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Home > About Australia > Early Explorers
Early Explorers
Although Australia was not discovered by modern man until the early 1600’s, it did exist in late medieval European mythology. "Terra Australis" was thought necessary to balance the weight of the northern landmasses of Europe and Asia. Terra Australis often appeared on early European maps in roughly its correct location, although no discoveries were documented by Europeans until centuries later.
 
The north coast of Australia may have been visited by Macassan traders sailing from modern-day Indonesia, the 1600 –1800 century witnessed the first encounters between European explorers and traders and the Aboriginal people of Australia.
 
The earliest recorded contact between European explorers and Aboriginal people was by the Dutch ship Dwyflken, under Captain Willem Jansz on the western coast of the Cape York Peninsula (Queensland) in 1606. The first European to sail to Tasmania was Dutch explorer Abel Tasman. His first expedition in 1642 was to Australasia, the Indian Ocean, and the South Pacific. His second expedition in 1644 took him to Australia and the South Pacific. William Dampier was a British pirate, explorer and cartographer. Dampier sailed to Australia, New Guinea and south-east Asia charting the coastlines, rivers, and currents for the British Admiralty from 1699-1700.
 
James Cook was a British explorer and astronomer who sailed to Tahiti in order to observe Venus as it passed between the Earth and the Sun (in order to determine the size of the Solar System). In his ship, Endeavor, he landed in Botany Bay (Sydney), the Queensland coast (a town there is now named 1770 after the 2nd Cook landing), and Cooktown (far north Queensland) and during this time mapped many parts of northern Australia. Cook was the first ship's captain to stop the disease scurvy (now known to be caused by a lack of vitamin C) among sailors by providing them with fresh fruits. Matthew Flinders was the first explorer to sail around Australia entirely. An English explorer, naval officer and navigator he mapped much of Australia’s coastline and was one of the first Europeans to realize that Tasmania was an island.
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