The maritime European exploration of Australia consisted of several waves of European seafarers who sailed the edges of the Australian continent. Dutch navigators were the first Europeans known to have explored and mapped the Australian coastline. The first documented encounter was that of Dutch navigator Willem Janszoon, in 1606. Dutch seafarers also visited the west and north coasts of the continent, as did French explorers.
The Houtman Abrolhos is a chain of 122 islands and associated coral reefs, in the Indian Ocean off the west coast of Australia, about 80 kilometres (50 mi) west of Geraldton, Western Australia. It is the southernmost true coral reef in the Indian Ocean, and one of the highest latitude reef systems in the world.
Dirk Hartog was a 17th-century Dutch sailor and explorer. Dirk Hartog's expedition was the second European group to land in Australia and the first to leave behind an artefact to record his visit, the Hartog Plate. His name is sometimes alternatively spelled Dirck Hartog or Dierick Hartochszch. Ernest Giles referred to him as Theodoric Hartog. The Western Australian island Dirk Hartog Island is named after Hartog.
The human history of Western Australia commenced between 40,000 and 60,000 years ago with the arrival of Aboriginal Australians on the northwest coast. The first inhabitants expanded across the east and south of the continent.
Frederick de Houtman was a Dutch explorer, navigator, and colonial governor who sailed on the first Dutch expedition to the East Indies from 1595 until 1597, during which time he made observations of the southern celestial hemisphere and contributed to the creation of 12 new southern constellations.
Cape Leeuwin is the most south-westerly mainland point of the Australian continent, in the state of Western Australia.
The Eendracht was an early 17th century Dutch wooden-hulled 700 tonne East Indiaman, launched in 1615 in the service of the Dutch East India Company (VOC). Its Dutch name means "concord", "unity" or "union", and was a common name given to Dutch ships of the period, from the motto of the Republic: Concordia res parvae crescunt . The ship was captained by Dirk Hartog when he made the second recorded landfall by a European on Australian soil, in 1616.
The Ashburton River is located within the Pilbara region of Western Australia.
Hartog Plate or Dirk Hartog's Plate is either of two pewter plates, although primarily the first, which were left on Dirk Hartog Island during a period of European exploration of the western coast of Australia prior to European settlement there. The first plate, left in 1616 by Dutch explorer Dirk Hartog, is the oldest-known artifact of European exploration in Australia still in existence. A replacement, copying the text of the original plus some new text, was left in 1697 – the original dish returned to the Netherlands, where it is on display in the Rijksmuseum. Further additions at the site, in 1801 and 1818, led to the location being named Cape Inscription.
Tryal Rocks, sometimes spelled Trial Rocks or Tryall Rocks, formerly known as Ritchie's Reef or Greyhound's Shoal, is a reef of rock located in the Indian Ocean off the northwest coast of Australia, 14 kilometres (8.7 mi) northwest of the outer edge of the Montebello Islands group. It is named for the Tryall, the first known shipwreck in Australian waters, which sank after striking the then-uncharted rocks in 1622. Described as "the theme and dread of every voyager to the eastern islands", their location was sought for over three centuries before finally being determined in 1969.
't Wapen van Hoorn was a 17th-century Dutch East India Company fluyt with a tonnage between 400 and 600, built in the Dutch Republic in 1619. During its second voyage it grounded on the west coast of Australia, making it about the tenth ship to make landfall on Australian soil, and following Tryall just a few weeks earlier only the second ship to be shipwrecked in Australian waters, albeit temporarily.
Willem Janszoon captained the first recorded European landing on the Australian continent in 1606, sailing from Bantam, Java, in the Duyfken. As an employee of the Dutch East India Company, Janszoon had been instructed to explore the coast of New Guinea in search of economic opportunities. He had originally arrived in the Dutch East Indies from the Netherlands in 1598, and became an officer of the VOC on its establishment in 1602.
Dutch Australians refers to Australians of Dutch ancestry. They form one of the largest groups of the Dutch diaspora outside Europe. At the 2021 census, 381,946 people nominated Dutch ancestry, representing 1.5% of the Australian population. At the 2021 census, there were 66,481 Australian residents who were born in the Netherlands.
Hessel Gerritsz was a Dutch engraver, cartographer, and publisher. He was one of the notable figures in the Golden Age of Netherlandish cartography. Despite strong competition, he is considered by some "unquestionably the chief Dutch cartographer of the 17th century".
Turtle Dove Shoal is a dangerous shoal about three kilometres wide, located at 29°25′S114°12′E, in the Indian Ocean about fifty kilometres south of the Houtman Abrolhos, off the coast of Western Australia.
Leeuwin, was a Dutch galleon that discovered and mapped some of the southwest corner of Australia in March 1622. It was captained by Jan Fransz and was the seventh European ship to sight the continent.
Caert van't Landt van d'Eendracht is a 1627 map by Hessel Gerritsz. One of the earliest maps of Australia, it shows what little was then known of the west coast, based on a number of voyages beginning with the 1616 voyage of Dirk Hartog, when he named Eendrachtsland after his ship.
The Mauritius was an early 17th century Dutch wooden-hulled sailing ship, documented as being in service to the Dutch East India Company between 1618 and 1622.
The Willem River or Willem's River was named during the voyage of the Dutch East India Company ship Mauritius in 1618, under the command of Supercargo Willem Janszoon and captained by Lenaert Jacobszoon, and is one of the few features named on a nautical chart made in 1627.
