WHO DISCOVERED AUSTRALIA?
Discovering or Designing History?
From the time we enter our first
history lesson in primary school, we all
learn a common version of history, the story
of how Captain James Cook discovered the
east coast of the Australian Continent in
1770. This is the historical narrative that has
been widely accepted as the truth of the
matter and finding evidence contrary is
somewhat difficult and speculative. The
discovery of maps and charts documenting
the north coast of Australia from 164 years
earlier, by the Dutch navigation Willem
Janszoon aboard the Duyfken​, as well as
subsequent voyages of Abel Tasman which
compels a historical reconstruction of the
current narrative. Looking even further
back, some historians have gathered
Flinders Map of Australia.
evidence that points to another European
power making the discovery. As early as the
1520’s the Portuguese have been suspected,
through dissecting maps, charts and even
some archaeological findings may yet prove
they first landed here. As we dive deeper
and further through what we begin to find
its hard to determine what is speculation as
opposed to imagination. As the final
contender for the discovery of Australia, the
Chinese Admiral, Zheng He, to have been
dated as arriving on the continent in the
year 1442, well before any European vessel.
The task for us as receivers of these
historical narratives is to discern why it is
that it exists and is it supported by strong
evidence to be considered real history.
  

Who Discovered Australia? 2 

Abel Tasman, 1642

‘Good weather and a clear sky… In the afternoon about 4 o'clock, we saw land... about 10 miles distance from us by
estimation; the land we sighted was very high… Three high mountains, and to the north-east two more mountains.’
Abel Tasman, 24 Nov 1642.​ ​1

Arrivals to Australia in the recent Governor Antoine van Dieman in August

centuries do not mark the first time humans
made it to the continent. It is generally
accepted, by most estimates, that the
ancestors of the indigenous Australians
made it to Australia 47-000 to 60,000 years
ago and the arrival of navigators and
explorers broke that isolation.​2 Prior to the
famous voyage of Captain Cook in 1770, by
164 years, a man with a lesser-known name
makes his way to the southernmost reaches
of what he deemed ‘Van Diemen's Land’.
Abel Janszoon Tasman, a Dutch explorer
who was dispatched by Dutch Colonial
1642, to explore and navigate the ‘totally
unknown Provinces of Beach’; a term that
had circulated since the travels of Marco
Polo in regards to an unknown southern
continent. 3​
This map, by Tasman himself,
details the route sailed and the coastal
landmarks of the southern coast of
Tasmania. Tasman went on, in a second
voyage a year later, to navigate the Northern
coast of Australia, from Carpinteria to the
North-west tip of Western Australia.

‘That vast regions were for the greater part uncultivated, and certain parts inhabited by savage, cruel black
barbarians who slew some of our sailors so that no information was obtained touching the exact situation of the
country and regarding the commodities obtainable and in demand there.’
Abel Tasman​. 5​

‘Anthony Van Diemens Landt’.​ ​4

 

Who Discovered Australia? 3 

Pieter Nuyts & F. Thijssen, 1627.

Though Tasman may have been the
first to locate and chart Tasmania, he was
preceded by other Dutch explorers in prior
decades. Fifteen years before Tasman, Pieter
Nuyts and Francois Thijssen, Dutch
explorers in a 1627 voyage, sighted land
which was the western coast of Australia.​6
From this point on they proceeded to chart
out the southern coast of Australia to the
mid-South Australian area near Ceduna.​7
Their efforts in navigating the
southern coast coast led subsequent
cartographers to assume that Tasman’s, Van
Diemen’s Land was also connected to that
continent, for the Bass Strait had not been
clearly observed. Which wasn’t official
discovered until Matthew Flinders
circumnavigated Van Diemen's Land in
1798.

Section of the​ ‘Chart of the Malay Archipelago and Dutch discoveries of Australia’ 1618-38’. ​8
 

Who Discovered Australia? 4 

Luis Vaz De Terres, 1606.

With all these early explorational
accomplishments shedding light on the
discovery of Australia by the Dutch, the year
1606 shines the brightest. A name that most
of us have heard but often associate in a
different manner, that of the Spaniard Luis
Vaz de Torres.
The Spaniard, on 2-3 of October
would have been with a telescopic distance
of the Cape York Peninsula which according
to Australian writer George Collingridge,
Torres had in fact discovered Australia
unbeknownst to him at the time nor his
lifetime.​11

‘Here there are very large islands and more to the south.’
Luis Vaz de Torres, October 1606.​12

The Bonaparte Tasman Map, 1644. 9​ ​ Tasman's map, including information from Nuyts and Torres.
 

Who Discovered Australia? 5 

Willem Janszoon, 1606.

With this information available, we
can assume that the Spanish technically bet
the Dutch, except for that of the Duyfken.
Willem Janszoon, a Dutch navigator sent
out to search for economic opportunity in
New Guinea in the same year as Torres, just
months before, in February of 1606.​13 He
made landfall at a strange new land, a river
mouth, one he deemed ‘​R. met het Bosch’.
Janszoon had made it to the mouth of the
Pennefather River in modern Queensland
which he deemed an island.​14 ​After
traversing the coast some 350 kilometres,
Janszoon left to return to Dutch territory in
the East Indies. This brief and seemingly
insignificant voyage of Dutch seafarers
aboard the vessel the ​Duyfken i​ ndicates the
first substantial evidence of any European
setting foot on the Australian Continent and
thereby discovering it for reference charts
for others to reference in their voyages such
as Tasman in 1644.

​ A 1670 replica of the onboard map, depicting the western coast of Cape York..
The Route of the Duyfken.15​
  

Who Discovered Australia? 6 

Predating the Dutch, 1500’s.

That may be the answer to our
question; Who discovered Australia? But
there exist claims throughout scholarship
and research that the answer lies within
older maps that predate even Willem
Janszoon. A particularly avid seafaring
nation may have beaten the Dutch to the
shores of Australia, a century before
entirely, the Portuguese.
Here is where we step into a time
where speculation takes over and
cartography becomes abstract and the
words of journalistic navigators fall quiet.

Marco Polo’s Input.

‘When you sail from Chamba, 1500 miles in a course between south and south-east, you come to a great Island
called Java. And the experienced mariners of those Islands know the matter well, say that it is the greatest Island in
the world.’
​
Marco Polo, 13th century. 16

As we go further back in time, global circumnavigator, Magellan, positions

cartography and world exploration used the
old stories of sailors and mythologies to
guide them into the unknown. The works of
Marco Polo and his travels to the east
flavoured much of 16th-century European
thought on what lies beyond, with multiple
accounts, including literature such as ​The
Travels of Marco Polo circulating at the
time. Due to lack of the originals and
liberties taken by translators to fill in gaps,
things were lost and misconstrued, with the
oldest copies we have access to dating to the
1350’s, in French.​17 What does Marco Polo
have to do with the question who discovered
Australia? It was his words that sparked the
imaginations of cartographers to design a
world they did not know even truly existed.
Author Edward Brooke-Hitching
posits that the main form that this
misconception took was when the famous
Java Grande south of Java Minor
furthermore confusing the location of the
land.​18 This leads us to the Dieppe
mapmakers, a group of scholars in the 16th
century, located in France, who held the
pinnacle of authority when it came to
cartography. It is the map drawn by Nicolas
Desliens that draws my eye and that of
many scholars, to find details that are
potential evidence of a Portuguese discovery
of the Australian continent in the 16th or
even 15th century. Richardson argues that
the Dieppe mapmakers took their references
for these maps from Portuguese sources due
to inscriptions on ‘Java la Grande’ being
derived from Portuguese words.​19 If this is
true Brooke-Hitching concludes that these
sources, if they existed, could have been
destroyed in the devastating earthquake
that struck Lisbon in 1755.​20

Who Discovered Australia?
Portuguese Theories.
Situated on the continent of Java la
Grande stand three Portuguese flags, which
indicates that this territory falls under the
trading Empire of Portugal. The continent is
located eerily close to where Australia is also
located and some believe that the coastal
resemblance to the east coast is either a
coincidence from the mind of mapmakers or
it is true, that the Portuguese had in fact
​ Depicting Java as an enormous landmass in the top left corner.
Nicolas Desliens World Map, 1566. 21​
The following map (page 8) is also
apart of the Dieppe map collection which
depicts the east coast of Java la Grande,
often called ‘The first map of Australia’. It is
argued that this map may be in fact
detailing the eastern coast of Australia,
which is upside down to indicated by the
compass. The bottom of the image is that of
7 
discovered Australia in far greater detail
than ever imagined. The latitudinal
coordinates that are far removed from
accurate, are explained by the Dieppe
mappers working with gridless copies of the
explored territory.​22 But of course, this is all
speculation based on the opinions and
workings of select scholars, but due to map
fragility and time, it is not impossible.
the coast of Queensland and coming down
to the familiar hump and what looks to be
North Stradbroke Island. Travelling toward
the top of the image, a large prominent bay
and river mouth come into view. Could this
be Botany Bay or another New South Wales
inlet? There is the recognisable and glaring
inaccuracy, that large southern spike.

Who Discovered Australia?
The old maps that would have been
created by the Portuguese mapmakers,
could have been drawn on vellum, or animal
skin. These types of maps were prone to
damage and if Brooke-Hitching is correct
about the damaged charts, then the Dieppe
cartographers were probably redrawing the
map to the best of their ability, hence
resulting in some guesswork on damaged
sections. This would depict the southern
promontory of Australia with distortion.
Though despite these cartographic
coincidences and visual similarities, most
‘The First Map of Australia’, 1547. 23
8 
scholars dispute the authenticity of the
claims of a Portuguese discovery of
Australia. Richardson, a writer heavily
involved in this topic goes on to say “​Java la
Grande, despite its position on the Dieppe
maps, and despite the superficial similarity
of part of it's to part of Australia’s east
coast, no evidence whatsoever of a
Portuguese discovery of Australia in the
1520’s. Evidence from other sources may
conceivably yet materialise, but will have
to be much more convincing than any
hitherto produced.”25​
​
  

Who Discovered Australia? 9 

Much has been said of the amazing

discoveries of the Dutch and Spanish, the
amazing speculation of the Portuguese
theories, but what are we witnessing? We
are witnessing the process of historical
investigation take place and we have to
take all the evidence and weight it up in
for and against. Those, who deny the
Portuguese theories, do so on the basis of
insubstantial evidence, but it also
possible for claims to be denied for that
and over abundance of imaginative
speculation taking place in one's work.
The third sphere of discovery that claims
Australia first, is that of the Chinese.

Java la Grande laid over Australia to

highlight similarities.​24

Gavin Menzies & Zheng He, 1421.

“A British submarine captain puts forward the claim that Chinese admirals travelled around the world visiting
every corner of the globe in 1421.”​ 26
​

The claim that is made is exactly that, China
discovered Australia in the year 1421,
reportedly by the famous Admiral Zheng
He. Scholars have long known about
Admiral Zheng He and his voyages to
Indonesia, Siam, India, Arabia and the
African east coast, also the spectacular
method in which he did so. With a fleet of
317 ships, in which some were more than
130 meters long, carrying a crew with Zheng
He’s fleet of 27,000 men.​27 His
accomplishments grand, and story fill the
imagination of the sight it must have been,
but author Gavin Menzies claims more.

A representation of Zheng He’s voyages between 1405 and 1433.​28

  

Who Discovered Australia? 10 

Gavin Menzies is one of the main
propagators of the Chinese Theories and in
which he goes into detail in his book, ​1421
The Year China discovered the World. ​He
argues that evidence such as charts and
documents pertaining Zheng He voyages of
worldwide exploration were deliberately
destroyed. By whom he blames officials at
the Chinese Ministry of War, because the
voyages were deemed ‘wasted myriads of
money and grain’, and therefore a useless
venture.​29 The claims of Menzies don't stop
there, for he also claims that others
predated Zheng He and his voyages. Zhou
Man, an admiral under Zheng He’s
command was sent to survey Australia’s
coast and supposedly made landfall ‘just
north of where Sydney is today.​31 To add to
these claims, Menzies goes as far as to say
that Zhou Man was going off of knowledge
that had been gathered since the Sui
Dynasty, 589-618 AD, in which a great
landmass peopled by men who threw
boomerangs.

​ ​The controversial map depicting a Chinese view of the globe in 1413, including the Americas and Australia,
‘Zheng He’s map 1431.’ 30
seen as a large island in the Pacific Ocean.
 

Who Discovered Australia? 11 

Kangaroo’s reportedly populated further and further back into more

imperial Chinese zoos before the time of
Marco Polo, which would indicate visitation
to the continent at least before the 12th
century.​32 ​Historians and other authors,
refute the work done by Menzies, arguing
instead that it is an example of cartographic
fiction or pseudo-history, using facts and
assumptions that are an unsubstantiated or
ignorant denial of opposing evidence.
Richardson describes his opposition to
Menzies and says this of his works.
“‘Imaginography’ and uninformed, wildly
speculative ‘translations’ of toponyms are
not conducive to a credible rewriting of
history”. It is safe to say, that with the
evidence presented Zheng He’s fleet did not
discover Australia, until more compelling
evidence surfaces if any.
So, the question of ‘Who discovered
Australia?’ is one that seems to drag us
speculative and vague times. We’ve seen
how the Dutch were prolifically exploring
the southern regions of the world and what
they deemed “New Holland’ and ‘Van
Diemen's Land’ by Abel Tasman. The
Spanish coming close in with expeditions of
Luis Vaz de Torres and his journal of the
area, to the Dutchman, Willem Janszoon
aboard the Duyfken in 1606, a full 164 years
before the famous landing of Captain Cook
in 1770. We also saw theories that were
developed and are still highly debated, in
the case of the Portuguese discovered the
continent in the 15th century by using a
collection of maps known as the Dieppe
Maps. We then see how speculation can
become mixed with what seems to be pure
imagination in Gavin Menzies view of the
Chinese Admiral Zheng He and his
discovery of the World in 1421.

As hopeful as I am for more evidence for the Portuguese theories, to surface, the discoverer of
Australia from European, will for now be handed to the crew of the Duyfken and Willem
Janszoon, for now.
 

Who Discovered Australia? 12 

Bibliography
● Clarkson, Chris et al., ‘Human occupation of Northern Australia by 65,000 years ago’, ​NATURE,​ Vol. 547
(2017), p. 306.
● Collingridge, George, ​1st Discovery of Australia and New Guinea (​ Sydney: William Brooks, 1906).
● Cornell, Christine & Brown, Anthony, ‘Legacy of the Encounter: British and French place names on the South
Australian Coast’, ​South Australian Geographical Journal,​ Vol. 99, (2000).
● Forsyth, J.W, ‘Janssen, Willem (fl 1603-1628)’, ​Australian Dictionary of Biography ​[online], Vol. 2,
<http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/janssen-willem-2270>, 05/10/2018.
● Gibson, Dan, review of Menzies, Gavin, ​1421, The Year China Discovered the World​,
<https://www.researchgate.net/publication/321708429_Book_Review_1421_The_Year_China_Discover>
07/10/2018.
● Henderson, James, ​Sent Forth a Dove: Discovery of the Duyfken (​ WA: University of WA Press, 1999).
● Klaasen, Nic, ‘Nuyts, Pieter (1598-1655)’, in Christopher Cunneen (ed.), ​Australian National University
(Carlton: Melbourne University Press, 2005).
● Menzies, Gavin ,​1421: The Year China Discovered the World (​ USA: Random House, 2003).
● Moule, A.C & Pelliot, Paul, ​Marco Polo: The Description of the World ​(UK: Routledge, 1938).
● Richardson, W.A.R, ​The Portuguese Discovery of Australia Fact or Fiction? ​(Canberra: National Library of Australia,
1989).
● Sharp, Andrew, ​The Voyages of Abel Janszoon Tasman ​(Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1968).
● Smith, Jens, ‘Iave La Grande’, in W.A.R Richardson, ​The Portuguese Discovery of Australia: Fact or Fiction (​ Canberra:
National Library of Australia, 1989).
● Tamura, Eileen, ​Voyages of Zheng He, ​(USA: University of Hawaii Press, 1997).
● Tamura, Eileen, ​Voyages of Zheng He, ​1997,​ i​ n Tamura, Eileen, ​China: Understanding its Past (​ USA: University of
Hawaii Press, 1997).
● Zheng He’s map 1418/1763 ​[image], (30/11/2016) <https://www.quora.com/Did-Zheng-He-reach-Australia>
08/10/2018.

● Gerritsz, Hessel, ‘Chart of the Malay Archipelago and the Dutch discoveries of Australia’, ​National Library of
Australia, (​ 1618-1638) <http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-231306238/view> 9/23/2018.
● Nicolas Desliens, ‘World Map of Nicolas Desliens’ (Dresden: Saxon State Library, 1566).
● Flinders, Matthew, ‘General Chart of Terra Australis or Australia’ (NAtional Library of Australia, 1814-1822).
● Oesterreichische Nationalbibliothek, ‘The Route of the Duyfken’, ​Theatrum Orbis Terrarum​ (Amsterdam:
1670).
● Vaz de Torres, Luis, ​Torres’ report to the King,​ tr. Collingridge, G. (1895) (NSW: Golden Press Edition, 1983).
● Vallard, Nicholas, ‘First Map of Australia’ 1547, MAP RM 2393, 37.6x55.4 (Worcestershire: Middle Hill Press, 1856).
● Tasman, Abel J, ‘Anthony Van Diemens Landt’, Collection Dutch National Archives (1642) <http://tasman1642.com.au/>
21/09/18.
● Tasman, Abel J, ​Abel Janszoon Tasman’s Journal 1644,​ tr. (ed.) J.E. Heeres (Amsterdam: Frederik Muller and Co, 1898)
p. 11.
● Yule, Henry, ​The Book of Ser Marco Polo the Venetian, Concerning the Kingdoms and Marvels of the East,
Volume 2 (​ UK: John Murray, 1871).

 
   
 

Who Discovered Australia? 13 

Endnotes 
1. Abel Janszoon Tasman, ​Abel Janszoon Tasman’s Journal 1644,​ tr. (ed.) J.E. Heeres (Amsterdam: Frederik Muller
and Co, 1898) p. 11.
2. Clarkson, Chris et al., ‘Human occupation of Northern Australia by 65,000 years ago’, ​NATURE​, Vol. 547 (2017) p.
306.
3. Andrew Sharp, ​The Voyages of Abel Janszoon Tasman (​ Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1968) pp. 24-25.
4. Tasman, Abel J, ‘Anthony Van Diemens Landt’, Collection Dutch National Archives (1642)
<http://tasman1642.com.au/> 21/09/18.
5. Abel Janszoon Tasman, ​Abel Janszoon Tasman’s Journal 1644​, tr. (ed.) J.E. Heeres (Amsterdam: Frederik Muller
and Co, 1898) p. 147.
6. Nic Klaasen, ‘Nuyts, Pieter (1598-1655)’, in Christopher Cunneen (ed.), ​Australian National University ​(Carlton:
Melbourne University Press, 2005).
7. Christine Cornel & Anthony Brown, ‘Legacy of the Encounter: British and French place names on the South
Australian Coast’, ​South Australian Geographical Journal​, Vol. 99, (2000) p. 10.
8. Hessel Gerritsz, ‘Chart of the Malay Archipelago and the Dutch discoveries of Australia’, ​National Library of
Australia, ​(1618-1638) <http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-231306238/view> 9/23/2018.
9. Abel Janszoon Tasman, ‘Bonaparte Tasman Map’, ​Mitchell Map Collection (​ 1644)
11. Collingridge, George, ​1st Discovery of Australia and New Guinea (​ Sydney: William Brooks, 1906) p. 93.
12. Vaz de Torres, Luis, ​Torres’ report to the King​, tr. Collingridge, G. (1895) (NSW: Golden Press Edition, 1983) pp.
229-237.
13. J.W Forsyth, ‘Janssen, Willem (fl 1603-1628)’, ​Australian Dictionary of Biography [​ online], Vol. 2, p. 13,
<http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/janssen-willem-2270>, 05/10/2018.
14. James Henderson, ​Sent Forth a Dove: Discovery of the Duyfken ​(WA: University of WA Press, 1999) p. 35.
15. Oesterreichische Nationalbibliothek, ‘The Route of the Duyfken’, ​Theatrum Orbis Terrarum​ (Amsterdam: 1670)
16. Henry Yule, ​The Book of Ser Marco Polo the Venetian, Concerning the Kingdoms and Marvels of the East,
Volume II (​ UK: John Murray, 1871) p. 217.
17. A.C Moule & Paul Pelliot, ​Marco Polo: The Description of the World (​ UK: Routledge, 1938) p. 41.
18. Brooke-Hitching, Edward, ​The Phantom Atlas: The Greatest Myths and Blunders on Maps ​(UK: Simon &
Schuster UK Ltd, 2016) p. 138.
19. W.A.R Richardson, ​The Portuguese Discovery of Australia Fact or Fiction? (​ Canberra: National Library of
Australia, 1989)p. 6.
20. Brooke-Hitching, Edward, ​The Phantom Atlas: The Greatest Myths and Blunders on Maps (​ UK: Simon &
Schuster UK Ltd, 2016) p. 139.
21. Nicolas Desliens, ‘World Map of Nicolas Desliens’ (Dresden: Saxon State Library, 1566).
22. Stuart Duncan, The discovery of Australia: The Portuguese priority reconsidered, ​Victorian Historical Journal​,
Vol. 68, No. 1 (1997) p. 66.
23. Nicholas Vallard, ‘First Map of Australia’ 1547, MAP RM 2393, 37.6x55.4 (Worcestershire: Middle Hill Press,
1856).
24. Smith, Jens, ‘Iave La Grande’, in W.A.R Richardson, ​The Portuguese Discovery of Australia: Fact or Fiction
(Canberra: National Library of Australia, 1989) p. 4/Fig. 1.
25. W.A.R Richardson, ​The Portuguese Discovery of Australia Fact or Fiction? (​ Canberra: National Library of
Australia, 1989) p. 28.
26. Gibson, Dan, review of Menzies, Gavin, ​1421, The Year China Discovered the World​,
<https://www.researchgate.net/publication/321708429_Book_Review_1421_The_Year_China_Discover>
07/10/2018. Para. 1.
27. Eileen Tamura, ​Voyages of Zheng He, ​(USA: University of Hawaii Press, 1997) p. 70.
28. Eileen Tamura, ​Voyages of Zheng He, ​1997,​ i​ n Eileen Tamura, ​China: Understanding its Past (​ USA: University of
Hawaii Press, 1997) p. 70.
29. Gavin Menzies,​1421: The Year China Discovered the World (​ USA: Random House, 2003) p. 84.
30. ​Zheng He’s map 1418/1763 ​[image], (30/11/2016) <https://www.quora.com/Did-Zheng-He-reach-Australia>
08/10/2018.
31. Menzies, p. 200.
32. Menzies, p. 202.