European migration

Although a Theory of the Portuguese discovery of Australia in the 1520s exists, it lacks definitive evidence.[72][73][74] The Dutch ship, Duyfken, led by Willem Janszoon, made the first documented European landing in Australia in 1606.[75] That same year, a Spanish expedition sailing in nearby waters and led by Pedro Fernandez de Quiros had landed in the New Hebrides and, believing them to be the fabled southern continent, named the land: "Terra Austral del Espiritu Santo" (Southern Land of the Holy Spirit).[76] Later that year, De Quiros' deputy Luís Vaez de Torres sailed through Australia's Torres Strait and may have sighted Australia's northern coast.[77]

The Dutch, following shipping routes to the Dutch East Indies, or in search of gold, spices or Christian converts proceeded to contribute a great deal to Europe's knowledge of Australia's coast.[78] In 1616, Dirk Hartog, sailing off course, en route from the Cape of Good Hope to Batavia, landed on an island off Shark Bay, West Australia.[78] In 1622–23 the Leeuwin, made the first recorded rounding of the south west corner of the continent, and gave her name to Cape Leeuwin.[79]

In 1627 the south coast of Australia was accidentally discovered by François Thijssen and named 't Land van Pieter Nuyts, in honour of the highest ranking passenger, Pieter Nuyts, extraordinary Councillor of India,[80] In 1628 a squadron of Dutch ships was sent by the Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies Pieter de Carpentier to explore the northern coast. These ships made extensive examinations, particularly in the Gulf of Carpentaria, named in honour of de Carpentier.[79]

Abel Tasman's voyage of 1642 was the first known European expedition to reach Van Diemen's Land (later Tasmania) and New Zealand, and to sight the Fiji. On his second voyage of 1644, he also contributed significantly to the mapping of Australia proper, making observations on the land and people of the north coast below New Guinea.[81]

A map of the world inlaid into the floor of the Burgerzaal ("Burger's Hall") of the new Amsterdam Stadhuis ("Town Hall") in 1655 revealed the extent of Dutch charts of much of Australia's coast[82] Based on the 1648 map by Joan Blaeu, Nova et Accuratissima Terrarum Orbis Tabula,, it incorporated Tasman's discoveries, subsequently reproduced in the map, Archipelagus Orientalis sive Asiaticus published in the Kurfürsten Atlas (Atlas of the Great Elector).[83]

In 1664 the French geographer, Melchisédech Thévenot, published in Relations de Divers Voyages Curieux a map of New Holland.[84] Thévenot divided the continent in two, between Nova Hollandia to the west and Terre Australe to the east.[85] Emanuel Bowen reproduced Thevenot's map in his Complete System of Geography (London, 1747), re-titling it A Complete Map of the Southern Continent and adding three inscriptions promoting the benefits of exploring and colonizing the country. One inscription said:

It is impossible to conceive a Country that promises fairer from its Situation than this of TERRA AUSTRALIS, no longer incognita, as this Map demonstrates, but the Southern Continent Discovered. It lies precisely in the richest climates of the World... and therefore whoever perfectly discovers and settles it will become infalliably possessed of Territories as Rich, as fruitful, and as capable of Improvement, as any that have hitherto been found out, either in the East Indies or the West.

 
Stern and archway of the Batavia, housed in the Western Australian Maritime Museum. In 1629, the ship struck a reef near Beacon Island off the Western Australian coast. A subsequent mutiny and massacre took place among the survivors.
Dutch explorer Abel Tasman with his wife and daughter, the first Europeans to reach Van Diemen's Land (now Tasmania)Bowen's map was re-published in John Campbell's editions of John Harris' Navigantium atque Itinerantium Bibliotheca, or Voyages and Travels (1744–1748, 1764).[86] This book recommended exploration of the east coast of New Holland, with a view to a British colonization, by way of Abel Tasman's route to Van Diemen's Land.[87]

Although various proposals for colonisation were made, notably by Pierre Purry from 1717 to 1744, none was officially attempted.[88] Indigenous Australians were less able to trade with Europeans than were the peoples of India, the East Indies, China, and Japan. The Dutch East India Company concluded that there was "no good to be done there". They turned down Purry's scheme with the comment that, "There is no prospect of use or benefit to the Company in it, but rather very certain and heavy costs".

With the exception of further Dutch visits to the west, however, Australia remained largely unvisited by Europeans until the first British explorations. John Callander put forward a proposal in 1766 for Britain to found a colony of banished convicts in the South Sea or in Terra Australis to enable the mother country to exploit the riches of those regions. He said: "this world must present us with many things entirely new, as hitherto we have had little more knowledge of it, than if it had lain in another planet".[89]

In 1769, Lieutenant James Cook in command of the HMS Endeavour, traveled to Tahiti to observe and record the transit of Venus. Cook also carried secret Admiralty instructions to locate the supposed Southern Continent: "There is reason to imagine that a continent, or land of great extent, may be found to the southward of the track of former navigators."[90] This continent was not found, a disappointment to Alexander Dalrymple and his fellow members of the Royal Society who had urged the Admiralty to undertake this mission.[91] Cook decided to survey the east coast of New Holland, the only major part of that continent that had not been charted by Dutch navigators.[92]

On 19 April 1770, the Endeavour sighted the east coast of Australia and ten days later landed at Botany Bay. Cook charted the coast to its northern extent and, along with the ship's naturalist, Joseph Banks, who subsequently reported favourably on the possibilities of establishing a colony at Botany Bay. Cook formally took possession of the east coast of New Holland on 21/22 August 1770, and noted in his journal that he could "land no more upon this Eastern coast of New Holland, and on the Western side I can make no new discovery the honour of which belongs to the Dutch Navigators and as such they may lay Claim to it as their property [italicised words crossed out in the original] but the Eastern Coast from the Latitude of 38 South down to this place I am confident was never seen or viseted by any European before us and therefore by the same Rule belongs to great Brittan [italicised words crossed out in the original].[93][94]

In 1772, a French expedition led by Louis Aleno de St Aloüarn, became the first Europeans to formally claim sovereignty over the west coast of Australia, but no attempt was made to follow this with colonisation.[95] The ambition of Sweden's King Gustav III to establish a colony for his country at the Swan River in 1786 remained stillborn.[96] It was not until 1788 that economic, technological and political conditions in Great Britain made it possible and worthwhile for that country to make the large effort of sending the First Fleet to New South Wales.[97]