Discovery history... Man appeared in Australia 40 thousand years ago. These were the newcomers from South and Southeast Asia, the forerunners of the modern aborigines. Having settled in the eastern part of Australia, people penetrated into Tasmania. The fact that Tasmanians are descendants of ancient Australians is confirmed by recent archaeological finds on Hunter Island in the Bass Strait.

The assumptions about the existence of the mysterious Terra incognita Australis - "Unknown southern land" to the south of the equator were expressed by ancient geographers. The vast area of ​​land in the southern hemisphere was depicted on maps in the 15th century, although its outline was not in any way reminiscent of Australia. The Portuguese had some information concerning the northern shores of Australia as early as the 16th century; they came from the inhabitants of the Malay Islands, who visited the coastal waters of the mainland to catch trepangs. However, until the 17th century, none of the Europeans managed to see Australia with their own eyes.

The discovery of Australia has long been associated with the name of the English navigator James Cook. In fact, the first Europeans who visited the coast of this continent and met here with scattered tribes of aborigines were the Dutch: Willem Janszon in 1605 and Abel Tasman in 1642. Janszon crossed the Torres Strait and sailed along the coast of the Cape York Peninsula, while Tasman discovered the southwestern part of Tasmania, which he considered part of the mainland. And the Spaniard Torres in 1606 sailed by the strait, which separates the island of New Guinea from the mainland.

However, the Spanish and Dutch kept their discoveries secret. James Cook sailed to the east coast of Australia only one hundred and fifty years later, in 1770, and immediately declared it an English possession. A royal "penal colony" was established here for criminals, and later for exiled members of the Chartist movement in England. Representatives of the British authorities who sailed with the “first fleet” to the shores of Australia in 1788 found the city of Sydney, which was later proclaimed the administrative center of the British colony of New South Wales, created in 1824. With the arrival of the “second fleet,” the first free migrants appeared. The development, or rather, the seizure of the mainland, begins, accompanied by the most severe extermination of the indigenous population. The natives were hunted, and bonuses were given for those killed. Often, the colonists organized real raids on the indigenous inhabitants of Australia, killing them without distinction of gender and age, scattered poisonous food, after which people died in terrible agony. Not surprisingly, a hundred years later, most of the indigenous population was exterminated. The remaining aborigines were driven from the land of their ancestors and driven into the interior desert areas. In 1827 England announces the establishment of its sovereignty over the entire continent.

The end of the 18th and the entire 19th century for Australia is a time of geographical discoveries. In 1797, the exploration of the continent's shores began by the talented English hydrographer M. Flinders, whose works are assessed by Australian geographers as highly as Cook's discoveries. He confirmed the existence of the Bass Strait, surveyed the coasts of Tasmania and South Australia, the entire eastern and northern coasts of the mainland, mapped the Great Barrier Reef. Flinders, on the other hand, suggested giving the continent the name "Australia", replacing the previously adopted designation on the maps "New Holland", which was finally supplanted since 1824.

By the 19th century, the contours of the mainland were largely mapped, but the interior remained a blank spot. The first attempt to penetrate deep into Australia was made in 1813 by an expedition of English colonists who discovered a passage through the Blue Mountains and discovered magnificent grazing lands west of the Great Dividing Range. The "land fever" began: a stream of free settlers poured into Australia, seizing vast plots of land, where they organized thousands of sheep breeding farms. Such land grabbing was called “squattering”.

The parties of prospectors moved further and further west, south and north, crossed the Murray and Marrumbidge rivers. In 1840, P. Strzelecki discovered the highest peak of the mainland in the Australian Alps, which he named Mount Kosciuszko in honor of the national hero of Poland.

More than a dozen major expeditions were equipped to explore the Hinterlands of Australia, attempts were made to cross the continent. Significant discoveries in the interior of the continent belong to Charles Sturt, who first discovered the Darling River and the Simpson Desert. D. Mitchell made significant discoveries in the southeast, D. Gray in the west; W. Leichgard passed from the Darling Ridge to the northern coast, but three years later, while trying to cross the continent from east to west, his expedition disappeared in the endless deserts of Central Australia.

For the first time, R. Burke managed to cross the continent from south to north, leading an excellently equipped expedition in 1860-1861. Burke passed from Melbourne to the Gulf of Carpentaria, but on the way back he died along with his companion W. Wils. D. Stewart managed to cross the continent twice, passing through the hottest places of the central deserts.

By the end of the 19th century, the exploration of inner Australia was completed.

At the very beginning of the 19th century, a convict colony was founded in Tasmania, free settlers appeared on the island later, only in the 20s of the 19th century, and at the same time extermination campaigns against the Tasmanian aborigines began. In just a decade, most of the Tasmanians were exterminated. In 1876, the last Tasmanian woman died.

The period of discoveries in Tasmania lasted until 1843. By this time, not only the coasts, but also the central regions were surveyed, work began on a continuous large-scale survey of the territory, and in the 70s large deposits of tin, gold and rare metals were discovered on the island.

The first settlers who arrived in Australia did not find anything similar to the landscapes of England. They did not perceive the beauty of malga (acacia bushes) or the splendor of eucalyptus forests. The colonists did everything to make the landscapes in which they fell, become as similar as possible to the parks and pastures of England.

Until the mid-19th century, the development of Australian territories was slow. The exiles, who arrived with the first ships, brought with them seeds and seedlings of plants, which they began to grow on the poor sandy soils around the first settlement on the site of modern Sydney. Agriculture was slash-and-burn, organic fertilizers were not used, since there were no livestock. During the year, two crops were harvested - wheat and corn, when the harvests fell, the site was abandoned.

Gradually, farmers began to move from the areas of initial development on the southeast coast following pastoralists inland, to the north, to the tropical coast, changing old crops and developing new ones. From 1850 to 1914, Australian farmers developed some of the finest land on the continent. The most fertile soils were almost entirely occupied by wheat, and sugarcane began to be grown further north, on the alluvial plains of the Tropic of Capricorn.

At the same time, cattle breeding began to move into the interior of Australia, first to the relatively watered areas of open woodlands of the southeast, and then to the arid regions of Central Australia.

An important milestone in the development of the country turned out to be the middle of the last century, when gold was found in several places at once - first in the states of Victoria and New Wales, and then in Western Australia. At this time, a stream of immigrants, mainly British and Irish, rushes to Australian soil.

The "gold rush", as well as the spread of extensive sheep breeding over large areas of land, led to the rapid development of the economy, population growth and the administrative formation of the colonies. In the 70s, there were already six separate colonies on the territory of Australia: New South Wales, Tasmania, Western Australia, South Australia, Victoria and Queensland, which fought for self-government. In the period from 1873 to 1883, negotiations were held between the colonies to create a federation, which ended by 1889 with the development of a draft constitution.

Abel Tasman- Dutch navigator, explorer and merchant. He received world recognition for the sea campaigns he led in 1642-1644. The first among the famous European explorers reached the shores of New Zealand, Tonga and Fiji. The data collected during his expeditions helped prove the fact that Australia is a separate continent.

Abel Janszon Tasman was born in 1603 in the village of Luthiegast near Groningen (now the municipality of Grotegast in the province of Groningen) in the Netherlands. The exact date of his birth is unknown. The first documentary mention of him dates back to 1631, when he, already a widow by that time, remarried. As follows from the preserved church record, his wife was illiterate and came from a poor family, which indirectly confirmed the validity of the assumptions of the researchers of his biography about his low social status at that time.

Presumably at the same time, Abel Tasman enters the service of the Dutch East India Company as a simple sailor, but already in the records of 1634 he appears as a skipper (captain) of one of the company's ships. At that time, the main occupation of the company's seamen was servicing the transportation of spices and spices, which were an expensive and valuable product for the European market.

In 1638, Tasman, commanding a ship, sailed to India.

In 1639, Tasman headed one of two ships (together with M. Kwast) equipped by the East India Company to explore the navigation areas in the region of Japan and trade opportunities with the local population. In general, this expedition was not successful and after 6 months spent at sea, the Tasman ship, having lost almost 40 of the 90 crew members, returned to the Dutch fort of Zealand on the island of Formosa (Taiwan). On this voyage, Bonin Island was discovered by him.

In 1640, Tasman again led one of 11 Dutch ships heading for the shores of Japan. This time he spent about three months in the Japanese port of Hirado.

In 1642, Tasman was appointed commander of a detachment of two ships of the East India Company, sent to explore the southern and eastern waters of the Pacific Ocean. According to hypotheses of geographers and navigators of that era, it was these waters that were supposed to wash the shores of the mythical Unknown Southern land, the possible wealth of which was told by several generations. During this voyage, on November 24, 1642, Tasman discovered a large island (Tasmania) off the coast of Australia and named it Van Diemen's land after the governor of the Netherlands East Indies. Having traveled several tens of miles along the coast of the island, Tasman turned to the east and on December 13 saw the outlines of another unfamiliar land. It was the South Island of New Zealand. While staying on this island, the Europeans first met the Maori, the indigenous people of New Zealand. The meeting ended tragically: the Maori attacked the landed Dutchmen, killed several sailors and fled. Frustrated by this incident, Tasman named the place Assassin's Cove (now Golden Bay).

Continuing along the western coast of the island, Northern Tasman reached its tip and turned to the northeast. On January 21, 1643, the expedition reached the Tonga archipelago, discovering several previously unknown islands here. Having replenished supplies of water and food to Tonga, on February 6, Tasman's ships approached the islands of the Fiji archipelago. Further, leaving the south of Fiji, Tasman passed along the northern coast of New Guinea and on June 15, after almost ten months of travel, arrived in Batavia.

In 1643, Tasman led a detachment of three ships from the East India Company, sailing along the western shores of New Guinea and the northern coast of Australia. As a result, much of the coast of northern Australia was mapped for the first time.

From the point of view of the leadership of the East India Company, the sailing of ship detachments under the command of Tasman in 1642-1644 ended in complete failure - new areas of trade were never discovered and new sea passages were not found for navigation. Until the voyages of the British navigator James Cook almost 100 years later, the Europeans did not begin to explore New Zealand, and visits to Australia were sporadic and most often caused by shipwrecks. After the return of the expedition to Batavia, Tasman was awarded the rank of Commander and salary raised, and he himself was appointed a member of the Legal Council of Batavia. In 1647 he was sent as a representative to the king of Siam, and in 1648 he led a detachment of 8 ships that opposed the ships of the Spanish fleet.

Around 1651, Abel Tasman retired and moved on to trade in Batavia.

Relief... Australia is the flattest continent. Most of it is a plain, the edges of which are uplifted, especially in the east. Mountains occupy only 5% of the mainland. The average height of the mainland is 340-350 m above sea level. In the structure of its surface, three areas are clearly expressed: Zakhidno-Australian plateau 400-500 m high, the Central Lowland, where the lowest point of the continent is located in the Lake Eyre region (-12 m below sea level), and the medium-altitude Great Dividing Range in the east with the highest point of the mainland (Mount Kostsyushko, 2228 m).

The geological structure of Australia is the simplest in comparison with other continents. The mainland consists of an ancient Precambrian and a young

Epigertsinskoi platforms, occupying the western and central territory, and a much smaller fold belt of the Lysnoproterozoic and Paleozoic age in the east.

The Australian platform is one of the largest on Earth. A distinctive feature of its structure is the alternation of protrusions of the ancient foundation and depressions. The outcrops of metamorphosed and volcanic rocks of the folded basement form three shields - Zakhidno-Australian, Pivnichno-Australian and Shvdenno-Australian. Within the framework of the first of them, the oldest rocks were found, formed more than 3 billion years ago.

"The eastern part of the mainland from Cape York Peninsula in the north to the island of Tasmania in the south," has the Skhidnoaustralianska fold area.

Geological structures have determined the differences in the forms of the surface of the western and eastern parts of the continent.

The Central Lowland is located in the zone of the meridional trough of the Australian Platform. Here, the relief is dominated by lowlands confined to the areas of the greatest subsidence of the platform basement - the Lake Eyre basin, the Murray basin and the coast of the Carpentaria Gulf.

Mountainous relief types in Australia are almost uncommon. In the southeast, to the Zakhidnoavst-rali plateau, there are low (700 - 900 m) blocky mountains Flinders and Mount Lofty. The flat-topped uplifts are broken by graben, which sink into the water and form Spencer and St. Vincent bays. There are mountains in the center of Australia - McDonnelly and Musgrave,

The mountainous belt of Eastern Australia is formed by the Great Dividing Range and the mountains of Tasmania. These low fold-block mountain structures were formed as a result of Neogene tectonic movements. The eastern slopes of the mountains are steep, the western ones are gentle. A feature of the Great Dividing Range is the displacement of the main watershed from the upper eastern

ridges to flat-topped low-mountain plateaus in the west.

Australia is rich in minerals. The crystalline rocks of the platform basement contain iron, copper, lead-zinc, uranium ores, and gold. Mineral resources of sedimentary origin include deposits of phosphorites, rock salt, coal and brown coal, oil, natural gas. Many deposits lie at shallow depths, so they are mined in an open pit. In terms of reserves of iron ores, non-ferrous metal ores (bauxite, lead, zinc, nickel) and uranium, Australia is one of the first in the world.

Climate. Australia is the driest continent on Earth, with three quarters of its surface lacking moisture. Climatic conditions on the continent are determined by its position near the equator, on both sides of the tropic. It was the hot tropical sun that caused the formation of extended deserts on the continent.

Compared to South Africa and South America, Australia is more "stretched" from west to east south of the equator. With a weakly dissected coastline, this causes constantly high temperatures in the interior regions and gives the right to consider it the hottest part of the land of the southern hemisphere.

The main territory of Australia is located in three climatic zones - from the subequatorial in the north, in the tropical with its main part, in the subtropical in the south, and climatologists attribute the island of Tasmania to the temperate zone.

From December to February (in the summer of the southern hemisphere), the continent warms up strongly, especially its central parts; This is the hottest season of the year. In the area of ​​Alice Springs (center of Australia) and in the adjacent deserts, the average daytime temperatures are about 35-36 degrees, and on some days even above +40. In winter, daytime temperatures here are almost two times lower - about +20 degrees, in the Great Victoria Desert - up to +10 degrees, in some years night frosts are not excluded.

In the interior regions, the inflow of moist air from the north leads to occasional rainfall in summer, which, in general, is not very effective. South of 19-20o S. NS. precipitation falls no more than 300 mm, and semi-deserts and deserts dominate.

On the West Coast - in Perth, the climate is somewhat milder due to the influence of the ocean - in summer there is usually a thirty-degree heat, in winter the air cools down to + 18 ... + 20 degrees during the day and + 6 ... + 8 at night.

In the most inhabited region of Australia - the southeast coast, the Mediterranean type of climate reigns - with hot dry summers and rainy mild winters. So, in Melbourne in summer, on typical January days, the thermometer usually stays around +25 .. + 27 degrees, and in winter it drops to + 10… + 12, at night to +5.

In the coolest part of the country - on the island of Tasmania, a typical British climate reigns - in summer the daytime temperature is + 20 ... + 22, in winter it is a dozen degrees cooler. In winter, there are night frosts, but there is no stable snow cover here - in the entire region, snow falls steadily only on the tops of the mountains.

The material presented in the article is focused on the formation of an idea of ​​who is the discoverer of the continent. The article contains reliable historical information. The information will help you get truthful information about the history of the discovery of Australia by seafarers and travelers.

Who discovered Australia?

Every educated person today knows that the discovery of Australia by James Cook happened when he visited the east coast of the mainland in 1770. However, these lands were known in Europe long before the appearance of the famous English navigator there.

Rice. 1. James Cook.

The progenitors of the indigenous population of the mainland appeared on the continent about 40-60 thousand years ago. This historical segment dates back to ancient archaeological finds that were discovered by scientists in the headwaters of the Swan River at the western end of the mainland.

Rice. 2. Swan River.

It is known that people ended up on the continent thanks to sea routes. This fact also indicates that it was these pioneers who became the earliest sea travelers. It is believed that at that time at least three heterogeneous groups settled in Australia.

Pioneers of Australia

There is an assumption that the ancient Egyptians became the discoverers of Australia.

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It is known from history that Australia was discovered several times by different people:

• the Egyptians;
• Dutch Admiral Willem Janszon;
• James Cook.

The latter is recognized as the official discoverer of the continent for humanity. All these versions are still controversial and controversial. There is no unequivocal point of view on this issue.

In the studies that were carried out on the territory of the Australian mainland, images of insects were found that outwardly resemble scarabs. And during archaeological research in Egypt, researchers discovered mummies that were embalmed with eucalyptus oil.

Despite such clear evidence, many historians express reasonable doubts about this version, since the continent became famous in Europe much later.

Attempts to discover Australia were made by the world's seafarers back in the 16th century. Many Australian researchers suggest that the Portuguese were the first Europeans to set foot on the continent.

It is known that in 1509 sailors from Portugal visited the Moluccas, after which they moved to the northwest of the mainland in 1522.

At the beginning of the 20th century, ship guns were found in this area, which were created in the 16th century.

The unofficial version of the discovery of Australia is recognized as the one that says that the Dutch admiral Willem Janszon is considered the discoverer of the mainland. He could not understand that he had become the discoverer of new lands, because he considered that he had approached the lands of New Guinea.

Rice. 3. Willem Jansson.

However, the main history of Australian exploration is attributed to James Cook. It was after his travels to unknown lands that the active conquest of the mainland by Europeans began.

It is known for certain that Cook set out on a voyage around the world and ended up in "distant lands." In 1770, his expedition reached the coast of the mainland. Officially, this very date of the opening of Australia is recognized as historically accurate.

What have we learned?

From the historical background, we learned who first visited the lands of the distant continent. The time period has been established when exactly the development of these lands by man took place. The names of the first seafarers are mentioned, who for the first time found themselves near Australia, who did not even suspect that they had made an important geographical discovery.

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What is the history of Australia? Let us briefly consider the events that are associated with its opening. Some researchers suggest that the first Europeans to reach the shores of Australia at the beginning of the seventeenth century were the Portuguese.

What is the history of Australia's discovery and exploration? Briefly, this information is presented in encyclopedias, but they do not contain interesting points that confirm the interest of travelers in this area. Among the evidence that it was the Portuguese who became the pioneers of Australia, the following arguments can be cited:

1. Dieppe's maps, which were published in the middle of the 16th century in France, depict a large area of ​​land between Antarctica and Indonesia, called Java la Grande. All explanations and symbols on the map are in Portuguese and French.
2. At the beginning of the sixteenth century, Portuguese colonies were located in Southeast Asia. For example, the island of Timor, which is located 650 kilometers from the Australian coast, was attributed precisely to Portuguese travelers.

French "trace"

What other interesting facts does the history of the discovery of Australia and Oceania contain? We will also briefly tell that the French navigator Binot Polmier de Gonneville told that it was he who landed on unknown lands near the Cape of Good Hope in 1504. This happened after his ship blew the winds off the intended course. Thanks to this statement, it was this traveler who was credited with the discovery of Australia for a long time. After some time, it was found out that he was on the coast of Brazil.

The discovery of Australia by the Dutch

Let's continue talking about the history of the discovery of Australia and Oceania. Let us briefly dwell on the first indisputable fact, documented in the winter of 1606. The expedition of the Dutch East India Company, headed by Willem Janson, succeeded, together with his comrades, to disembark on the coast from the ship "Golubok". After sailing from the island of Java, they went to the southern part of New Guinea, moving along it, the Dutch expedition managed after a while to reach the shores of the Cape York Peninsula, located in the northern part of Australia. The team members were confident that they were still off the coast of New Guinea.

It is the history of the development of Australia that is briefly discussed in the school course on geography. The expedition did not see which separates the coast of Australia and New Guinea. On February 26, team members landed near where the city of Weipa is currently located. The Dutch were immediately attacked by the natives. Later Janson and his people explored about 350 kilometers of the coast of Australia, sometimes making landings. His crew constantly ran into hostile natives, so several Dutch sailors were killed during fierce battles with the natives. The captain decided to return. He never realized that he and his team had managed to discover a new continent. Since Janson described it as a marshy and desolate place in his description of his exploration of the coast, no one attached much importance to his new discovery. The East India Company sent expeditions in the hope of enrichment with jewelry and spices, and not at all for serious geographical discoveries.

Luis Vaez de Torres

Briefly describing the history of Australia's exploration, one can also say about how this traveler advanced through the same strait through which Yanson's team first passed. Geographers have speculations that Torres and his comrades managed to visit the northern coast of the continent, but no written confirmation of this hypothesis has been found. After some time, the strait began to be called Torres in honor of Luis Vaez de Torres.

Notable expeditions

Of interest is the history of the discovery and exploration of Australia, which briefly tells about the journey of another ship of the Dutch East India Company, which was operated by Dirk Hartog. In 1616, the ship managed to reach the western coast of Australia, near Shark Bay. For three days, the mariners studied the coast, and also explored the islands located nearby. The Dutch did not find anything interesting, so Hartog decided to continue sailing, heading north along a coastline that had not been explored before. The team then headed for Batavia.

Where is the story of the discovery of Australia described? Briefly, the 7th grade studies information about expeditions here from Europe in the 16-17 centuries. For example, teachers tell how in 1619 Jacob d'Erdel and Frederic de Houtman set off on two ships to explore the Australian coast. As they moved north, they discovered a strip of reefs called Houtman's Rock.

Continuing research

After this expedition, other Dutch sailors repeatedly came to these shores, calling the land New Holland. They did not even try to explore the coast, as they did not find any commercial interest here.

The beautiful coastline, even if it aroused their curiosity, clearly did not stimulate them to explore what useful resources Australia has. The country's history summarizes the exploration of the north and west coasts. The Dutch concluded that the northern lands were sterile and unsuitable for use. The sailors did not see the eastern and southern coasts during that period, so Australia was undeservedly considered uninteresting for use.

First buildings

In the summer of 1629, the ship of the East India Company "Batavia" due to a shipwreck was at the Houtman Rocks. Soon there was a mutiny, as a result of which part of the crew built a small fort for protection. It became the first European structure in Australia. Geographers suggest that at the turn of the 16th and 17th centuries, about fifty European ships reached the territory of Australia.

The history of the development and settlement of Australia briefly tells about the discoveries made by ships. In 1642, he tried to go around New Holland from the south, and discovered an island called Van Diemen's Land. After some time, it was renamed Tasmania. With the subsequent advance to the east, after some time, the ships were at New Zealand. Tasman's first voyage was not successful, the travelers did not manage to get close to Australia.

The history of Australia briefly tells that Tasman only in 1644 was able to study in detail the northwest coast, to prove that all the lands that were discovered and analyzed in earlier expeditions are integral parts of one continent.

English studies

The history of Australia also briefly notes the English contribution to its research. Until the second half of the seventeenth century, there was practically no information in England about the lands that were discovered by Dutch travelers. In 1688, a pirate ship, on board which was the Englishman William Dampier, was on the northwest coast, near Lake Melville. This fact has been preserved in the history of Australia. Briefly in the surviving records, it is said that after repair the ship returned to England. Here, Dampier published a story about the journey, which aroused genuine interest in the English Admiralty.

In 1699, Dampier embarked on a second voyage to the coast of Australia on the Roebuck. But as part of this trip, he did not find anything interesting, so the Admiralty decided to stop funding the expedition.

Cook's expedition

Talking about the history of the discovery of Australia, one cannot ignore the expedition of 1170, led by Lieutenant James Cook. On the sailboat Attempt, his crew went to the South Pacific. The official goal of the expedition was to make astronomical observations, but in fact Cook received from the Admiralty the tasks to study the southern part of the continent. Cook believed that since New Holland has a west coast, therefore, there must be an east coast.

At the end of April 1770, an English expedition landed on the east coast of Australia. The landing site was first named Stingray Bay, then it was renamed Botany Bay due to the unusual plants that were found there.

The open lands were called New Wales by Cook, and then the New Englishman had no idea how large-scale the discovery he made.

British colonies

They decided to colonize the lands that Cook discovered, using them as the first colonies for convicts. The fleet, led by Captain Arthur Philip, included 11 ships. He arrived in Australia in January 1788, but, finding the region inconvenient for settlement, they moved north. Governor Philip issued an order establishing the first British colony in Australia. The soil around Sydney Harbor was not suitable for farming, so farms were established near the Parramatta River.

The second fleet, which arrived in Australia in 1790, brought various materials and supplies here. On the way, 278 convicts and members of the crew died, which is why in history it is called the "Death Fleet".

In 1827 a small British settlement was built by Major Edmund Lockyer at King Georges Sound. He became the first governor of a colony created for convicts.

South Australia was founded in 1836. It was not intended for convicts, but some of the former prisoners moved here from other colonies.

Conclusion

It was mastered almost fifty thousand years before its official discovery by European travelers. For more than one century, people with a distinctive culture and religion lived in the arid deserts and tropical jungles of the continent. After the colonization of the Australian coast, a period of active exploration of the territory began. Among the first serious researchers who managed to study the channels of the Macquarie, Loklan rivers, geographers call John Oxley. Robert Burke became the first Englishman to cross the mainland from north to south. The discovery of Australia was the result of centuries of searches by the Dutch, Portuguese, and British of the Southern country.

In 2006, archaeologists discovered ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs in Australia. This fact led to the advancement of an original hypothesis about the discovery of the contingent by the Egyptians.

Scientists agreed that 1606 can be considered the most likely time of the discovery of Australia. It was then that the famous Dutchman V. Janszon explored the northeastern part of the Cape York Peninsula.

The history of settling Australia is summarized in this material. Until now, it is associated with numerous riddles, which scientists still have to solve. For example, cannons found during archaeological excavations suggest that the Portuguese visited the area in the fifteenth century. Scientists managed to draw up a complete map of the British colony, which was Australia, only at the beginning of the last century.

Who discovered Australia? Amazingly, this is still controversial. Some are sure that this honor belongs to the famous navigator James Cook, others give priority to the Portuguese, the third to the Dutch, and the fourth to the Spaniards or Danes. Well, the most interesting thing is that a lot of facts have appeared that indicate that the ancient Egyptians were the first to land on the Australian coast.

Who visited Australia before the Europeans?

According to scientists, the first people in Australia appeared 40-50 thousand years ago, they were people from the southern regions of Asia. For a long time they lived in isolation, until the Europeans raided their continent. Until now, scientists argue about who first discovered Australia, although, according to the official point of view, it was James Cook. It is worth noting that ancient geographers already knew about the mysterious Terra Incognita Australius (an unknown southern land), who, in the 15th century, marked the mysterious continent on their maps. Only now its outlines were very far from reality.

In search of this unknown land, ships of the Portuguese, Dutch, Spaniards, British and French were sent. However, there is an assumption that medieval geographers inherited knowledge about the existence of lands in the southern hemisphere from the sailors of antiquity. The fact that even in ancient times sailors could reach the shores of Australia, a number of scientists have no doubts. It is believed that the ancient Egyptians did this 4.5 thousand years ago, as we talked about in the previous material, This is evidenced by the ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs, images of scarabs, sphinxes, and other finds found on this continent, carved on rocks. Perhaps it was from Egypt that fragmentary information about the existence in the southern hemisphere of a huge area of ​​land with outlandish plants and animals could have reached the Europeans.

However, this information could have come from other sources, such as Chinese. At one time, retired British sailor Gavin Menzies proposed a hypothesis that many historians indignantly rejected. In his opinion, the famous Chinese navigator Zheng He visited America, Australia and even Antarctica during his fifth last voyage (1421-1423)! To make his hypothesis more convincing, Menzies suggested that these geographical discoveries were made by separate squadrons of Zheng He's powerful fleet.

Of course, Menzies's hypothesis is rather controversial, but in the 15th century in China, in fact, maps appeared, on which not only Australia, but also America was supposedly drawn. In the spring of 2006, scientists at the University of New Zealand claimed that the 1763 Chinese map they examined, showing America, Australia, and New Zealand, was possibly a copy of a much older map from 1418.

There are three antique Chinese porcelain vases with maps clearly depicting parts of the Australian coastline. On one of them, stored in Taiwan, according to scientists, the east and southeast coast of Australia up to the Melbourne region, a rough diagram of Tasmania and the southern coast of New Guinea are plotted. Another, dating from 1477, depicts New Zealand, Australia and New Guinea in addition to the west coast of America.

But in the Vatican Library, on the so-called Fra Ricci map, created in 1602 in Beijing by the Jesuit missionary Ricci, on the basis of Chinese maps of that time, a part of the northern coast of Queensland is plotted. By the way, Franciscan missionaries who visited China in the 16th century saw a rather primitive map of Australia engraved on copper.

Some researchers believe that even during the Sui dynasty (581 -618 AD), the Chinese already knew about the existence of a large land, where people who threw boomerangs lived. In the sources of that period there is a description of the outlandish animal shan-lai-chji, which has a deer head, powerful hind legs and another head on its stomach. In this description, a kangaroo is clearly guessed, because the second head is undoubtedly the head of a kangaroo, sticking out of the bag on the stomach.

It is worth noting that, despite the unconvincing hypothesis of Menzies, historians recognize the ability of the Chinese fleet of the X-XV centuries. make ocean voyages. The Chinese
there were huge ships, in the voyages of Zheng He participated from several dozen to hundreds of ships: for example, in his first expedition there were 317 ships with 27 870 people on board. Such a fleet, in fact, was capable of much, it even used special supply ships: some of them carried food, others - water, and others - animals, to get fresh meat on the voyage.

The mystery of the disappeared caravel

In 1916, on the shores of Roebuck Bay (Western Australia), small bronze cannons (caronads) were found with the image of the Portuguese crown minted on them, dating from the beginning of the 16th century. This was a very strong argument in favor of the fact that it was the Portuguese who were the first of the Europeans to reach Australia. Now many historians consider the Portuguese navigator Cristovan Mendonso to be the discoverer of the Green Continent. In their opinion, in 1522, this navigator reached the northern coast of Australia. Under his command there were three caravels, only two returned from the voyage.

In the book "The Secret Discovery of Australia", its author - Australian historian Kenneth McIntyre - draws attention to the fact that around 1530 the so-called Dauphin Map appeared in France, on which there are outlines of a land previously unknown to Europeans. In these contours, part of the Australian coastline is quite recognizable, on which Port Phillip Bay and the mouth of the Yarra River are distinguishable. The contour line ends somewhere near modern Melbourne.

The question arises: why did Mendonza's discovery elude historians for so long? It's all about the fierce competition that arose on the seas at the beginning of the 16th century. Nobody wanted the information about distant countries and routes to them to be used by sailors from other countries. That is why, since the 1510s, the Spaniards and the Portuguese began to classify all information about the new lands discovered. Later, the Dutch, British and French began to do the same. Most likely, some of the information about the discovery of Mendonza still leaked to the French, which was reflected on the "Dauphin Map".

There are references to the fact that Captain Cook in 1768, before his voyage in the South Seas, allegedly received a secret map of the Southern Continent from the British Admiralty. It was compiled back in 1522 by Krishtovan Mendonsa! This map marked the northern and eastern coasts of Australia all the way to the modern town of Warnambool in Victoria. From the map it followed that Mendonsa was the first in the history of navigation to cross the Bass Strait. By the way, it was in the area of ​​the town of Warnambul on the coast that an old caravel was discovered.

The Mystery of the Lost Ship

The story with this mysterious caravel began in January 1836. Three whalers - Smith, Wilson and Gibbs - sailed along the coast of South Australia. A sudden squall overturned their boat, only Wilson and Gibbs managed to escape. They headed down the coast to Port Fary. Having covered half the way, the whalers, to their surprise, noticed an old ship among the dunes. At Port Fary, they told the whaling station chief, Captain John B. Mills, about the ship.

Mills found the ship, half-buried in sand, and climbed onto its deck. There was no doubt that it was a European ship, but very old. He later wrote: “I was very intrigued; this vessel was clearly of ancient origin, I have never seen anything like it, either in Australia or elsewhere. " Of course, Mills could not see ships of this type, because caravels had not sailed the seas for several centuries. The captain tried to cut off a piece of wood that had darkened with time, resembling mahogany with a knife, but "the knife slid along the wood as if it were iron."

Struck by the fact that the mysterious ship was located 90 meters from the coastline. Most likely, once he was thrown by a storm on the coastal shelf, and then the ocean receded, and
the ship was in the sand dunes. The captain decided to bypass the nearest aboriginal sites, hoping to learn from the old people some information about the ship. But they said it "was always there."

The mysterious ship was seen by many in the 1840-1880s; more than 30 written eyewitness reports were found in the archives. Alas, later the sheep of the farmers ate and trampled down the insignificant vegetation cover, which caused the sand dunes to move and swallow the ship. The last mention of him dates back to the 1880s. Scientists, unfortunately, realized themselves late. Already since 1890, numerous search parties have been strenuously searching for the "mahogany ship" along the stretch of coastline between Port Fairy and Warnambul, but in vain.

Historians believe that the ship that disappeared under the sands was the caravel of Cristovan Mendonza that did not return from his voyage. Maybe someday the sands will again open the eyes of people to this mysterious ship, and then it will become irrefutable proof that the Portuguese discovered Australia two and a half centuries before Cook. In the meantime, the authorities of the Australian state of Victoria have appointed a reward of $ 250,000 to anyone who finds a Portuguese caravel, since 1992 this award has not yet been claimed.

Cook was the last and became the first!

There is also an opinion that the Dutch were the first Europeans who discovered Australia, because once the western part of this continent was even called New Holland. In 1606, Billam Jansson of Holland surveyed Cape York Peninsula, which is northeastern Australia. Some scientists are sure that it was in 1606 that Australia was discovered. In 1616, D. Hartog continued his studies of Janszon, describing a part of the western coast of the continent, and in 1627, F. Theissen and P. Nates studied its southern coast.

In 1642, the ruler of the Netherlands India, Anton Van Diemen, sent an expedition of the famous navigator Abel Tasman in search of new lands. He managed to discover the land, which he named after Van Diemen, now it is the island of Tasmania. But Holland already had convenient naval bases in southern Africa and Java, spices did not grow in Australia, and nothing said about valuable minerals, so the Dutch happily forgot about New Holland. And then, when more than half a century had passed, the “discoverers” - the British - were already engaged in Australia. As it turned out relatively recently, even before Cook, the northwestern part of Australia was explored by his compatriot William Damlier, he also managed to discover a number of islands in this area. But in 1770, James Cook finally reached Australia and once again discovered it. Unlike others, Cook was not taken aback and immediately proclaimed the mainland an English possession. The British continued their exploration of the mainland. In 1798, D. Base discovered the strait between the mainland and the island of Tasmania, and in the period 1797-1803 the continent was studied by the hydrographer M. Flinders. He made a more accurate map of its southern coastline. By the way, it was M. Flinders who proposed to rename New Holland to Australia in 1814. By the 1840s, F. King and D. Wicken had practically completed the study and mapping of Australia's coastline. A complete map of Australia, which was a British colony, was compiled by the British only at the beginning of the 20th century.