Tell us about the main stages of the opening of Australia. Who discovered Australia: the history of the discovery of the continent
Australia - amazing place on the ground. Its nature is unique. Animals live here that you won't find anywhere else. It is the smallest continent and at the same time a country with one of the leading economies in the world. The state of Australia came into being through the unification of the British colonies into the Commonwealth of Australia in 1901. And after 30 years it gained complete independence in external and internal affairs. Who discovered Australia? More on this later.
Who discovered Australia and in what year?
Australia, although remote, is an attractive place to live. But who was the first to discover this land and move it from the category of legends to reality? All school history textbooks say that the discoverer of the fifth continent is James Cook, the famous navigator and cartographer.
IN mid-18th century century, Captain Cook explored the southern waters of the World Ocean. After unsuccessful attempt to discover Antarctica, the ship Endeavor approached the shores of Australia in 1770. After this, James Cook visited the continent twice more. He proved that New Zealand is an archipelago and does not belong to Antarctica. Then the active development of the new land began.
However, the first explorer of Australia was the Dutchman Willem Janszoon. This happened 165 years before Cook's expedition. In 1605, the ship of the Dutch fleet "Dyfken" set sail from the port of Bantam to the shores of New Guinea.
Without knowing it, Admiral Janszoon landed in northwestern Australia. In total, he mapped 320 km coastline. The explorer decided that this was part of New Guinea, and declared these lands the property of the Netherlands.
Some scientists believe that before the Dutch, the fifth continent was secretly explored by the Portuguese in the early 20s of the 16th century. In 1916, in northwestern Australia, scientists found Portuguese cannons from that era. This theory is also supported by maps that partially depict the shores of the continent south of the island of Java. However, no documents exist about Portuguese expeditions to this region.
Australia: the first people on the mainland
The ancestors of the indigenous population of Australia appeared on the mainland about 70 thousand years ago. This is evidenced by fossils found at the bottom of the dried-up Lake Mungo and in the area of the Swan River.
It is believed that the first people arrived by sea when New Guinea adjacent to the continent. It is unknown where they came from. However, archaeologists believe that at least three different nationalities settled on the mainland at that time.
East of the city of Darwin is National Park Cockatoo. Here you can see the oldest rock art. Ancient drawings are at least 30 thousand years old. Images of beetles resembling scarabs have also been found in Australia.
In this regard, some scientists think that the Egyptians visited the mainland during the era of the pharaohs. Presumably they came this way for the sake of eucalyptus leaves. They were used to make embalming oil.
Today, to visit Australia, you need to do long haul. Even by plane, a flight with transfers will take 15–20 hours. It is difficult to imagine what kind of tests the discoverers of the fifth continent were subjected to. One can only envy their courage and ambitions. They went down in history, and we expanded our knowledge about the world. Would you like to visit Australia?
Ancient world
Once upon a time, more than 100 million years ago, Australia was part of one of two continents on Earth. Then, breaking away and moving towards the equator, it became an independent continent. The indigenous people of Papua New Guinea migrated to the Australian continent about 60 thousand years ago and founded settlements in various parts of it. The number of Aborigines before the arrival of Europeans in Australia ranged from 300 thousand to a million people, numbering 500 different cultural groups speaking 250 different languages.
Discovery of Australia by Europeans
In the 17th century, Dutch explorers landed on the northern and eastern coasts of Australia and discovered the island of Tasmania. William Dampier was the first Briton to land on the northwestern part of the Australian continent in 1688.
How the Aborigines ate Cook
In 1770, James Cook discovered and charted the east coast of Australia. Cook named the land he discovered New South Wales and declared it the property of Great Britain. The curious story that the Australian aborigines allegedly ate Cook is a poetic fiction. In fact, Captain James Cook died in a battle with the inhabitants of the Hawaiian Islands on February 14, 1779, where a statue and memorial were erected to him (Waimia, Kauai, Hawaiian Islands).
Australia Day
Captain Arthur Phillip, commander of a flotilla of 11 ships carrying the first batch of prisoners, guards and officials, landed on Australian soil on January 18, 1788 at Botany Bay. After 8 days, this group of 1,373 people, including 732 prisoners, moved several kilometers north and founded a settlement, which later grew to the size of a city and was named Sydney. That is why Australia Day is celebrated on January 26th.
Settlement of Australia
European settlement of Australia began in 1788, when the first British convict colony was founded. Over the next century, settlements were established in what are now Hobart, Brisbane, Perth and Melbourne. Over the next 80 years, Britain sent 160,000 prisoners to Australia. In addition, between 1852 and 1889, about 40 thousand Chinese arrived in Australia in search of gold.
Unification of the colonies
By the end of the 19th century, Australia consisted of 6 independent colonies: New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania, Queensland, South Australia and Western Australia. Each of the colonies was an autonomous political unit with its own parliament, governor, and its own laws and rules. In the end, it was decided to unite the colonies for the purpose of protecting and promoting common interests. The first national government was created on January 1, 1901.
Immigration
After the Second World War, huge numbers of people who had lost their homes in their own countries immigrated to Australia. The total number of migrants was 5.9 million, allowing Australia to overcome problems associated with shortages work force. The arrival of migrants from more than 200 countries has fundamentally changed every aspect of Australian society, making Australia the most diverse country in the world.
Today Australia is a country that everyone dreams of going to to see a distant and amazing land, still inhabited by aborigines who have never been touched by civilization, fantasy world fauna and flora, which is not found anywhere else, a country in which everything is the other way around - winter in summer, and summer in winter. And even the moon on the left.
Study and education in Australia
Our company, having many years of experience in cooperation with many universities and colleges in Australia, offers you assistance in choosing an educational institution to study in Australia. Education in Australia is one of the best in the world. High ratings of senior educational institutions The Australian and International Diploma provides students with the opportunity to obtain high-quality education and employment both in Australia and around the world. Use the section to search and select scientific institutions and training programs.
The discoverer's laurels go to Christavas Mendonca. No details of the voyage have been preserved, but in a city in western Australia, on the shores of Roebuck Bay (18° S), caronades were found - small bronze cannons with a Portuguese crown, cast no later than the beginning of the 16th century. The Portuguese plotted the sections of the coast they discovered on their secret maps, which have partially reached us. On french map Dauphin (about the city), apparently compiled from Portuguese sources, shows a part of the coast south of Java called Greater Java, as part Great Australian Land, which, according to the scientists of that time, surrounded the entire South Pole globe. Among the clearly French inscriptions there are also Portuguese ones. The same Great Java is depicted on a series of maps compiled in - years, definitely based on Portuguese materials, by cartographers from Dieppe. Apparently, Portuguese ships before the city sometimes approached the northern and northeastern coasts of Australia. Probably, these were, although multiple, but still random voyages.
Dutch discoveries
First map of Australia
The unfortunate outcome of the expeditions of Kennedy and Leichhardt suspended the exploration of the country for many years. Only in 1855 Gregory went with two ships to the northern coast, west of Arnhemsland, to explore the Victoria River flowing into the sea there. Following the course of this river, Gregory turned southwest, but returned, being stopped by an almost impassable desert. Soon after this he again undertook a journey westward to find, if possible, traces of Leichhardt, and returned to Adelaide without achieving his goal. At the same time, it was decided to carry out an immediate exploration of the area of salt lakes lying north of Spencer Gulf. In this study we had great services Harris, Miller, Dullon, Warburton, Swinden Campbell and many others. John McDuel Stewart made three trips to the region of the salt lakes and drew up a plan for an expedition across the entire continent, in the direction from south to north. In 1860, he walked to the middle of the mainland and planted the English banner on the mountain of the Stuart Bluff ridge, which is 1000 m in height. In June, due to the hostile attitude of the natives, he was forced to abandon his enterprise. On January 1, 1861, he renewed his attempt to cross the mainland from south to north and penetrated 1.5° further inland than the first time; but in July he had to return without achieving his intended goal. The third attempt was made by him in November of the same year and was crowned with success: on July 24, 1862, Stuart hoisted the English banner on the northern shore of Arnghamsland and returned almost dying to his compatriots.
In order to cross Central Australia from south to north, on August 20, 1860, an expedition set out from Adelaide under the command of Robert O'Hara Burke, accompanied by astronomer William Wills, consisting of about 30 people, with 25 camels, 25 horses, etc. The travelers were divided into two groups, of which the second was supposed to back up the main one. Burke, Wheels, King and Gray reached the marshy shore of the Gulf of Carpentaria in February 1861, but were unable to reach the sea coast. In April, Gray died; the rest reached the camp of the second party on April 21, but found it abandoned. It turned out that the support group, having waited much longer than the agreed time, left the camp on April 20. There was no longer any strength to catch up with those who had left. Burke and Wheels died from exhaustion. Only King survived, who in September 1861 was found in a native camp by an expedition sent from Melbourne; he was as thin as a skeleton. Two expeditions, later sent to find Burke, managed to successfully cross the mainland. On the initiative of the Melbourne botanist Miller, the ladies' committee in the colony of Victoria in 1865 gathered cash on a new journey, the immediate goal of which was to clarify the fate of the missing Leichhardt expedition. Duncan Max Inteer, who saw traces of the said expedition in the upper reaches of the Flinder River in 1864, became the head of the new enterprise and set off in July 1865; but such a terrible drought prevailed within the country that half of the total number of participants had to be sent back to the colony. Soon Max Intir died of a malignant fever, and the same fate befell his companion Sloman. W. Barnett, who after them took command of the expedition, returned to Sydney in 1867 without collecting any new information about Leichhardt. In 1866, an expedition was sent for the same search from the colony of Western Australia, which managed to learn from the natives in one area (at 81° S and 122° E) that several years before they had been killed in 13 days on the way from there to the north, on the dry bottom of a lake, two white people with three horses that were with them. This story was repeated in another area. Therefore, in April 1869, an expedition was sent to the mentioned lake, which, although it did not achieve its goal, penetrated further into the interior of the country than all previous expeditions sent from the west. Already since 1824 British government made various attempts to occupy the northern coast of Australia. For 4.5 years it maintained a military post (Fort Dundas) on the western shore of Melville Island, for 2 years another post (Fort Wellington) on the Cobourg Peninsula, and from 1838 to 1849 a garrison at Port Essington. But since the hope for benefits from trade relations between Australia and East Asia did not materialize, these attempts were abandoned. Only after Stuart in 1862 from the colony of South Australia passed through the mainland to the northern shore of Arnhemsland, the Northern Territory was placed under the control of this colony, the latter took up the issue of settling the country.
McKinlay's Expedition
In April 1864, a naval expedition of geometers under the command of Colonel Finnis, who was soon replaced by McKinley, left Port Adelaide to the north. The latter began exploring Arnhemsland in 1866, but the rainy season and floods did not allow him to carry out his intention, and he returned to Adelaide. Then, in February 1867, the South Austrian government sent Captain Cadell to the northern shore, who discovered the significant Blyth River, and in 1868 the chief of surveyors, Goyder, who surveyed an area of 2,700 square meters in the vicinity of Port Darwin. km. Colonization progressed more successfully in northern Queensland, especially towards the Gulf of Carpentaria, since cattle breeding needed new pastures, which private enterprise began to find. At the beginning of the forties, in all of what is now Queensland, only the vicinity of Moretonbay was populated, and then very weakly. Since then, settlements have expanded north to the Gulf of Carpentaria. When subsequently, in 1872, telegraph communication between Australia and Asia and through it with all other countries of the world was established, the exploration of the interior of the Australian continent made enormous progress. Already during the laying of the telegraph wire, small settlements began to appear along its route, from which expeditions were then undertaken to explore the country. So, in 1872, Ernst Gilles, setting off from the Chambers Pillar telegraph station, followed the Finke River to its source, where he discovered an extremely fertile country Glen of Palms. From the telegraph station Alice Springs in 1873 the geometer Gosse went and discovered under -25.35 , 131.233333 25°21′00″ S w. / 131°14′00″ E. d. 25.35° S w. 131.233333° E. d. (G) monolith
Ayres Rock
In 1875-78 Gilles undertook three further journeys into the barren steppes of inland Australia. On behalf of the government of the colony of South Australia, the course of the Herbert River was explored, trigonometric measurements were made, and, in addition, an expedition was undertaken to explore completely unknown areas lying on the seashore. This expedition discovered the large Mubray River, which falls in three waterfalls up to 150 m in height. Sergison discovered excellent arable land near the banks of the Victoria River in November 1877. John Forrest returned in 1879 from a journey he had taken to the completely unknown north-eastern part of the colony of Western Australia, during which he discovered beautiful alluvial plains on the banks of the Fitzroy River. His second voyage led to the discovery in Western Australia of 20 million and in South Australia about 5 million acres of good pasture and arable land, of which a significant part was suitable for farming.
America was discovered by Columbus, and Australia by Captain Cook. Both of these statements have long been disputed many times, but they continue to live in the consciousness of the masses. Long before Captain Cook set foot on the coast of Australia on April 20, 1770, sailors from the Old World had landed here more than once.
According to some historians, the discoverers of Australia are the Portuguese. They claim that an expedition under the command of Cristovão de Mendonça in 1522 visited the north West Coast Australia. It is unknown whether this happened intentionally or accidentally. The details of this voyage are also unknown. The only material evidence that has reached us are small bronze cannons with the image of the Portuguese crown minted on them. They were found in 1916 on the shores of Roebuck Bay (Western Australia) and date back to beginning of the XVI centuries.
2 Willem Janszoon Expedition
The first European to visit Australia is considered to be the Dutchman Willem Janszoon. On November 28, 1605, Captain Janszon set off from Bantam on the ship Dufken to unknown lands. Having bypassed the islands of Kai and Aru from the north, he reached the southern coast of New Guinea, completely unfamiliar to the Dutch. Janszohn called it "Marshy Land" and traced the coastline for 400 kilometers. Having then rounded the island of Kolepom, Janszon turned southeast, crossed the central part of the Arafura Sea and unexpectedly saw the shore. This was Australia. In the western part of the Cape York Peninsula, near the mouth of a small river, in May 1606, the Dutch made the first documented landing of Europeans on the Australian continent.
Janszon steered his ship along the flat deserted shore. Although the unknown land, as the Dutch were convinced, stretched further to the south, on June 6, 1606, at Cape Kerver (“Turn”), the Dufken turned 180º and set off on its way back. During the landing at Albatross Bay, the Dutch first came into contact with the Australian Aborigines. A battle immediately broke out, with several people killed on both sides. Continuing north, the sailors traced and mapped the coast of Cape York Peninsula almost to its northern tip. The total length of the explored coast of Australia, which Janszoon dubbed New Holland, was about 350 kilometers.
3 Expedition of Jan Carstens
The wreck of the English ship Trial, which occurred on May 25, 1622, on the reefs near the islands of Monte Bello and Barrow, showed that the complete lack of exploration of the waters washing the coast of North-Western and Northern Australia poses great dangers. Dutch leadership East India Company decided to explore the ocean south of Java and trace the southern coast of New Guinea. To accomplish this task, the expedition of Jan Carstens set off from Batavia in January 1623 on two ships, the Pera and the Arnhem. For more than a week, Dutch sailors sailed along the southern coast of New Guinea. On the morning of February 16, Carstens saw a high mountain range in the distance - this was the western part of the Maoke Mountains. Five days later, a group of Dutchmen landed on shore to resupply. The local population was very hostile. As a result of the skirmish, 10 sailors were killed, including the captain of the Arnhem.
On March 20, the expedition reached the southwestern tip of New Guinea. The weather worsened and a storm began. On March 28, Carstens sent a navigator on a boat with 12 sailors to explore the shore visible in the distance. They reported that the sea to the east was becoming shallower, and desert land was visible in the distance. Meanwhile, walking along the coast became dangerous: shoals and reefs began to appear more and more often. The Dutch turned to the open sea.
On April 12, land appeared on the horizon again. This was Australia. For two weeks, Carstens' ships sailed south along the western coast of the Cape York Peninsula, landing on land several times - at river mouths and in bays. The natives he met were quite peaceful. The flat and low-lying coast of North-West Australia was described by Carstens in his report as “the most barren on Earth”. The Dutch couldn't even find enough fresh water here. In addition, the expedition's flagship, Pera, was damaged. Carstens instructed Kolster, the captain of the Arnhem, to complete the exploration of the coast, and he himself turned north and safely reached the Moluccas. Kolster, moving south, managed to reach the Gulf of Carpentaria. Taking advantage of the favorable southeast monsoon, he turned northwest from here and, following this course, discovered a large peninsula, later named the Arnhemland Peninsula after his ship.
4 Abel Tasman Expeditions
By the early 1640s. The Dutch knew and mapped the following parts of Australia: in the north - the western coast of the Cape York Peninsula, the Arnhem Land ledge, the entire western coast of the mainland and the western part of its southern coast. However, there was still no clarity as to what this mysterious land: a separate continent or a giant protrusion of the as yet undiscovered Great Southern Continent? And the pragmatic directors of the East India Company were also worried about another question: what was the potential benefit of these newly discovered lands? What are their commercial prospects? The expedition of the Dutch navigator Abel Tasman, which set out from Batavia in 1642 on two small ships “Heemskerk” and “Zehan”, was supposed to answer these questions. Tasman did not encounter any continent and only on November 24, from the board of the Zehan, they saw a high coast called Van Diemen's Land (now Tasmania). Tasman was never sure whether it was an island or the southern tip of Australia, and Van Diemen's Land was considered a peninsula for more than a century and a half until Bass Strait was passed. Traveling further to the southeast, Tasman discovered New Zealand, and with this the expedition was practically completed, leaving a mass unresolved problems.
In 1645, the governor of Batavia, Van Diemen, sent Tasman on a new expedition to the shores of Australia. Tasman's three ships surveyed the southern coast of New Guinea for 750 kilometers and completed the discovery of the Gulf of Carpentaria, bypassing its eastern and, for the first time, southern and western shores. Experienced sailors, the Dutch never noticed the entrance to the Torres Strait. In total, the expedition explored and mapped about 5.5 thousand kilometers of coastline and established that all the lands previously discovered by the Dutch were parts of a single continent - New Holland. However, Tasman did not find anything worthy of attention from the point of view of commerce on this continent, and after 1644 the Dutch completely lost interest in the Green Continent.
5 James Cook Expedition
In 1768, James Cook set out on his first circumnavigation. In April 1770, Cook approached the eastern coast of Australia. On the shore of the bay, in the waters of which the ship Endeavor stopped, the expedition managed to find many previously unknown plant species, so Cook called this bay Botanical. From Botany Bay, Cook headed northwest along the east coast of Australia.
A few kilometers north of Botany Bay, James Cook discovered a wide natural passage into a huge natural harbor - Port Jackson. In his report, the researcher described it as perfect place for the safe anchorage of many ships. Many years later, the first Australian city, Sydney, was founded here. It took Cook the next four months to climb up to the Gulf of Carpentaria, to an area called New Holland. The navigator compiled detailed map coastline of future Australia.
Having not quite happily passed the Great Barrier Reef, the Endeavor finally reached the northern tip of Australia. On August 22, 1770, James Cook, on behalf of King George III, solemnly proclaimed the land he had explored as the possession of Great Britain and named it New South Wales.
