AE 647.2 - Aussie Fact: Mapping Australia transcript powered by Sonix—the best automated transcription service in 2020. Easily convert your audio to text with Sonix.

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G'day, you mob! And welcome to this Aussie English Fact episode. Today I have a bit of a ripper for you. It was an interesting one to study and I'm going to be telling you about how Australia was mapped. We're going to be going through several hundred years of sort of history, briefly talking about all of the different expeditions and interesting people from different parts of the world who contributed to making a complete map of Australia well and truly before modern day technology allowed us to do it with satellites and GPS systems and everything like that. Anyway, let's get into the episode.

Putting Australia on the map. Despite obviously being first discovered by Indigenous Australians, probably more than 60,000 years ago, the world's largest island continent, Australia, was the last inhabited continent to appear on Europe's map of the world.

It may be surprising, but it wasn't the English nor the French, but instead a small group of Dutch navigators in service of the Dutch East India Company, who began the arduous task of putting Australia's coastline on the world map in the early-1600s. This was an impressive 125 years before Lieutenant James Cook would even lay eyes on the Australian coast of New South Wales.

The Dutch had zero interest in colonisation of Australia at the time, but instead were much more focussed on the lucrative trade of commodities such as tea, silk and porcelain throughout much of South East Asia. Initially, they only wanted more accurate maps of the region south of Indonesia or what was then known as the Dutch East Indies.

In order to warn other ships in the Dutch East India Company of Western Australia's has its coastline. However, as more of the coastline was map, the company's interest was piqued and they began to send out more and more ships on journeys of exploration.

Here's a timeline of the Dutch exploration and mapping of Australia:

1606 - The very first map of the Australian coastline was made of the western tip of Cape York Peninsula in far north Queensland. This was done by a Willem Janszoon, captain of the Duyfken. He became the first European to map Australia's coastline when he charted 300 kilometres of the Cape York Peninsula.

But let's hit pause quickly on the Dutch for a sec and give the Spanish an honourable mention in the same year of 1606. On June, the twenty sixth Spanish maritime explorer Captain Luis Vaz de Torres led the San Pedrico and Los Tres Reyes Magos ships from Peru in South America to Manila in the Philippines.

He crossed the Pacific Ocean and sailed along the southern coast of New Guinea. In October of the same year, he navigated the 150km strait that separates New Guinea and Australia, which now bears his name Torres Strait. He then turned northwards and sailed on to Manila in the Philippines.

Historians believe the Torres likely sailed close enough to Australia to have seen present day Cape York. The tip of far north Queensland, though, didn't realise at the time it was just the tip of the iceberg or Great Southern continent, which only months earlier had been discovered and first mapped by the Dutch.

Let's get back to the Dutch.

1611 - A new and quicker trade route had been discovered where ships could more easily travel across the Pacific Ocean from the Cape York in South Africa with the intent of turning sharply northwards just before reaching Australia and heading on to Batavia or Java in Indonesia today. GPS technology was definitely yet to be created, and getting your bearings from the stars at night time and knowing when to turn north wasn't easy. And as a result, Dutch ships began to overshoot their mark and hit the western coast of Australia, which is today Western Australia.

1616 - Captain Dirk Hartog and his crew abroad the "Eendracht” became the first Europeans to accidentally sail too far to the east of the designated trade route and run smack bang into the Western Australian coastline. It was at this point he decided it was probably time to head north.

In doing so, Dirk Hartog and his crew became the first Europeans to sight the Western Australia coast at Shark Bay. The Eendracht dropped anchor near a small island, which was immediately and humbly named Dirk Hartog Island, and the captain and crew became the first Europeans to ever set foot on Australian soil.

At Cape Inscription whilst there, Hartog decided to chart over 400 kilometres of the West Australian coastline from Shark Bay to North West Cape, and in doing so became the second person to map Australia's coastline. To mark the visit, as must have been the custom at the time. Hartog celebrated his triumph by, you guessed it, engraving a pewter plate, a silver plate, dinner plate and nailing it to a tree. The plate can still be seen today on display in Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.

Over the 17 years following Hartog serendipitous discovery of the coast of Western Australia, the Dutch East India Company ramped up its efforts to map this maritime hazard of a landmass in order to ensure safe passage for their precious, fully-loaded trade ships heading northwards parallel to the coast onto Indonesia.

1619 - Captain Frederik de Houtman and Jacob d’Edel sighted land south of the mouth of the Swan River and also discovered the Houtman Abrolhos Islands.

1622 - Willem Janszoon, originally captain of the Duyfken, was back. He named the Willams River, possibly the current Ashburton River after himself.

In the same year, an English ship, The Trial, captained by John Brook, became Australia's first recorded shipwreck when it hit a reef in the Montebello Islands off the Pilbara coast of northern W.A. The captain and 45 crew sailed two long boats to Batavia, leaving 93 crew to perish.

In order to cover his arse, Brooke decided to falsify his position at the time of the shipwreck, leading to great confusion about the exact location of the reef. The wreck was only discovered in 1969 by members of the Fremantle-based Underwater Explorers Club.

1622 again - About 180 kilometres of Western Australia's south west coast, between Hamelin Bay and Point d’Entrecasteaux were mapped by the Dutch ship Leeuwin.

1623 - Meanwhile, along the north coast of Australia, the Dutch East India Company sent two ships. The Pera captained by Jan Carstenszoon, and the Arnhem, under the command of Willem Colster. These ships had the objective of charting the coastline to the south of where Willem Janszoon had mapped on the Duyfken in 1606. They likely had the primary concern, though, of searching for commercial opportunities like gold.

Carstenszoon and his crew had to abandon ship about 150 kilometres from the south east corner of the Gulf of Carpentaria, when the local indigenous people prevented his crew from replenishing their water supplies.

On the return voyage to Indonesia, Colster decided to head out with the Arnhem on a long north west course. In doing so, he sighted an unknown coastline, which we now know is the west coast of the Gulf of Carpentaria. Colster named it 'Arnhem Land' after the ship that he was captaining.

With this new information, Carstenszoon summarise that a gulf had been discovered and he named that gulf 'Gulf of Carpentaria' after Pieter de Carpentier, the governor general of the Dutch East India Company at the time.

1624 - Officers of Tortelduyf discovered and named Tortelduyf Island part of the Houtman Abrolhos.

1627 - François Thijssen arrived near Cape Leeuwin and sailed eastwards along the southern coast of Australia. They mapped more than fifteen hundred kilometres of coastline from Albany, Western Australia to Ceduna in South Australia, and he named the area Nuyt’s Land. He also discovered two islands that he named St Francis and St. Peter.

1628 - Gerrit Frederikszoon de Witt sighted the coast to the east of the Montebello Islands, including Barrow Island and coastal reefs to the south.

1642-44 - The Dutch East India Company was keen to continue exploring the southern land in search of any commercial opportunities. In 1642, Governor-General Anthony Van Diemen sent Abel Tasman and cartographer Franchoijs Visscher on a voyage of discovery. Tasman famously circumnavigated the Australian continent, but did very little in the way of following his instructions, nor did he discover more about the landmass. In fact, he rarely came in contact with the coast.

His only contributions to the map of Australia were confined to the very southern half of Tasmania, which he had named Van Diemen's Land in honour of the Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies. Although Tasman did bugger all in a way of surveying the Australian coastline, he did give cartographers an idea of the size of the continent and that it wasn't connected to any other land mass thought to potentially be located in the south or the east.

In 1644, Tasman and Visscher set sail once again. This time they had been given the orders to sail from the east coast of the Gulf of Carpentaria to Willams River, likely the Ashburton River, 20 kilometres south of Onslow on the Central Coast of W.A.On this epic journey, they successfully charted over 3700 kilometres along the northern and western coastlines of Australia. As a result, Tasman ditched all other names that have been given to portions of the Australian coastline that had now been shown to be a single landmass and gave it the name New Holland.

Despite such an arduous and impressive undertaking this time by Tasman and Visscher, not to mention their crew, when they returned and reported their findings to the Dutch East India Company, the directors were disappointed. They considered the fifth continent little more than barren coastlines and a landmass devoid of natural resources from which they could profit. As such, the Dutch East India Company gave up any idea of exploring the continent further.

In 1659, Dutch cartographer Joan Blaeu created a map of South East Asia and compiled the maps that have been made of the New Holland coastlines. The map traced the coastlines of the western two thirds of the continent with astonishing accuracy. A near continuous coastline was mapped from the northern tip of Cape York Peninsula in Queensland through the Gulf of Carpentaria and around Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory, past the Kimberley and the Pilbara, down to Perth in Western Australia and then eastward along the southern coast of the continent to west South Australia is today. However, the east coastline of Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, as well as the northern portion of Tasmania were to remain absent and completely unknown from any map for the next 125 years after the Dutch hit the pause button on mapping the continent.

Alright. Let's have an intermission and quick history lesson to get you up to speed on the British. Before we get into British colonisation of Australia and their work completing the mapping of the Australian coastline, let's get you up to speed with the state of British affairs as it stood at the time. So, in 1607, just one year after the very first map of the Australian coastline was made by Dutch navigator Willem Janszoon, Britain established its very first permanent English colony in Jamestown, Virginia, in North America. For the next 160 years, the British colonies expanded and thrived in North America.

In a nutshell, Great Britain went bankrupt, protecting its thirteen American colonies from the French in the Seven Year's War in North America. In order to try and make their money back, Great Britain taxed the hell out of these 13 colonies. Needless to say, the Thirteen Colonies told Britain where to go and this kicked off the American Revolution, which began in 1765 and led to the American War of Independence, which only ended 18 years after that in 1783.

Spoiler alert - The Thirteen Colonies ended up winning with the help of Great Britain's arch nemesis, the French.

Whilst America and Great Britain were at war, Great Britain had sent Lieutenant James Cook aboard the HMS Endeavour on a scientific mission to observe the transit of Venus across the sun in Tahiti in the year 1769.

Cook had also been given the secondary orders to search the South Pacific for any signs of the postulated rich southern continent Terra Australis, meaning southern land. And if successful, he was to claim it in the name of Great Britain. This was to try and beat the French to the punch, who, since having lost the Seven Year's War back in 1763, had turned their interest to colonising this unknown continent and other regions in the South Pacific in order to expand their own empire.

Now let's go through a timeline of British and French mapping of the Australian coastline. So, in 1770, Cook first reached the south eastern coast of Australia in April, and in doing so, his expedition became the first recorded Europeans to have encountered the continent's eastern coastline. Cook had actually aimed to hit Van Diemen's Land and try and travel north along the eastern coast to discover if it was an island or if it was attached to the mainland.

However, due to the prevailing winds, the endeavour was forced far northwards and on the 19th of April 1770, they sighted first land. His expedition moved up the eastern coast of the continent as he mapped every bay, river and beach fastidiously. Towards the end of this trip, the ship crashed into the Great Barrier Reef in far north Queensland, but with Cook's impressive leadership and skilful crew of the Endeavour, the boat was saved.

On the 22nd of August 1770, Cook climbed to the Summit of Possession Island on the tip of the Cape York Peninsula in Torres Strait and claimed the east coast of this continent for Britain. He named the land 'New South Wales'. Cook then set sail for Batavia, Jakarta in Indonesia, and then went back to Britain, never to see Australia again.

Let's hit pause again and go back to the events unfolding in Britain. In the meantime, Britain wasn't able to continue sending its convicts to America, and they quickly built up in overcrowded, disease-ridden prisons, including ships called 'hulks'. They needed somewhere to send all of these criminals and also wanted to keep expanding their empire. Thus, 11 ships comprising the First Fleet were sent to Australia to set up shop with Britain's first Australian colony at Botany Bay, and they arrived on the 24th of January in 1788.

1795 - Matthew Flinders arrived in Australia in 1795 aboard the HMS Reliance, where he proved himself a fine navigator and cartographer. On this voyage, he also befriended the ship's surgeon, George Bass. Not long after Flinders and Bass arrived in Port Jackson, Sydney today, the pair made two expeditions in a couple of small boats named 'Tom Thumb', captained by Bass, and 'Tom Thumb II', captained by Flinders. They headed south of Port Jackson to Lake Illawarra, which is just south of modern-day Wollongong in New South Wales.

Side note - In the last few decades, letters between Bass and Flinders have been discovered. The content of which suggests that the pair had a relationship that was probably 'more than just friends'.

1798 - Matthew Flinders, now a Lieutenant, was given command of a sloop called Norfolk and he was ordered to sail beyond Furneaux's Islands and, should a straight be found, pass through it and return by the south end of Van Diemen's Land. This was important as such a passage would enable journeys from England to shave several days off their trip heading to Sydney. Flinders ended up discovering that there was indeed a passage between the Australian mainland and Tasmania and ended up naming it Bass Strait in honour of his friend and potential lover George Bass.

1799 - Flinders once more set sail in Norfolk in July 1799, this time heading north to Morton Bay in present day Queensland. He continued as far north as Harvey Bay, and in doing so, discovered that Fraser Island was in fact not a peninsula as had been believed, but instead an island of its own.

In the year 1800, Flinders rejoined Reliance and headed back to England, unaware that his biggest achievements still lay ahead of him.

In the same year, a ship named The Lady Nelson was commissioned back in Britain as an armed survey vessel to chart the coast of Australia. The historic backdrop to her commissioning and surveying mission was that the British government were worried that in the event of settlers from any other European powers, i.e. the French, becoming established in Australia, any future conflict in Europe could lead to conflicts stretching to the southern hemisphere and negatively affect the trade that the British were trying to develop there.

She was captained by Lieutenant James Grant and was the first boat to successfully navigate through Bass Strait on her way to Sydney from England. Her survey work was heavily focussed on Bass Strait, and she was involved in the discovery and exploration of Port Phillip Bay, among many other places around Australia whilst here.

Let's hit pause on the British for a second and quickly get you up to speed with what the French were doing at the time.

The year 1800 to 1803 - A French expedition was sent to map the coasts of New Holland. A man named Nicolas Baudin, was to lead the expedition of two ships and brought with him cartographer Louis de Freycinet. Baudin captained Géographe and Jacque Hamelin captained Naturaliste.

As you might be able to deduce from the names of the ships, the purpose of the voyage was to be observation and research relating to the geography and natural history of Australia. They departed France in October of 1800 and arrived at present day Cape Leeuwin in Western Australia on the southwest corner of the continent in May of 1801.

As many explorers before them, they immediately started naming things. Upon rounding Cape Naturaliste, they entered Géographe Bay. They sailed north and surveyed large stretches of the north western coast of present-day Western Australia, all the way up to Timor in Indonesia. They then sailed back down to Western coast of Australia, then across the Great Australian Bight, reaching Tasmania in January of 1802.

They charted the entire length of Tasmania's eastern coast and had extensive peaceful interactions with the indigenous Tasmanians. Their coastline mapping thirsts still not quenched Baudin and his ships sailed north and began surveying the south coast of Australia until captain Hamelin of the Naturaliste decided to head for Sydney in the north in order to stock up on water and food, as well as a few anchors as stocks were running low.

On his way, he explored the area of Western Port in Victoria and named places like ‘Ile des Français’, now known as French Island, near Phillip Island in Victoria. Meanwhile, Baudin was heading westwards and in April of 1802 encountered the British ship Investigator at Encounter Bay in South Australia, commanded by Matthew Flinders. Matthew Flinders was also engaged in charting the coastline at the time. But more on him and his expedition shortly.

There the two exchanged information of their discoveries Flinders informing Baudin of his discovery of Kangaroo Island as well as St Vincent's and Spencer's gulfs. Baudin then headed to Port Jackson in order to resupply, just as Hamelin had done months earlier. Once in Port Jackson, the ship's Naturaliste and Géographe, both restocked, with Hamelin and Naturaliste heading to France and Baudin and Géographe continuing to explore the Australian coast.

Baudin visited Tasmania once again and conducted further charting of Bass Strait, before sailing west to the western coast, then northward, once more to Timor, and then all the way back home to France. On his way back to France, Baudin travelled down to Tasmania once again to conduct further charting of Bass Strait before then, sailing along the western coasts and then northward to Timor and then back off to France.

Alright. Returning to Matthew Flinders and the British.

1801/1802 - Flinders returned to continue his work surveying and mapping the Australian shorelines. In December of 1801, he arrived aboard the Investigator at the south west of present day W.A at a place he named Cape Leeuwin. He proceeded along the southern coastline of the continent through Bass Strait and then up to Port Jackson.

In April of 1802, whilst on this trip, Flinders caught sight of Géographe captained by Baudin as we mentioned before. Despite the fact that both of their countries, France and Great Britain were at war, the two men of science exchanged details of their discoveries, and Flinders named the bay where they did so Encounter Bay, and this is just outside of Victor Harbour near Adelaide, South Australia.

Continuing on his voyage, Flinders explored Port Phillip Ba. His stocks running low, Flinders then proceeded to Sydney and arrived on the 9th of May in 1802.

1802/1803 - Flinders hastily prepared his ship and then set sail once again on the 22nd of July, this time heading north in order to survey the coast of Queensland. From there, he passed through the Torres Strait and into the Gulf of Carpentaria. During this time, Flinders discovered that the ship was badly leaking, and although he careened the ship, which is the process of grounding a sailing vessel at high tide in order to expose one side of the hull for maintenance and repairs as it's below the waterline as the tide is out. However, they were unable to completely repair the ship. Reluctantly, Flinders set sail back to Sydney, though, via the western coast of the continent, and in doing so became the second person to circumnavigate Australia. He arrived back in Sydney on the 9th of June in 1803.

The race to publish a complete map of Australia - Following the immensely successful expedition of border and Géographe and Naturaliste and that of Flinders upon the Investigator, both the French and the British had complete surveys of the Australian coastline. The last step was putting all the pieces together into a single comprehensive map of the continent that would one day be named Australia.

It took Baudin's cartographer Freycinet about a decade, but he beat Flinders to the punch when he published his complete map of the Australian coastline in 1811 called The Freycinet Map of 1811. Flinders published his in 1814, which he called the Terra Australis, or Australia.

Bonus fact for the day before we finish up, guys.

The name Australia was popularised by the explorer Matthew Flinders, who said it was 'more agreeable to the ear and an assimilation to the names of the other great portions of the Earth'. However, several other early cartographers had already made use of the name Australia on maps as far back as the mid 1500s. The first time that Australia appears to have been used officially is in April of 1817, when Governor Lachlan Macquarie acknowledged the receipt of Flinders charts of Australia.

In December of the same year, Macquarie recommended to the colonial office that they formally adopt the name Australia. The Admiralty agreed in 1824 that the continent should be officially known by that name, and in 1830, the first official publication using the name Australia was made in the Australian Directory by the Hydrographic Office.

So, there you go, guys. I hope you enjoy this episode and I hope you got to learn a little bit about Australian history as well as, obviously, Spanish, Dutch and French history as these different European countries were surveying the coastline of Australia to get together a piece of the map that had since been missing from the entire globe, ok? So, I hope you enjoy this episode and I'll see you next time. Peace.

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