknown strait between Australia and New Guinea.
But the discovery of Australia did not stop Cook in search of hitherto unexplored lands. Returning to England in 1771, a few years later he again set sail in search of the Southern continent - the mythical Terra Australis (Antarctica). The conditions of this trip did not allow Cook to reach Antarctica, and upon returning to England he convinced everyone that the Southern Continent simply did not exist.
Of our planet. This continent is located much further from European countries than America, and therefore it was discovered and colonized much later. However, today historians cannot say for sure who was the first to discover. There are several alternative theories that attribute this achievement to different people.
Portuguese exploration of the Indian Ocean
Portugal was a pioneer. In 1488, its sailors were able to reach the eastern tip and were the first in history to sail from the Atlantic to the Indian Ocean. After the expedition of Vasco de Gama (1497-1499), which brought fabulous income to the country, large-scale exploration of the Indian Ocean began. As early as 1512, the Portuguese reached the Moluccas, also known as the “Spice Islands.”
However, Portugal continued to expand its knowledge of the region. In 1522, Cristován de Mendoza went on an expedition, during which he was supposed to find a certain “Island of Gold”. There are no documents left about the results of this expedition, but many historians believe that it was within its framework that the first Europeans visited Australia.
What is this theory based on? In 1916, several cannons were discovered on the shores of Roebuck Bay. Each of them had an image of the Portuguese crown, and they were made, according to scientists, at the beginning of the 16th century.
Another piece of evidence is French maps, the earliest of which dates back to 1530. They depict the mythical Southern Land south of the island of Java. The fact is that for a long time geographers believed that in the very south there was a huge continent that should balance the landmass. The French maps have many entries in Portuguese, which means they were compiled from Portuguese sources. Apparently, they considered Australia to be part of that same southern continent. At the same time, it is unlikely that the French themselves, who at that time were not leaders in navigation, would have independently found Australia before the Portuguese.
The third argument speaking about the priority of the Portuguese is the geography of their voyages. The island of Timor was settled by them in the 16th century, and it is only 500 km from the Australian coast. It is unlikely that the Portuguese could “not notice” the continent located so close to their possessions.
Why was information about the discovery of a new continent not known to other countries? Probably the Portuguese simply classified it. Not only they, but also the Spaniards resorted to this practice in the 16th century. After all, Portugal held a monopoly on trade with the Spice Islands and was interested in ensuring that other states did not find out about the sea routes used by its sailors.
Discovery of Australia by Holland
At the beginning of the 17th century, Dutch traders began to look for a way to circumvent the Portuguese monopoly on the spice trade and therefore began to explore the Indian Ocean. They managed to create a base on the island of Java, from where Willem Janszoon set out to sea in 1605 in search of the southern coast of New Guinea. However, already in 1606, he unexpectedly discovered an uncharted land in the Arafura Sea. It was a peninsula that later received the name Cape York. Having landed here, the Dutch became the first Europeans to officially visit this continent. While exploring the coast of the mainland, they met with local aborigines and entered into battle with them, and also drew up a map of the area. However, at that time the Dutch did not yet know that they had discovered a new continent, but believed that they had discovered the unexplored coast of New Guinea.
Further exploration of Australia involved a sea route known as the Brouwer Route, which was discovered by the Dutch in 1611. It made it possible to get from the Cape of New Hope to the Moluccas in less than six months, while the Portuguese spent a year on this. To follow this route after exiting the Atlantic into the Indian Ocean, it was necessary not to go along the coast of Africa, but to continue sailing east in southern latitudes. They are also called the “Roaring Forties” due to the strong westerly winds. They made it possible to develop high speed, but there was no geographical landmark on this route that would have told the Dutch captains the moment when it was necessary to turn north. As a result, many of them turned too late and ended up off the western coast of Australia.
In 1616, the lost Derk Hartog discovered Shark Bay and explored more than 300 km of the western coast of the Australian continent. The bay got its name because a hungry crew caught a huge tiger shark there, which they ate for dinner. In 1619, Frederic de Houtman explored another 700 km of the Australian coast, and in 1622 and 1627, cartographer Hessel Gerrits released the first maps that reflected the Dutch discoveries. In 1623, Jan Carstens discovered the Arnhem Land peninsula and the Gulf of Carpentaria.
Abel Tasman made a huge contribution to the study of Australia, then called New Holland. In 1642, the leadership of the Dutch East India Company set him the task of sailing as far south as possible to New Holland. During the voyage, Tasman managed to discover Van Dimmen's Land, which would later be called Tasmania. The Dutchman circled it from the south, simultaneously discovering Storm Bay. Abel suggested that the land he discovered was the peninsula of Australia, although in fact Tasmania is an island. Sailing further east, Tasman discovered the two largest islands of New Holland, North and South. Next, the Dutchman turned north, after which he circled New Guinea from the north and returned to the port of departure. Thus, he completely circumnavigated Australia and proved that it was not the mythical Southern Land.
In 1644, Abel Tasman made another voyage, during which he explored 4,700 km of continuous western and northern coasts of Australia. It became clear that all the lands discovered by the Dutch, except Tasmania, form a single continent. In 1696, Willem de Vlaminck explored part of the southwestern coast of Australia, after which the mainland was not visited by Europeans for many decades.
James Cook's expeditions and the colonization of the continent
In 1768, Great Britain organized a voyage around the world, commanded by James Cook. First, the navigator explored the coast of New Zealand, after which he rushed to Tasmania. However, hurricane winds threw him 550 km to the north. As a result, the Briton was the first European to see the eastern coast of Australia. After discovering the coast, he sailed north along it. The greatest danger was posed by the Great Barrier Reef, where the ship Endeavor was holed. As a result, the expedition stayed for 8 weeks in a place that is today called Cooktown. As a result of the expedition, James Cook declared the entire eastern coast of Australia to be British territory and gave it the name New South Wales.
The British government decided that criminals could be sent to open lands. On January 18, 1788, 11 ships brought more than a thousand people to Australia, who made up the population of the first colony on the continent, located on the site of modern Sydney.
In 1797-1799, George Bass explored the southeast coast of Australia and discovered that the coast turned west without connecting to Van Dimmen's Land. He suggested that Van Dimmen's Land was an island rather than a peninsula, and later shared this idea with Matthew Flinders. He, in turn, completely bypassed Tasmania, proving that it was not connected to mainland Australia, after which he assigned it its modern name. During his further voyage, Flinders carefully explored the entire Australian coast, and based on the results of the expedition in 1814, he published a book in which he proposed using the name Australia - South Land - to designate the continent.
Exploring the depths of the continent
After exploring the mainland's coastline, it's time to explore it from land. The first expedition in 1794 explored the mountains in the east of the country. In 1813, the British under the command of Wentworth managed to overcome the Blue Mountains and find the source of the Cox River. At the same time, Evans studied the beds of the Macquarie and Lachlan rivers. Gradually, the British moved further and further into the mainland.
A landmark moment in the exploration of Australia was the expedition of Robert Burke and William Wills, which began in 1860. 19 people set out from Melbourne to the north, and on February 11 they were able to reach the Gulf of Carpentaria. Thus, they crossed the entire continent from south to north. However, on the way back, both Berg and Wilson died.
By the end of the 19th century, the British had almost completely explored the entire continent. The greatest contributions to its study were made by John McKinley, Ernest Giles, and John Forrest.
Legends that somewhere far in the south, beyond the one World Ocean, there must exist a huge land have been known since ancient times. It is to the ancient geographers who called this land “Terra Australis”, that is, “Southern Land”, that Australia owes its modern name. And although their assumptions were largely erroneous, during the era of the Great Geographical Discoveries, many explorers dreamed not only of a route to India, but also of the vast southern continent.
In the 15th century, the Portuguese, under the leadership of Vasco da Gama, discovered the southern route to India and founded their first colonies on the shores of the Indian Ocean. The “maximum task” was completed and many researchers rushed south in search of the continent “Terra Australis”. They managed to discover many islands of Oceania, New Guinea and, most likely, set foot on Australian soil.
There is a version that the Portuguese Cristovan de Mendonça was the first to find Australia in 1522. However, there is no reliable evidence of his discovery.
Who is considered the discoverer?
Today it is an indisputable fact that the true discoverers of Australia were the Dutch in the 17th century. Portugal's dominance in the region at that time came to an end and their place was taken by Holland - one of the most developed and powerful European powers of this period. In 1605, the Dutch citizen Willem Janszoon set sail on the ship "Dyfken" from the port of Bantama on the island of Java. His goal was to explore the southern coast of Guinea, but, as in the case of another traveler, Christopher Columbus, he found absolutely not what he was looking for. The unknown land that the Deifken team stumbled upon while rounding the northern part of Guinea was Australia.
Melbourne is located on the territory that John Batman bought in the 18th century. However, the deal was declared invalid and the city was named Melbourne, and not Batmania, as the owner of the land had planned.
Willem Janszoon, like Columbus, did not realize that he had discovered a huge continent, calling the discovered Australian Cape York Peninsula "New Zealand". The true scale of what was found became known later. Most likely, Willem Janszoon was not the first European to set foot on the land of the “Southern Continent”. However, a large number of direct and indirect evidence of his discovery does not leave historians with the slightest doubt that he should be considered the pioneer of “Terra Australis”.
