History of Australia before 1788
Encyclopedia
The first definite sighting of Australia by European explorers was in 1606. This date marks the beginning of the written history of Australia.
The documentation of Aboriginal
history is challenging, because Aboriginal people lived in an oral
culture prior to 1827. Although humans had lived in Australia for approximately 40-45,000 years (possibly more) before 1606, this time is regarded as belonging to the prehistory of Australia
rather than history because of this lack of written documentation.
of Australia by a European was made in early 1606. The Dutch
vessel Duyfken
, captained by Willem Janszoon
, followed the coast of New Guinea
, missed Torres Strait
, and explored perhaps 350 km of western side of Cape York
, in the Gulf of Carpentaria
, believing the land was still part of New Guinea. The Dutch made one landing, but were promptly attacked by Aborigines and subsequently abandoned further exploration.
The French navigator Binot Paulmier de Gonneville
claimed to have landed at a land east of the Cape of Good Hope
in 1504, after being blown off course. For some time it had been thought he discovered Australia, but the place he landed has now been shown to be Brazil
.
A Spanish expedition commanded by Luis Váez de Torres charted the southern coast of Papua, and possibly sighted Cape York in late 1606.
in the 1520s.
A number of relics and remains have been interpreted as evidence that the Portuguese reached Australia. The primary evidence advanced to support this theory is a series of French world maps, the Dieppe maps
, that may, in part, be based on Portuguese charts. However most historians do not accept this theory, and the interpretation of the Dieppe maps is highly contentious.
The discovery that sailing east from the Cape of Good Hope
until land was sighted, and then sailing north along the west coast of Australia was a much quicker route than around the coast of the Indian Ocean made Dutch landfalls on the west coast inevitable. Most of these landfalls were unplanned. The first such landfall was in 1616, when Dirk Hartog
landed on what is now called Dirk Hartog Island
, off the coast of Western Australia, and left behind an inscription on a pewter
plate. (This plate may now be seen in the Rijksmuseum
in Amsterdam
.)
Further voyages by Dutch ships explored the north coast of Australia between 1623 and 1636, giving Arnhem Land
its present-day name. The most famous and bloodiest landfalls were those associated with the mutiny and murder that followed the wreck of the Batavia
off Western Australia in 1629. In 1642, Abel Tasman
sailed from Mauritius and on 24 November, sighted Tasmania
, before discovering New Zealand, Fiji
and visiting Papua New Guinea
en route to Batavia (now Jakarta
). He named Tasmania Van Diemen's Land
, after Anthony van Diemen
, the Dutch East India Company
's Governor General at Batavia, who had commissioned his voyage.
Tasman claimed Van Diemen's Land for the Netherlands. In 1644 he made a second voyage, on which he mapped the north coast of Australia from Cape York
westward. Other notable Dutch explorers of the Australian coast include François Thijssen
(with Pieter Nuyts
on board) who discovered much of the south coast in 1627 and Willem de Vlamingh
who mapped the west coast in 1696-1697.
William Dampier
, a former pirate, was the first Englishman to see Australia. He explored the north-west coast of Australia in 1688, in the Cygnet, a small trading vessel. He made another voyage in 1699, before returning to England. He described some of the flora and fauna of Australia, and was the first European to report Australia's peculiar large hopping animals
.
Lieutenant James Cook
was the first European to explore the more habitable east coast. Cook had been sent to chart the transit of Venus
from Tahiti
, but he also charted much of the Australian and New Zealand coastlines. He reached New Zealand in October 1769, and mapped its coast. On 19 April 1770, the crew of the Endeavour sighted the east coast of Australia and ten days later landed in a bay now located in Sydney's southern suburbs.
The ship's naturalist, Sir Joseph Banks
, was so impressed by the volume of flora and fauna hitherto unknown to European science, that Cook named the inlet Botany Bay
. Of the "Natives of New Holland" (Aboriginal Australians) he encountered on his voyage, Cook wrote in his journal on 23 August 1770: "these people may truly be said to be in the pure state of nature, and may appear to some to be the most wretched upon the earth; but in reality they are far happier than ... we Europeans".
Cook charted the East coast to its northern extent and, on 22 August, at Possession Island in the Torres Strait
, Cook wrote in his journal: "I now once more hoisted English Coulers [sic] and in the Name of His Majesty King George the Third
, took possession of the whole Eastern Coast from the above Latitude 38°S
down to this place by the name of New South Wales
." Cook and Banks, then reported favourably to London on the possibilities of establishing a British colony at Botany Bay.
Britain thereby became the first European power to officially claim any area on the Australian mainland. "New South Wales", as defined by Cook's proclamation, covered most of eastern Australia, from 38°S 145°E (near the later site of Mordialloc, Victoria
), to the tip of Cape York
, with an unspecified western boundary. By implication, the proclamation excluded: Van Diemen's Land
(later Tasmania), which had been claimed for the Netherlands
by Abel Tasman
in 1642; a small part of the mainland south of 38° (later southern Victoria) and; the west coast of the continent (later Western Australia
), which Louis de Saint Aloüarn
officially claimed for France
in 1772 — even though it had been mapped previously by Dutch mariners.
The German scientist and man of letters Georg Forster
, who had sailed under Captain James Cook in the voyage of the Resolution (1772–1775), wrote in 1786 on the future prospects of the English colony: "New Holland, an island of enormous extent or it might be said, a third continent, is the future homeland of a new civilized society which, however mean its beginning may seem to be, nevertheless promises within a short time to become very important."
In 1779 Sir Joseph Banks, the eminent scientist who had accompanied Cook, recommended Botany Bay
as a suitable site. Banks accepted an offer of assistance made by the American Loyalist
James Matra in July 1783. Matra had visited Botany Bay with Banks in 1770 as a junior officer on the Endeavour commanded by James Cook. Under Banks’s guidance, he rapidly produced "A Proposal for Establishing a Settlement in New South Wales" (23 August 1783), with a fully developed set of reasons for a colony composed of American Loyalists, Chinese and South Sea Islanders (but not convicts).
, who was responsible for filling in the gaps in the map left by other explorers. In 1796 (after settlement), with George Bass
, he took a 2.5 metre long open boat, the Tom Thumb, and explored some of the coastline south of Sydney. He suspected from this voyage that Tasmania was an island, and in 1798 Bass and he led an expedition to circumnavigate
it and hence prove his theory. The sea between mainland Australia and Tasmania was named Bass Strait
. One of the two major islands in Bass Strait was named Flinders Island
.
Flinders returned to his homeland of England, but was soon sent back to Sydney with a much more ambitious task—to circumnavigate Australia. He did this in 1802-03, sailing first along the south coast to Sydney, then completing the circumnavigation back to Sydney. At the same time of Flinders' expedition, the Australian coast was also mapped by Frenchman Nicolas Baudin
.
The documentation of Aboriginal
Australian Aborigines
Australian Aborigines , also called Aboriginal Australians, from the latin ab originem , are people who are indigenous to most of the Australian continentthat is, to mainland Australia and the island of Tasmania...
history is challenging, because Aboriginal people lived in an oral
Orality
Orality is thought and verbal expression in societies where the technologies of literacy are unfamiliar to most of the population. The study of orality is closely allied to the study of oral tradition...
culture prior to 1827. Although humans had lived in Australia for approximately 40-45,000 years (possibly more) before 1606, this time is regarded as belonging to the prehistory of Australia
Prehistory of Australia
The prehistory of Australia is the period between the first human habitation of the Australian continent and the first definitive sighting of Australia by Europeans in 1606, which may be taken as the beginning of the recent history of Australia...
rather than history because of this lack of written documentation.
First European discovery
The first undisputed sightingJanszoon voyage of 1606
Willem Janszoon made the first recorded European landing on the Australian continent in 1606, sailing from Bantam, Java in the Duyfken. As an employee of the Dutch East India Company, Janszoon had been instructed to explore the coast of New Guinea in search of economic opportunities...
of Australia by a European was made in early 1606. The Dutch
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
vessel Duyfken
Duyfken
Duyfken was a small Dutch ship built in the Netherlands. She was a fast, lightly armed ship probably intended for shallow water, small valuable cargoes, bringing messages, sending provisions, or privateering...
, captained by Willem Janszoon
Willem Janszoon
Willem Janszoon , Dutch navigator and colonial governor, is probably the first European known to have seen the coast of Australia. His name is sometimes abbreviated to Willem Jansz....
, followed the coast of New Guinea
New Guinea
New Guinea is the world's second largest island, after Greenland, covering a land area of 786,000 km2. Located in the southwest Pacific Ocean, it lies geographically to the east of the Malay Archipelago, with which it is sometimes included as part of a greater Indo-Australian Archipelago...
, missed Torres Strait
Torres Strait
The Torres Strait is a body of water which lies between Australia and the Melanesian island of New Guinea. It is approximately wide at its narrowest extent. To the south is Cape York Peninsula, the northernmost continental extremity of the Australian state of Queensland...
, and explored perhaps 350 km of western side of Cape York
Cape York Peninsula
Cape York Peninsula is a large remote peninsula located in Far North Queensland at the tip of the state of Queensland, Australia, the largest unspoilt wilderness in northern Australia and one of the last remaining wilderness areas on Earth...
, in the Gulf of Carpentaria
Gulf of Carpentaria
The Gulf of Carpentaria is a large, shallow sea enclosed on three sides by northern Australia and bounded on the north by the Arafura Sea...
, believing the land was still part of New Guinea. The Dutch made one landing, but were promptly attacked by Aborigines and subsequently abandoned further exploration.
The French navigator Binot Paulmier de Gonneville
Binot Paulmier de Gonneville
Binot Paulmier, sieur de Gonneville, French navigator of the early 16th century, was widely believed in 17th and 18th century France to have been the true discoverer of the Terra Australis...
claimed to have landed at a land east of the Cape of Good Hope
Cape of Good Hope
The Cape of Good Hope is a rocky headland on the Atlantic coast of the Cape Peninsula, South Africa.There is a misconception that the Cape of Good Hope is the southern tip of Africa, because it was once believed to be the dividing point between the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. In fact, the...
in 1504, after being blown off course. For some time it had been thought he discovered Australia, but the place he landed has now been shown to be Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
.
A Spanish expedition commanded by Luis Váez de Torres charted the southern coast of Papua, and possibly sighted Cape York in late 1606.
Theory of Portuguese discovery
Some writers have advanced the theory that the Portuguese were the first Europeans to sight AustraliaTheory of Portuguese discovery of Australia
Although most historians hold that the European discovery of Australia began in 1606 with the voyage of the Dutch navigator Willem Janszoon on board the Duyfken, a theory exists that a Portuguese expedition arrived in Australia between 1521 and 1524...
in the 1520s.
A number of relics and remains have been interpreted as evidence that the Portuguese reached Australia. The primary evidence advanced to support this theory is a series of French world maps, the Dieppe maps
Dieppe maps
The Dieppe maps are a series of world maps produced in Dieppe, France, in the 1540s, 1550s and 1560s. They are large hand-produced maps, commissioned for wealthy and royal patrons, including Henry II of France and Henry VIII of England...
, that may, in part, be based on Portuguese charts. However most historians do not accept this theory, and the interpretation of the Dieppe maps is highly contentious.
Further Dutch sightings
Cape of Good Hope
The Cape of Good Hope is a rocky headland on the Atlantic coast of the Cape Peninsula, South Africa.There is a misconception that the Cape of Good Hope is the southern tip of Africa, because it was once believed to be the dividing point between the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. In fact, the...
until land was sighted, and then sailing north along the west coast of Australia was a much quicker route than around the coast of the Indian Ocean made Dutch landfalls on the west coast inevitable. Most of these landfalls were unplanned. The first such landfall was in 1616, when Dirk Hartog
Dirk Hartog
Dirk Hartog was a 17th century Dutch sailor and explorer. Dirk Hartog's expedition was the third European group to land on Australian soil. He was the first to leave behind an artifact to record his visit, the Hartog plate. His name is sometimes alternatively spelled Dirck Hartog or Dierick...
landed on what is now called Dirk Hartog Island
Dirk Hartog Island
Dirk Hartog Island is an island off the Gascoyne coast of Western Australia, within the Shark Bay World Heritage Area. It is about 80 kilometres long and between 3 and 15 kilometres wide and is Western Australia's largest and most western island. It covers an area of 620 square kilometres and is...
, off the coast of Western Australia, and left behind an inscription on a pewter
Pewter
Pewter is a malleable metal alloy, traditionally 85–99% tin, with the remainder consisting of copper, antimony, bismuth and lead. Copper and antimony act as hardeners while lead is common in the lower grades of pewter, which have a bluish tint. It has a low melting point, around 170–230 °C ,...
plate. (This plate may now be seen in the Rijksmuseum
Rijksmuseum
The Rijksmuseum Amsterdam or simply Rijksmuseum is a Dutch national museum in Amsterdam, located on the Museumplein. The museum is dedicated to arts, crafts, and history. It has a large collection of paintings from the Dutch Golden Age and a substantial collection of Asian art...
in Amsterdam
Amsterdam
Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...
.)
Further voyages by Dutch ships explored the north coast of Australia between 1623 and 1636, giving Arnhem Land
Arnhem Land
The Arnhem Land Region is one of the five regions of the Northern Territory of Australia. It is located in the north-eastern corner of the territory and is around 500 km from the territory capital Darwin. The region has an area of 97,000 km² which also covers the area of Kakadu National...
its present-day name. The most famous and bloodiest landfalls were those associated with the mutiny and murder that followed the wreck of the Batavia
Batavia (ship)
Batavia was a ship of the Dutch East India Company . It was built in Amsterdam in 1628, and armed with 24 cast iron cannons and a number of bronze guns. Batavia was shipwrecked on her maiden voyage, and was made famous by the subsequent mutiny and massacre that took place among the survivors...
off Western Australia in 1629. In 1642, Abel Tasman
Abel Tasman
Abel Janszoon Tasman was a Dutch seafarer, explorer, and merchant, best known for his voyages of 1642 and 1644 in the service of the VOC . His was the first known European expedition to reach the islands of Van Diemen's Land and New Zealand and to sight the Fiji islands...
sailed from Mauritius and on 24 November, sighted Tasmania
Tasmania
Tasmania is an Australian island and state. It is south of the continent, separated by Bass Strait. The state includes the island of Tasmania—the 26th largest island in the world—and the surrounding islands. The state has a population of 507,626 , of whom almost half reside in the greater Hobart...
, before discovering New Zealand, Fiji
Fiji
Fiji , officially the Republic of Fiji , is an island nation in Melanesia in the South Pacific Ocean about northeast of New Zealand's North Island...
and visiting Papua New Guinea
Papua New Guinea
Papua New Guinea , officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is a country in Oceania, occupying the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and numerous offshore islands...
en route to Batavia (now Jakarta
Jakarta
Jakarta is the capital and largest city of Indonesia. Officially known as the Special Capital Territory of Jakarta, it is located on the northwest coast of Java, has an area of , and a population of 9,580,000. Jakarta is the country's economic, cultural and political centre...
). He named Tasmania Van Diemen's Land
Van Diemen's Land
Van Diemen's Land was the original name used by most Europeans for the island of Tasmania, now part of Australia. The Dutch explorer Abel Tasman was the first European to land on the shores of Tasmania...
, after Anthony van Diemen
Anthony van Diemen
Anthony van Diemen , Dutch colonial governor, was born in Culemborg in the Netherlands, the son of Meeus Anthonisz van Diemen and Christina Hoevenaar. In 1616 he moved to Amsterdam, in hope of improving his fortune as a merchant; in this he failed and was declared bankrupt...
, the Dutch East India Company
Dutch East India Company
The Dutch East India Company was a chartered company established in 1602, when the States-General of the Netherlands granted it a 21-year monopoly to carry out colonial activities in Asia...
's Governor General at Batavia, who had commissioned his voyage.
Tasman claimed Van Diemen's Land for the Netherlands. In 1644 he made a second voyage, on which he mapped the north coast of Australia from Cape York
Cape York Peninsula
Cape York Peninsula is a large remote peninsula located in Far North Queensland at the tip of the state of Queensland, Australia, the largest unspoilt wilderness in northern Australia and one of the last remaining wilderness areas on Earth...
westward. Other notable Dutch explorers of the Australian coast include François Thijssen
François Thijssen
François Thijssen or Frans Thijsz was a Dutch explorer who explored the southern coast of Australia.He was the captain of the ship t Gulden Zeepaerdt when sailing from Cape of Good Hope to Batavia...
(with Pieter Nuyts
Pieter Nuyts
Pieter Nuyts or Nuijts was a Dutch explorer, diplomat, and politician.He was part of a landmark expedition of the Dutch East India Company in 1626–27, which mapped the southern coast of Australia. He became the Dutch ambassador to Japan in 1627, and he was appointed Governor of Formosa in the same...
on board) who discovered much of the south coast in 1627 and Willem de Vlamingh
Willem de Vlamingh
Willem Hesselsz de Vlamingh was a Dutch sea-captain who explored the central west coast of Australia in the late 17th century.- Vlamingh and the VOC :...
who mapped the west coast in 1696-1697.
William Dampier
William Dampier
William Dampier was an English buccaneer, sea captain, author and scientific observer...
, a former pirate, was the first Englishman to see Australia. He explored the north-west coast of Australia in 1688, in the Cygnet, a small trading vessel. He made another voyage in 1699, before returning to England. He described some of the flora and fauna of Australia, and was the first European to report Australia's peculiar large hopping animals
Kangaroo
A kangaroo is a marsupial from the family Macropodidae . In common use the term is used to describe the largest species from this family, especially those of the genus Macropus, Red Kangaroo, Antilopine Kangaroo, Eastern Grey Kangaroo and Western Grey Kangaroo. Kangaroos are endemic to the country...
.
James Cook
James Cook
Captain James Cook, FRS, RN was a British explorer, navigator and cartographer who ultimately rose to the rank of captain in the Royal Navy...
was the first European to explore the more habitable east coast. Cook had been sent to chart the transit of Venus
Transit of Venus
A transit of Venus across the Sun takes place when the planet Venus passes directly between the Sun and Earth, becoming visible against the solar disk. During a transit, Venus can be seen from Earth as a small black disk moving across the face of the Sun...
from Tahiti
Tahiti
Tahiti is the largest island in the Windward group of French Polynesia, located in the archipelago of the Society Islands in the southern Pacific Ocean. It is the economic, cultural and political centre of French Polynesia. The island was formed from volcanic activity and is high and mountainous...
, but he also charted much of the Australian and New Zealand coastlines. He reached New Zealand in October 1769, and mapped its coast. On 19 April 1770, the crew of the Endeavour sighted the east coast of Australia and ten days later landed in a bay now located in Sydney's southern suburbs.
The ship's naturalist, Sir Joseph Banks
Joseph Banks
Sir Joseph Banks, 1st Baronet, GCB, PRS was an English naturalist, botanist and patron of the natural sciences. He took part in Captain James Cook's first great voyage . Banks is credited with the introduction to the Western world of eucalyptus, acacia, mimosa and the genus named after him,...
, was so impressed by the volume of flora and fauna hitherto unknown to European science, that Cook named the inlet Botany Bay
Botany Bay
Botany Bay is a bay in Sydney, New South Wales, a few kilometres south of the Sydney central business district. The Cooks River and the Georges River are the two major tributaries that flow into the bay...
. Of the "Natives of New Holland" (Aboriginal Australians) he encountered on his voyage, Cook wrote in his journal on 23 August 1770: "these people may truly be said to be in the pure state of nature, and may appear to some to be the most wretched upon the earth; but in reality they are far happier than ... we Europeans".
Cook charted the East coast to its northern extent and, on 22 August, at Possession Island in the Torres Strait
Torres Strait
The Torres Strait is a body of water which lies between Australia and the Melanesian island of New Guinea. It is approximately wide at its narrowest extent. To the south is Cape York Peninsula, the northernmost continental extremity of the Australian state of Queensland...
, Cook wrote in his journal: "I now once more hoisted English Coulers [sic] and in the Name of His Majesty King George the Third
George III of the United Kingdom
George III was King of Great Britain and King of Ireland from 25 October 1760 until the union of these two countries on 1 January 1801, after which he was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland until his death...
, took possession of the whole Eastern Coast from the above Latitude 38°S
38th parallel south
The 38th parallel south is a circle of latitude that is 38 degrees south of the Earth's equatorial plane. It crosses the Atlantic Ocean, the Indian Ocean, Australia, New Zealand, the Pacific Ocean, and the southern end of South America, including the Andes Mountains and Patagonia.At this latitude...
down to this place by the name of New South Wales
New South Wales
New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...
." Cook and Banks, then reported favourably to London on the possibilities of establishing a British colony at Botany Bay.
Britain thereby became the first European power to officially claim any area on the Australian mainland. "New South Wales", as defined by Cook's proclamation, covered most of eastern Australia, from 38°S 145°E (near the later site of Mordialloc, Victoria
Mordialloc, Victoria
Mordialloc is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 24 km south-east from Melbourne's central business district. Its Local Government Area is the City of Kingston...
), to the tip of Cape York
Cape York Peninsula
Cape York Peninsula is a large remote peninsula located in Far North Queensland at the tip of the state of Queensland, Australia, the largest unspoilt wilderness in northern Australia and one of the last remaining wilderness areas on Earth...
, with an unspecified western boundary. By implication, the proclamation excluded: Van Diemen's Land
Tasmania
Tasmania is an Australian island and state. It is south of the continent, separated by Bass Strait. The state includes the island of Tasmania—the 26th largest island in the world—and the surrounding islands. The state has a population of 507,626 , of whom almost half reside in the greater Hobart...
(later Tasmania), which had been claimed for the Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
by Abel Tasman
Abel Tasman
Abel Janszoon Tasman was a Dutch seafarer, explorer, and merchant, best known for his voyages of 1642 and 1644 in the service of the VOC . His was the first known European expedition to reach the islands of Van Diemen's Land and New Zealand and to sight the Fiji islands...
in 1642; a small part of the mainland south of 38° (later southern Victoria) and; the west coast of the continent (later Western Australia
Western Australia
Western Australia is a state of Australia, occupying the entire western third of the Australian continent. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Great Australian Bight and Indian Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east and South Australia to the south-east...
), which Louis de Saint Aloüarn
Louis Aleno de St Aloüarn
Louis Francois Marie Aleno de Saint Aloüarn was a notable French naval officer and explorer.St Aloüarn was the first European to make a formal claim of sovereignty — on behalf of France — over the west coast of Australia, which was known at the time as "New Holland"...
officially claimed for France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
in 1772 — even though it had been mapped previously by Dutch mariners.
The German scientist and man of letters Georg Forster
Georg Forster
Johann Georg Adam Forster was a German naturalist, ethnologist, travel writer, journalist, and revolutionary. At an early age, he accompanied his father on several scientific expeditions, including James Cook's second voyage to the Pacific...
, who had sailed under Captain James Cook in the voyage of the Resolution (1772–1775), wrote in 1786 on the future prospects of the English colony: "New Holland, an island of enormous extent or it might be said, a third continent, is the future homeland of a new civilized society which, however mean its beginning may seem to be, nevertheless promises within a short time to become very important."
In 1779 Sir Joseph Banks, the eminent scientist who had accompanied Cook, recommended Botany Bay
Botany Bay
Botany Bay is a bay in Sydney, New South Wales, a few kilometres south of the Sydney central business district. The Cooks River and the Georges River are the two major tributaries that flow into the bay...
as a suitable site. Banks accepted an offer of assistance made by the American Loyalist
Loyalist
In general, a loyalist is someone who maintains loyalty to an established government, political party, or sovereign, especially during war or revolutionary change. In modern English usage, the most common application is to loyalty to the British Crown....
James Matra in July 1783. Matra had visited Botany Bay with Banks in 1770 as a junior officer on the Endeavour commanded by James Cook. Under Banks’s guidance, he rapidly produced "A Proposal for Establishing a Settlement in New South Wales" (23 August 1783), with a fully developed set of reasons for a colony composed of American Loyalists, Chinese and South Sea Islanders (but not convicts).
Bass and Flinders
The last great naval explorer was Matthew FlindersMatthew Flinders
Captain Matthew Flinders RN was one of the most successful navigators and cartographers of his age. In a career that spanned just over twenty years, he sailed with Captain William Bligh, circumnavigated Australia and encouraged the use of that name for the continent, which had previously been...
, who was responsible for filling in the gaps in the map left by other explorers. In 1796 (after settlement), with George Bass
George Bass
George Bass was a British naval surgeon and explorer of Australia.-Early years:He was born on 30 January 1771 at Aswarby, a hamlet near Sleaford, Lincolnshire, the son of a tenant farmer, George Bass, and a local beauty named Sarah Nee Newman. His father died in 1777 when Bass was 6...
, he took a 2.5 metre long open boat, the Tom Thumb, and explored some of the coastline south of Sydney. He suspected from this voyage that Tasmania was an island, and in 1798 Bass and he led an expedition to circumnavigate
Circumnavigation
Circumnavigation – literally, "navigation of a circumference" – refers to travelling all the way around an island, a continent, or the entire planet Earth.- Global circumnavigation :...
it and hence prove his theory. The sea between mainland Australia and Tasmania was named Bass Strait
Bass Strait
Bass Strait is a sea strait separating Tasmania from the south of the Australian mainland, specifically the state of Victoria.-Extent:The International Hydrographic Organization defines the limits of the Bass Strait as follows:...
. One of the two major islands in Bass Strait was named Flinders Island
Flinders Island
Flinders Island may refer to:In Australia:* Flinders Island , in the Furneaux Group, is the largest and best known* Flinders Island * Flinders Island , in the Investigator Group* Flinders Island...
.
Flinders returned to his homeland of England, but was soon sent back to Sydney with a much more ambitious task—to circumnavigate Australia. He did this in 1802-03, sailing first along the south coast to Sydney, then completing the circumnavigation back to Sydney. At the same time of Flinders' expedition, the Australian coast was also mapped by Frenchman Nicolas Baudin
Nicolas Baudin
Nicolas-Thomas Baudin was a French explorer, cartographer, naturalist and hydrographer.Baudin was born a commoner in Saint-Martin-de-Ré on the Île de Ré. At the age of fifteen he joined the merchant navy, and at twenty joined the French East India Company...
.
Further reading
- Bennett, S. (1867). The history of Australian discovery and colonisation. Sydney: Hanson and Bennett.
- Ridpath, J. C. (1899). Ridpath's universal history; an account of the origin, primitive condition, and race development of the greater divisions of mankind, and also of the principal events in the evolution and progress of nations from the beginnings of the civilized life to the close of the nineteenth century. Cincinnati: Jones Brothers Pub.
External links
- The Australian Discovery page at Project Gutenberg of Australia