City Libraries, City of Gold Coast

Great south land, how Dutch sailors found Australia and a British pirate almost beat Captain Cook ..., Rob Mundle ; read by Paul English

eng

not applicable

not applicable

history

Great south land

not applicable

Rob Mundle ; read by Paul English

how Dutch sailors found Australia and a British pirate almost beat Captain Cook ...

For many, the colonial story of Australia starts with Captain Cook's discovery of the east coast in 1770, but it was some 164 years before his historic voyage that European mariners began their romance with the immensity of the Australian continent. Between 1606 and 1688, while the British had their hands full with the Gunpowder Plot and the English Civil War, it was highly skilled Dutch seafarers who, by design, chance or shipwreck, discovered and mapped the majority of the vast, unknown waters and land masses in the Indian and Southern Oceans. Yet, incredibly, the Dutch made no effort to lay claim to Australia, or establish any settlements. This process began with British explorer and former pirate William Dampier on the west coast in 1688, and by the time Captain Cook arrived in 1770, all that was to be done was chart the east coast and claim what the Dutch had discovered

adult

not applicable