Search Results: Australia

17th-century Dutch East India Company (Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie or VOC) navigators were the first Europeans to set foot on Australian soil. Although there is a strong theory that the Portuguese explorer, Cristóvão de Mendonça (1475-1532...

Matthew Flinders (1774-1814) was an English navigator and hydrographer. He was the first person to map the coastal outline of Australia in 1801-1803, following his circumnavigation of the 7.692 million square kilometres (2.96 million square...

Chart of the Malay Archipelago and the Dutch discoveries in Australia by Dutch cartographer Hessel Gerritsz (1581–1632).

When Homo sapiens arrived in Australia, they were, for the first time, truly alone, surrounded by wildly different flora and fauna. How did they survive and populate a continent? There is a close cultural and genetic link between the First...

Dutch explorer, Abel Janszoon Tasman (1603-1659), who discovered Van Dieman's Land (Tasmania, Australia) in 1642. (National Library of Australia)

"A complete map of the Southern Continent surveyed by Captain Abel Tasman (1603-1659 CE) and depicted by order of the East India Company in Holland in the Stadt House at Amsterdam, 1774 CE." The map shows the western mainland of Australia...

A wide photo of the Ancient Uluru sandstone rock formation located in Central Australia. Uluru is home to many Ancient tribes of Indigenous Australians that have inhabited the area for nearly 30,000 years and still do to this day. Uluru is...

Dutch explorer Dirk Hartog (1580-1621) made landfall on the Eendracht on 25 October 1616 at Shark Bay on Australia’s west coast, 850 kilometres (528 miles) north of Perth. He nailed a pewter dish at Cape Inscription to announce he and his...

This basket is a ceremonial basket of the Aboriginal people of Arnhem Bay, Northern Territory, Australia. This particular basket on display was created in 1942 CE and was loaned to Museum Victoria in March of that year. The Aboriginal language...

An example of an oval basket used by the Aboriginal people of Yarra, Victoria, Australia. No date is recorded for the collection or creation of this item. In the Woi wurrung language this basket is called beenak beelang (woven basket). (The...