Analysis of maternal genetic lineages (mitochondrial DNA) shows that Aboriginal people came into Australia around 50,000 years ago.European Discovery and Exploration
1606: Willem Janszoon, in the
Duyfken, captained the first recorded European landing on the Australian continent. Making landfall near the modern town of Weipa and the Pennefather River, they were attacked by the Aboriginal people. Sailing further down the coast, Aboriginal people killed some of the crew.
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| Duyfken replica |
1616: Dirk Hartog (Dutch sailor ) left a pewter plate at Cape Inscription after arriving on the coast of Western Australia in the Eendracht.
1618: Willem Janszoon (Dutch navigator) sailing on Mauritius landed on North West Cap. Aboriginal footprints were seen.
1618: The
Zeewolf under command of Haevick Claeszoon van Hillegom sights North West Cape.
1619: Frederick de Houtman's two ships sailing to Batavia (Indonesia) encountered dangerous coral reefs. Sailed along the Western coast
of Australia en route to Batavia. Called present-day Perth,
d'Edelsland.
1622.: The VOC ship Leeuwin explored the southwest coast of WA and is almost shipwrecked at what is now Cape Leeuwin.
1622: The English ship Trial was wrecked off the northwest coast of WA. The reef was named Tryal Rocks after the ship. The first
recorded shipwreck in Australian waters.
1623: Jan Carstensz led an expedition, with two ships, the Pera and Arnhem, to the southern coast of New Guinea and further afield. They sailed along the south coast of New Guinea, then went south to Cape York Peninsula and the Gulf of Carpentaria. On 14 April 1623, they passed Cape Keerweer. Described Aboriginal people as "poor and miserable looking people". Fought a skirmish with 200 Aboriginal people at the mouth of a small river near Cape Duyfken. Afterwards, sighted the east coast of Arnhem Land.
1626 to 1627:
Gulden Zeepaert, skippered by François Thijssen, sailed along south coast towards Great Australian Bight. The south coast of Australia had been accidentally
encountered by François Thijssen and named 't Land van Pieter Nuyts.
1629: The
Batavia hit Morning Reef, on the Houtman Abrolhos. Francisco Pelsaert sailed a boat to Batavia (Indonesia) for rescue. Three months later, when
he returned, he found that there had been a mutiny
and many survivors had been murdered.
1642: Abel Tasman's voyage was the first known European expedition to reach Van Diemen's Land (later Tasmania).
1656: The ship,
Vergulde Draeck (Gilt Dragon) was shipwrecked en route to Batavia, 107 km (66 mi) north of the Swan River near Ledge Point.
1658: Three Dutch ships searching for
Vergulde Draeck visited the south coast: Waekende Boey under Captain S. Volckertszoon, Elburg under Captain J. Peereboom and Emeloortunder Captain A. Joncke.
The Dutch charted the whole of the western and northern coastlines of Australia and named the island continent "New Holland" during the 17th century.
1681: English navigator John Daniel, aboard,
New London, charted part of the west coast of Australia, including Rottnest Island and the Wallabi Group of Houtman Abrolhos.
1688 and 1699: Englishman William Dampier, looking for the
Tryall in 1688, 66 years after it was wrecked, was the first Englishman to set foot on the Australian mainland. He made notes on the fauna and flora and the Aboriginal peoples.
A Voyage to New Holland (1703, 1709). Read
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| William Dampier portrait, holding his book |
1756: French King Louis XV sent Louis Antoine de Bougainville to look for the Southern land. He visited and surveyed Tahiti, Samoa, the New Hebrides, but due to hostility, avoided the Solomon Islands. He was the first Frenchman to circumnavigate the globe and the first European known to have seen the Great Barrier Reef. Though he did not reach
the mainland.
1768: British Lieutenant James Cook was sent from England to the Pacific Ocean to observe the transit of Venus from Tahiti. Sailing in the HMS
Endeavour, on 20 April 1770, Cook's expedition was the first European expedition to reach the eastern coastline of Australia.
1771: Two French ships, the
Mascarin and the
Marquis de Castries set off to find the hypothetical
Terra Australis Incognita (unknown Southern Land), with commander, Marc-Joseph Marion du Fresne. His ships spent several days in Tasmania. He was
the first European to encounter the Aboriginal Tasmanians.
1772–1775: On James Cook's second voyage he was accompanied by Tobias Furneaux on
Adventure. Furneaux became separated from Cook on the
Resolution. In 1773, Furneaux
explored much of the south and east coasts of Van Diemen's Land, and made the earliest British charts.
The Americans in the Thirteen Colonies formed independent states that defeated the British in the American Revolutionary War (1775–1783), gaining independence.
The loss of England's penal colonies in America and
growing concern over French activity in the Pacific led to the British penal colony of "Botany Bay".
The First Fleet's 11 ships led by Captain Arthur Phillip left England on 13 May 1787.
The First Fleet
arrived at Botany Bay on 20 January 1788.
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| Colour lithograph of the First Fleet entering Port Jackson on January 26 1788, drawn in 1888. Creator: E. Le Bihan |
