Australia Exploration Report. Who discovered Australia: the history of the discovery of the continent

Columbus discovered America and Captain Cook discovered Australia. Both of these statements have long been disputed many times, but they continue to live in the minds of the masses. Long before Captain Cook set foot on the coast of Australia on April 20, 1770, navigators from the Old World had already landed here more than once.

According to a number of historians, the Portuguese were the discoverers of Australia. They claim that an expedition led by Cristovan de Mendonça visited the northwest coast of Australia in 1522. It is unknown if this happened intentionally or by accident. The details of this voyage are also unknown. The only material evidence that has come down to us are small bronze cannons with the image of the Portuguese crown minted on them. They were found in 1916 on the coast of Roebuck Bay (Western Australia) and date back to the beginning of the 16th century.

2 Expedition of Willem Janszon

The first European to visit Australia is the Dutchman Willem Janszon. On November 28, 1605, Captain Janszon set off from Bantam on the ship "Dufken" to unknown lands. Bypassing the islands of Kai and Aru from the north, he reached the southern coast of New Guinea, completely unfamiliar to the Dutch. Janszon called it "Marshy Land" and traced the coastline for 400 kilometers. Then rounding the island of Kolepom, Janszon turned to the southeast, crossed the central part of the Arafura Sea and suddenly saw the coast. It 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 sailed his ship along the flat desert coast. Although the unknown land, as the Dutch were convinced, stretched further south, on June 6, 1606, at Cape Kerver (“Turn”), the Dufken turned 180º and moved back. During the landings at Albatross Bay, the Dutch first came into contact with the Australian Aborigines. Fighting immediately ensued, with several dead on both sides. Continuing north, the sailors traced and charted the coast of the Cape York Peninsula almost to its northern tip. The total length of the explored coast of Australia, which Janszon dubbed New Holland, was about 350 kilometers.

3 Expedition of Jan Carstens

The wreck of the English ship Triel, which occurred on May 25, 1622, on the reefs near the islands of Monte Bello and Barrow, showed that the complete lack of knowledge of the waters washing the coast of North-Western and Northern Australia threatens with great dangers. The leadership of the Dutch East India Company decided to explore the ocean south of Java and trace the southern coast of New Guinea. To accomplish this task, Jan Carstens' expedition 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 Dutch landed ashore 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, a storm began. On March 28, Carstens sent a navigator on a boat with 12 sailors to explore the coast that could be seen in the distance. He reported that the sea was getting shallower to the east, and desert land was visible in the distance. Meanwhile, it became dangerous to walk along the coast: shallows and reefs began to come across more and more often. The Dutch turned to the open sea.

On April 12, the earth again appeared on the horizon. It was Australia. For two weeks, Carstens' ships sailed south along the western coast of the Cape York Peninsula, landing several times on land - in estuaries and in bays. The aborigines they met were quite peaceful. The flat and low-lying coast of Northwestern Australia was described by Carstens in his report as "the most barren on earth." The Dutch could not even find enough fresh water here. In addition, the flagship of the Pera expedition was damaged. Carstens instructed Colster, the captain of the Arnhem, to complete the exploration of the coast, while he himself turned north and safely reached the Moluccas. Colster, moving south, managed to reach the Gulf of Carpentaria. Taking advantage of the favorable southeast monsoon, he turned from here to the northwest and, following this course, discovered a large peninsula, later named the Arnhemland Peninsula after his ship.

4 Expeditions of Abel Tasman

By the beginning of the 1640s. the Dutch knew and mapped the following parts of Australia: in the north - the western coast of the Cape York Peninsula, the ledge of Arnhemland, the entire western coast of the mainland and the western part of its southern coast. However, it was still not clear what this mysterious land is: a separate continent or a giant ledge of the still undiscovered Great Southern Continent? And the pragmatic directors of the East India Company were worried about another question: what are the potential benefits of these newfound lands? What are their commercial prospects? The expedition of the Dutch navigator Abel Tasman, who left Batavia in 1642 on two small ships, the Hemskerk and Zehan, was supposed to answer these questions. Tasman did not meet any mainland, and only on November 24 from the board of the Zehan did they see a high coast, called Van Diemen's Land (now Tasmania). Tasman never figured out 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. Going further to the southeast of the runoff, Tasman discovered New Zealand, and at this the expedition was almost completed, leaving a lot of unresolved problems.

In 1645, the governor of Batavia, Van Diemen, sent Tasman on a new expedition to the shores of Australia. Three Tasman 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 coast and found that all the lands previously discovered by the Dutch are parts of a single mainland - New Holland. However, Tasman did not find anything worthy of attention from the point of view of commerce on this mainland, and after 1644 the Dutch completely cooled off towards the Green Continent.

5 James Cook Expedition

In 1768, James Cook set out on his first circumnavigation of the world. In April 1770, Cook approached the east coast of Australia. On the shore of the bay, in the waters of which the 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 an ideal place for the safe parking 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 the area that bears the name of New Holland. The navigator made a detailed map of the coastline of the future Australia.

Not entirely happily passing the great barrier reef, the Endeavor finally made it to 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.

Australia is the smallest continent on our planet. In the Middle Ages, legends circulated about it, and Europeans called it "the unknown southern land" (Terra Australis Incognita).


Any schoolchild knows that mankind owes the discovery of the continent to the English sailor James Cook, who visited the east coast of Australia in 1770. But in fact, the mainland was known in Europe long before the appearance of Cook. Who discovered it? And when did this event take place?

When did the first people appear in Australia?

The ancestors of the current indigenous population appeared in Australia about 40-60 thousand years ago. It is to this period that the most ancient archaeological finds, discovered by researchers in the upper reaches of the Swan River in the western part of the mainland, belong.

Humans are believed to have arrived on the continent by sea, making them the earliest sea travelers. To this day, it is not known where the Australian Aborigines came from, but it is believed that at least three heterogeneous populations settled in Australia at that time.

Who visited Australia before the Europeans?

There is an opinion that the ancient Egyptians, who brought eucalyptus oil from the continent, became the discoverers of Australia.


During research on Australian territory, drawings of insects resembling scarabs were discovered, and during archaeological excavations in Egypt, scientists found mummies embalmed with oil from Australian eucalyptus trees.

Despite such clear evidence, many historians doubt this version, since the continent gained fame in Europe much later.

Who was the first European to visit Australia?

Attempts to discover Australia were made by navigators as early as the 16th century. Many scholars believe that the first Europeans to visit the continent were the Portuguese. It is believed that in 1509 they visited the Moluccas, from where in 1522 they moved to the northwestern coast of the mainland.

At the beginning of the 20th century, cannons from the 16th century were found in the area, believed to have belonged to Portuguese sailors.

This version has not been definitively proven, so today it is indisputable that the Dutch admiral Willem Janszon became the discoverer of Australia.

In November 1605, he left the Indonesian city of Bantam on his ship Dyfken and headed towards New Guinea, and three months later he landed on the northwestern coast of Australia, on the Cape York Peninsula. As part of his expedition, Janszon explored about 320 km of the coast and compiled a detailed map of it.

Interestingly, the admiral never realized that he had discovered Australia. He considered the found lands to be part of New Guinea and gave them the name "New Holland". After Janszon, another Dutch navigator, Abel Tasman, visited Australia, who discovered the islands of New Zealand and mapped the image of the Australian western coast.

Thus, thanks to the Dutch sailors, by the middle of the 17th century, the outlines of Australia were clearly defined on all geographical maps.

Who discovered Australia according to the official version?

And yet, most scientists continue to consider James Cook as the discoverer, since it was after his visit that Europeans began to actively explore the continent. The dashing young lieutenant set off in search of the "unknown southern land" as part of a world tour in 1768.

According to the official version, the purpose of his trip was to study the passage of Venus through, but in fact he had secret orders to head to the southern latitudes and find Terra Australis Incognita.

Departing from Plymouth on the ship Endeavor, in April 1769, Cook reached the coast of Tahiti, and a year later, in April 1770, approached the eastern shores of Australia. After that, he visited the continent twice more. During his third expedition in 1778, Cook discovered the Hawaiian Islands, which became the place of his death.


Unable to get along with the Hawaiians, the lieutenant tried to capture one of the local leaders, but was killed in the fight, presumably by a blow to the back of the head with a spear.

The first stage of the voyage of the Dutch sailors of the 17th century.

Until the 17th century scattered information about Australia and New Guinea reached Europeans from Portuguese navigators. The year of discovery of Australia is considered to be 1606, when the Dutch navigator V. Janszon explored a section of the western coast of the Cape York Peninsula in the north of the continent. During the 17th century the main discoveries were made by Dutch travelers, with the exception of the Spanish expedition of 1606, in which L. Torres discovered the strait between New Guinea and Australia (later named after him). Due to the priority of the Dutch, Australia was originally called New Holland.
In 1616, D. Hartog, heading for the island of Java, discovered a section of the western coast of the continent, the survey of which was almost completely completed in 1618-22. The southern coast (its western part) was explored in 1627 by F. Theisen and P. Neyts.
Two journeys to Australia were made by A. Tasman, who was the first to circumnavigate Australia from the south and prove that it is a separate continent. In 1642, his expedition discovered the island, which he named Van Diemen's land in honor of the Dutch governor of the East Indies (then this island was renamed Tasmania), and the island "Land of the States" (present-day New Zealand). During a second trip in 1644 he explored the northern and northwestern coasts of Australia.

The second stage of the English and French sea expeditions of the 18th first half of the 19th centuries.

At the turn of the 18th century the English navigator and pirate W. Dampier discovered a group of islands off the coast of northwestern Australia, named after him. In 1770, during his first round-the-world voyage, J. Cook explored the eastern coast of Australia and found out the insular position of New Zealand.
In 1788, a colony for English convicts was founded in Sydney, which was then called Port Jackson.
In 1798, the English topographer D. Bass discovered the strait separating Tasmania from Australia (later the strait was named after him).
In 1797-1803, the English explorer M. Flinders went around Tasmania, the entire mainland and mapped the southern coast and the Great Barrier Reef, surveyed the Gulf of Carpentaria. In 1814, he proposed instead of New Holland to call the southern mainland Australia. Many geographical objects on the mainland and in adjacent seas are named after him.
In the same period, a French expedition led by N. Bodin discovered some islands and bays. Completed work on the study of the coast of Australia F. King and D. Wicken in 1818-39.

The third stage of land expeditions of the first half of the 19th century.

Initially, during this period, due to the difficulties of overcoming the vast inland deserts, expeditions were concentrated mainly in coastal areas. C. Sturt, T. Mitchell passed through the Great Dividing Range, reaching the vast plains, but without going deep into them, explored in southeastern Australia the basin of the largest river of the Murray continent and its tributary Darling.
In 1840, the Polish traveler P. Strzelecki discovered the highest peak in Australia, Kosciuszko.
In 1841, the English explorer E. Eyre made a voyage along the south coast from the city of Adelaide in the southeastern part of the mainland to King George's Bay.
In the 40s. study of the deserts of the interior of Australia begins. Sturt in 1844-46 explored the sandy and rocky deserts in the southeastern part of the mainland. In 1844-45, the German scientist L. Leichhardt crossed northeastern Australia, crossed the Dawson, Mackenzie and other rivers, reached the interior of the Arnhemland peninsula, and then returned to Sydney by sea. In 1848 his new expedition went missing. The unsuccessful search for the expedition was undertaken by the Englishman O. Gregory, who explored the interior of the Arnhem Land peninsula, crossed the eastern outskirts of the central deserts.

The fourth stage is intracontinental expeditions of the second half of the 19th and 20th centuries.

English explorers R. Burke and W. Wills were the first to cross Australia from south to north, from Adelaide to the Gulf of Carpentaria, in 1860; Burke died on the way back near Coopers Creek.
The Scottish explorer J. Stuart crossed the mainland twice in 1862 and made a great contribution to the study of the central regions. In subsequent expeditions, E. Giles (1872-73, 1875-76), J. Forrest (1869, 1870, 1874), D. Lindsay (1891), L. Wells (1896) and other English travelers explored the deserts of Central Australia in detail: Great Sandy, Gibson and Great Victoria Desert.
In the first third of the 20th century, thanks to the work of mainly English geographers, the main little-studied areas in the interior of Australia were mapped.

Australia is one of the most exotic English-speaking countries in the world. With a high standard of living and an attractive immigration policy, many see it as a place to live or work. If you are learning English to move to Australia, or for work, study or pleasure, it will be helpful to get a general idea of ​​the history of this country.

prehistoric australia

About 50 thousand years ago, the first people arrived on the southern mainland of Australia - the earliest sea travelers in the world. Geologists believe that at that time the island of New Guinea in the north and Tasmania in the south were part of the continent.

After several thousand years, the mainland began to be actively settled. The earliest archaeological find of human remains in Australia is the so-called Mungo Man, who lived about 40,000 years ago. According to it, scientists have determined that the first inhabitants of Australia were massive and tall people.

In the prehistoric period, Australia was settled by people in several waves. About 5 thousand years ago, with the next stream of migrants, the dingo dog appeared on the mainland - the only non-marsupial Australian predator. Only by the 2nd millennium BC did the Australian Aborigines acquire their modern look, evolving and mixing with the newcomers.

The aborigines formed diverse tribes with their own languages, culture, religion and tradition. By the time the Europeans discovered Australia, there were about 500 tribes on the mainland who spoke about 250 different languages. None of them had a written language, so their history is not well known. They used symbolic drawings, retelling ancient legends in them. These myths and archaeological finds are the only data that historians studying Australia can use.

Since people began to settle Australia quite a long time ago (for comparison, people came to the territory of America only 13 thousand years ago, as much as 27 thousand years later) and before the arrival of Europeans were not influenced by the rest of the world, the Australian aboriginal civilization is considered one of the oldest continuous cultures. in the world.

European studies of the mainland

Australia is officially considered to have been discovered by the Dutch navigator Willem Janszon in 1606. He sailed to the Gulf of Carpentaria in the north of the mainland and landed on the Cape York Peninsula - the northernmost point of Australia, which is only 160 kilometers from New Guinea. A year before, the Spaniard Luis Vaes Torres swam in these waters, who passed very close to the Australian coast and even supposedly saw the land on the horizon, but mistook it for another archipelago.

There are several other alternative theories for the discovery of Australia. According to one of them, Portuguese navigators discovered the mainland before Willem Janszon. A flotilla led by de Siqueira explored the route to the Moluccas and sent several expeditions around the archipelago. One of these expeditions under the command of Mendonsa in 1522 allegedly visited the northwestern shores of Australia.

The theory of the early discovery of Australia looks plausible, since 16th century cannons were found just on the west coast in the 20th century. On the territory of the mainland, unusual finds have been discovered more than once, which can only be explained by the early voyages of Europeans to the Australian shores. However, these theories are considered controversial. In addition, the discovery of Australia remained unknown to Europe until the voyages of the Dutch.

Janszon declared the found territories the possession of the Netherlands, although the Dutch did not begin their development. In the next few decades, the Dutch continued to explore Australia. In 1616 Derk Hartog visited the west coast, three years later Frederick de Houtman explored several hundred kilometers of the coast. In 1644, Abel Tasman launched his famous sea voyages, during which he discovered New Zealand, Tasmania, Fiji and Tonga, and also proved that Australia was a separate continent.

The Dutch explored only the west coast of Australia, the rest of the coastline and inland remained unexplored until the voyages of James Cook a century later, in 1769. It was believed that New Holland (the first name of Australia) discovered by the Dutch does not belong to the hypothetical southern continent Terra Australis Incognita, the existence of which has been suspected since ancient times. New Holland was an inhospitable place with a difficult climate and hostile natives, so there was no interest in it for a long time.

In the middle of the 18th century, the British came up with the idea of ​​exiling convicts to the islands of the Southern Ocean or to a supposedly existing mainland called the Unknown Southern Land. In 1769, English lieutenant James Cook set off on the ship Endeavor to Tahiti on a secret mission to find the southern mainland and explore the shores of New Holland.

Cook sailed to the east coast of Australia and landed in Botany Bay. After examining the coastal lands, he concluded that they were favorable enough for the establishment of a colony. Then Cook went along the coast in a northwesterly direction and found the strait between Australia and New Guinea (thus proving that this island is not part of the mainland). The navigator did not fulfill the task of finding the southern mainland.

During the second round-the-world expedition, Cook explored the southern latitudes and came to the conclusion that there are no large lands in them except Australia. Dreams of Terra Australis were shattered, but a free name remained. In 1814, the English navigator Matthew Flinders suggested that New Holland should be called Australia. By that time, colonies from several states already existed on the mainland, which did not immediately accept the proposal, but eventually began to use this name. In 1824 it became official.

British colonization of Australia

Cook recommended Botany Bay for settlement. Here in 1787 the first fleet with settlers went. They were convicts - but for the most part not malicious criminals, robbers and murderers, but former merchants and farmers convicted of short terms for minor crimes. Many of them were soon granted pardons and allocated plots for farms. The rest of the settlers were infantrymen with their families, officers and other employees.

The ships found a convenient place for colonization near Botany Bay - Port Jackson Bay, where they founded a settlement in Sydney Cove. The date the colony was founded, January 26, 1788, later became a national holiday, Australia Day. A month later, the governor of the settlement officially announced the creation of a colony, which was called New South Wales. The settlement began to be named after the British Minister of the Interior, Viscount Sydney. This is how the city of Sydney appeared - now the largest and most developed in Australia.

The governor of the colony tried to improve relations with the natives, helped the convicts to improve, and established trade and agriculture. The first years were difficult for the settlers: there was not enough food, the convicts had few professional skills, and new convicts arriving in the colony turned out to be sick and disabled after a long and difficult voyage. But the governor managed to develop the colony, and from 1791 its affairs began to go uphill.

The living conditions of the convicts were harsh. They had to do a lot of work to create a colony: build houses and roads, help farmers. They starved and were severely punished. But the pardoned prisoners remained in Australia, received their allotments and could themselves hire convicts. One such ex-convict grew the first successful crop of wheat in 1789. Soon the colony began to provide itself with food.

In 1793, the first free settlers arrived in Sydney (except for the military guarding the convicts). They were given land free of charge, provided agricultural equipment for the first time, and were given the right to free movement and use the labor of prisoners.

Mainland exploration

After the founding of the colony, exploration of Australia continued. Europeans used the services of local guides, so most of the trips were successful. In 1813 an expedition by Blaxland, Lawson and Wentworth passed through the ranges of the Blue Mountains west of Sydney and found extensive pastures. In 1824, the Hume and Hovell expedition made many important discoveries, discovered the Murray River and its tributaries, and discovered many new pastures.

In 1828, Charles Sturt discovered the Darling River and reached the point where the Murray River flows into the Great Australian Bight. Then followed a whole series of expeditions, filling in the gaps of previous research. European and Australian explorers retained many of the original place names instead of giving their own. In 1839, the Polish traveler Strzelecki climbed the highest peak in Australia - Mount Kosciuszko in the Australian Alps.

In 1829 Great Britain claimed the entire western part of Australia. The colony of New South Wales was divided into several, the colonies of Victoria, South Australia, Queensland, the Northern Territory, Swan River appeared. Settlers gradually spread across the continent. At this time, the major cities of Melbourne and Brisbane were founded.

Under the onslaught of European colonists, the natives retreated from the coasts inland. Their numbers greatly decreased due to the diseases brought by the settlers. In the middle of the 19th century, the entire indigenous population was moved to reservations, many were sent there by force.

By 1840 the tradition of sending convicts to Australia was being forgotten, and after 1868 it was no longer practiced.

Golden fever

In the 1850s, the gold rush began in Australia. The British authorities established licenses for gold mining, which was extremely disliked by gold miners. In 1854, prospectors from Ballarat raised an uprising, now known as the Eureka. The rebels created the Ballarat Reform League and made a number of demands to the government: to introduce universal suffrage, to abolish gold mining licenses, to abolish property restrictions for parliamentary candidates.

The resistance of the gold diggers was crushed, they were arrested and put on trial. But the court did not find the rebels guilty. Many of the miners' demands were met: licenses were canceled and the right to apply to parliament was given. The Eureka Rebellion stimulated the development of liberalism in Australia. This event became one of the key in the history of the country.

In 1855, New South Wales became self-governing while remaining part of the British Empire. Other Australian colonies soon followed. Their governments dealt with internal affairs, while Britain continued to manage foreign policy, defense and trade.

The "Gold Rush" caused an economic boom in Australia. The next few decades were prosperous for Australians. In the 1890s, the economic situation began to deteriorate, at the same time the labor movement began to increase, new political parties began to appear, and the Australian colonies began to think about uniting.

Australian Union

For ten years, the colonies discussed the issue of unification and prepared to create a single country. In 1901, they created the Commonwealth of Australia, a federal state that was a dominion of the British Empire. In the early years, the capital of the Union was the city of Melbourne, but already in 1911, the future capital of Australia, the city of Canberra, began to be built on a specially allocated Federal Capital Territory. In 1927, the construction of the city was completed and the Union government settled in it.

A little later, the Federation included several territories that had previously been subordinate to Great Britain: the Norfolk Islands, Cartier and Ashmore. It was assumed that Australia would include New Zealand, but she chose to seek independence from Great Britain on her own.

The Australian economy was heavily dependent on exports. The country had to import large quantities of grain and wool. The Great Depression, which began in the United States in 1929, and the global economic crisis that followed, severely affected Australia. The unemployment rate rose to a record 29%.

In 1931, the British Parliament adopted the Statute of Westminster, which established the position of the dominions. According to it, the British dominions received full official independence, but retained the right of the British monarch to hold the post of head of state. Australia ratified this statute only in 1942, becoming effectively independent from Great Britain.

History of Australia after Independence

The Second World War spurred the Australian economy. The Australians received a promise of protection from the United States in the event of a Japanese attack, so they took part in hostilities without risk to themselves. After the war, many residents of dilapidated Europe decided to move to Australia. The Australian government encouraged immigration, wanting to increase the country's population and attract talented professionals.

By 1975, two million immigrants had arrived in Australia. Most of them are former residents of Great Britain and Ireland. Thus, most of the Australian population are native speakers of English, which has evolved into an Australian dialect. The state does not have an official language.

In the 70s, the Australian government carried out a number of important reforms, the significance of which is still preserved: free higher education, the abolition of compulsory military service, the recognition of the right of aborigines to land, and others. From a former colony of convicts, Australia has become a highly developed country with one of the highest levels of immigration.

The discovery and further exploration of Australia is connected with the search for the “Unknown Southern Land” (Terra australis incognita), which K. Ptolemy marked on his map. As you know, in the II century. he made a map of the world

famous work "Guide to Geography". For centuries, seafarers have used it as the most important source of knowledge.

Europeans first visited Australia in 1606, when the Dutch navigator V. Janszon explored a section of the western coast of the Cape York Peninsula in the north of the continent. During the 17th century the main discoveries were made by Dutch travelers, with the exception of the Spanish expedition, during which JI. Torres opened the strait between New Guinea and Australia. This was the last major geographical discovery of the Spanish navigators. For many years it was kept secret. Only in the second half of the 18th century, having captured Manila, the British penetrated the Spanish secret archives and got acquainted with the message of Torres. Subsequently, the strait between New Guinea and Australia was justly named Torres owl.

Through the priority of the Dutch, Australia first received the name New Holland. Passing the Indian Ocean south of the equator, they sometimes reached desert lands with "wild" tribes, the level of development of which corresponded to the stone age. These sparsely populated shores were not of great practical interest. New Holland was considered the northern ledge of the unknown Southern Continent. No settlements were built here. Information about the nature of coastal waters was carefully collected, but also kept secret. So, in 1627, Captain Peter Neyts (Newts) mapped the western half of the southern coast of Australia, as well as the archipelago located near it.

But the most important discoveries of the coast of Australia were made by the Dutchman Abel Janszon Tasman (1603-1659). In 1642, from the Netherlands Indies (modern Indonesia), he went in search of the main territory of the "unknown Southern continent." On September 5, two of his ships anchored off the island of Mauritius (the western part of the Indian Ocean, the Mascarene Islands group), where the navigator spent more than a month. On October 8, the expedition set off further. It soon reached 49°S. sh., but could not move further south because of the storm. Then one of the participants in the campaign proposed to climb to latitude 44 and sail along it to the east. From a navigational point of view, this proposal was very reasonable: driven by steady westerly winds, Tasman's ships rushed across the ocean and ... passed Australia.

At the second stage, from mid-December 1642 to early January 1643, the Tasman Expedition went east and discovered the mountainous coast of the South Island (New Zealand). In one of the bays, local Maori people killed four sailors. The navigator was forced to leave the parking lot and cruised for several days in the waters between the South and North Islands, which he did not know. The western coast of the islands discovered by him, 1300 km long, Tasman mistook for the ledge of the southern mainland. On June 14, 1643, the Dutch navigator returned to Batavia (the modern capital of Indonesia, Jakarta).

The geographical results of the expedition were very tangible. In addition to the South Island, Abel Tasman discovered Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania), the islands of Tonga and Fiji. He "pushed" the Southern Continent 800 km to the south, established that New Holland (Australia) had nothing to do with it, opened a new sea route from the Indian Ocean to the Pacific in the westerly winds. But at one point the Tasman didn't even come close to Australia.

At the beginning of 1644 p. in Batavia, a new expedition consisting of three ships was equipped. Its geographic results exceeded all expectations. Abel Tasman explored the Gulf of Carpentaria and proved the absence of a strait to the south. Then he traced and mapped the coast of Northern and Western Australia about 5500 km, discovered a large peninsula (Arnhem Land). Sometimes, due to reefs and small islands, Tasman had to keep a considerable distance from the coast, but he found that the strip is continuous, and therefore, the land is a single massif. Already in early August 1644, the navigator returned to Batavia.

However, the results of Tasman's last expedition disappointed the East India Company, because he did not find either gold or spices - the navigator brought not too flattering news about the deserted shores of the vast land. The routes laid out by the captain did not promise the company any benefit, because she already held in her tenacious hands the sea route leading to the East Indies past the Cape of Good Hope. To prevent competitors from using the routes opened by Tasman, the company considered it expedient to classify them and at the same time stop further searches. Moreover, the following recommendations were received from Amsterdam in Batavia: “It is desirable that this land remain unknown and unexplored so as not to draw the attention of foreigners to the ways in which they can damage the interests of the company ...»

For the second time, Australia was discovered by the outstanding English navigator James Cook. In 1768 p. the ship "Endeavre" ("Attempt") led by him left Plymouth, then crossed the Atlantic Ocean and, rounding Cape Horn, entered the Pacific Ocean. Eight months after sailing, the ship landed on the coast of the island of Tahiti. In Mata-Wai Bay, the British built an astronomical observatory and observed the passage of the planet Venus through the solar disk.

Leaving Tahiti, the Endeavre headed southwest. On October 7, the British sighted land again. A tall, snow-covered chain of mountains stretched along the shore. Cook knew that in front of him was the land, which had been visited by the outstanding Dutch navigator Tasman (New Zealand) back in 1642.

The Endeavre anchored in one of the convenient bays (Poverty Bay). Soon local residents appeared, armed with spears and stone axes. They did not let the British ashore. In three skirmishes, several local residents were killed. Cook was depressed by this course of events, he knew that further attempts to land would lead to a continuation of the senseless slaughter.

After that, Cook cruised along the shores of an unfamiliar land for more than three months. Finally, on March 26, the expedition completed its voyage around the southern island, which finally disproved the myths about New Zealand as part of the vast Southern continent. At the same time, Cook compiled a map of the two islands of New Zealand, which today is striking in accuracy. He also collected information about the character and customs of the New Zealanders. James Cook noted that the southern island is almost uninhabited, and the northern one, where the climate is milder, is rather densely populated, its fields are cultivated, there are many songbirds in dense forests, rats and dogs live there, which are eaten.

Leaving the coast of New Zealand, Cook led the ships to the west. Soon he came to the east coast of Australia, which no European had ever seen. For a week the Endeavre kept moving north, until at last a convenient bay was found. Here Cook and his companions met the first natives, very dark-skinned and in appearance very different from the Polynesians and Maori.

When the British anchored, Cook was surprised to note that the locals, who were fishing from two boats, did not pay the slightest attention to the Endevre. It seemed incomprehensible, because they could hardly ever see such a vessel in their lives. None of the natives showed any signs of hospitality. All of them, as noted from the board, carried "short curved sabers" - the famous boomerangs.

The coastal waters of Australia are so rich in fish that Cook named the place of one of the stops the harbor of Stingray (Scat). However, there was no meat, no fruits, no vegetables - the natives had no idea about the cultivation of cultivated plants, which indicated their low level of development. But on these shores there was such a variety of wild plants, Banks and other scientists as part of the expedition came to an indescribable delight. They discovered hundreds of species unknown in Europe. Cook had no choice but to rename the bay, calling it Botany Bay (Botany Bay).

Leaving the mainland, Cook did not forget to solemnly declare it the possession of the British crown (he did the same while in New Zealand and the Pacific Islands). The partnership territory was named New South Wales.

Later the expedition visited New Guinea and Java. At that time, the city of Batavia (modern Jakarta, the capital and largest city of Indonesia to the north along the western coast of Java) was reputed to be the most unhealthy place in the world. When the Endeavre left him, the crew lacked seven sailors who gave their souls to God during the stop. A few weeks after sailing, twenty-three more crew members died, including the expedition's astronomer and artist. So, during the relatively short voyage from the East Indies to Africa, Cook lost a quarter of his crew. The navigator himself seemed to be immune to disease. Although it is possible that he was also ill, he did not show it. On June 12, 1771, he finally managed to return to England.

Cook's expedition lasted two years and eleven months. Now it's hard to believe, but in just two months of sailing, he annexed New Zealand and the whole mainland - Australia - to the colonies of England.

During the first round-the-world voyage, Cook failed to find the large Southern Continent (that very "Unknown Southern Land"). To finally find out whether it really exists, the British government equipped a new expedition.

The length of the route of the next expedition was 84 thousand km, that is, more than twice the length of the earth's equator. At the same time, Cook visited the "roaring forties" and "furious fifties" latitudes (as the English sailors in Hichst called these places), twice went around the central part of the Pacific Ocean. Without a doubt, this was the most exploratory voyage launched in the Pacific. It took the British three years and eighteen days to carry it out. During all this time, Cook lost only one crew member.

After his second circumnavigation, James Cook became a hero. He was elected a member of the Royal Society, promoted to the rank of captain of the first rank, awarded a gold medal for an article on maintaining the health of sailors. The traveler was accepted by the king, and the lords of the Admiralty perceived Cook as their equal.

Soon the legendary navigator agreed to the offer to become the head of a new expedition. She had to solve another legendary problem - to find the northwest passage, but this time starting from the Pacific Ocean. In 1776, on the ship "Resolution" and the new ship "Discovery" ("Discovery"), he set off on the third, last, circumnavigation.

Cook's ships traveled this route: the Cape of Good Hope, Tasmania, New Zealand, the Friendship Islands (Tonga) and the Society Islands. During long stops on the islands of the Society, the navigator replenished the stock of geographical, hydrographic and ethnographic information, and also continued to study the nature of Oceania.

Sailing then to the north, Cook rediscovered the Hawaiian Islands, once found by the Spaniards, but subsequently forgotten, which he renamed the Sandwich Islands. The islanders greeted the British friendly: they brought a lot of fruits, edible roots, drove pigs, helped the sailors pour fresh water into barrels and load them into boats. Scientists were able to go deep into the islands for their research.

From the Hawaiian Islands, the ships headed east, to the shores of America. In search of a northwestern passage, Cook went to the northwestern tip of North America, mapping all the most important points and giving them names. Then he visited the shores of Asia and August 11, 1778 entered the Bering Strait. For a whole month, the ships moved along the edge of the ice field, hoping to find some kind of passage that would make it possible to penetrate further north. However, all attempts were in vain. Cook could not be found a passage to the Atlantic, and the ships returned back: first to the mouth of the Yukon, and then to Hawaii. This time, relations with the islanders first became strained and then hostile.

The Hawaiians began to steal various small items from the ships. The size of thefts grew further away, and it came to the point that on February 14, 1779 they stole a whaleboat (a fast eight-oar boat). As a result of a conflict with local residents, Cook was kidnapped. For several days, the British did not know anything about the fate of the captain. Finally, a detachment of Hawaiians approached the ships and handed over the remains of the great navigator. On February 22, to the sound of gunshots, they were plunged into the abyss of the ocean.

The grief-stricken team wanted to avenge the death of their captain, but Cook's assistant and deputy, Charles Clark, who had not only a strong character, but also wisdom, refused. He was well aware that this would lead to massacres. In addition, Clark did not believe that Cooke's murder was deliberate.

Thus, abruptly and prematurely, came to an end the travels of James Cook, which made his name immortal.

In 1797-1803 pp. English explorer Matthew Flinders walked all over New Holland. He mapped the southern coast of the mainland, and in 1814 published the book Travel to Terra Australia, where he spoke about his voyages and discoveries. Flinders deliberately used part of the ancient name "Unknown South Land" (Terra australis incognita) and explained that now that this land is completely and accurately delineated, there is no reason to call it "Unknown" and, even more so, New Holland. Since then, the name "New Holland" has disappeared, they began to use the name Australia, there is "South".

However, Australia to a large extent still remained incognita, i.e. unknown. On the map, almost all of its inland territory was an untouched white spot. Due to the difficulties of overcoming the vast deserts, the first expeditions were concentrated in coastal areas. their most important task was to search for fertile lands necessary for the agricultural activities of the population of the mainland, which is increasing. It is quite possible that the first to enter these areas were criminals, peasants and guards who caught them (prisoners were sent to Australia until 1851, many of them were sentenced for life).

U1829-1830 pp. Ch. erased (1795-1869) and T. Mitchell (1792-1855), each with their own route, crossed the Great Dividing Range and found themselves on the threshold of large plains. Without delving into them, they conducted research in Southeast Australia. Here travelers explored the basin of the largest river on the continent - the Murray and its tributaries - the Darling.

So, in 1835, Mitchell went down the Darling for about 500 km, reaching an area where there were almost no trees and very little grass grew.