| Year | Event |
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| 1606 |  After leaving Banda on 18 November 1605, at about the end of March1606 VOC Captain Willem Janszoon*), Supercargo Jan Lodewijkszoon van Rosingeyn and their crew on board the Duyfken, chart about 300 km of the west coast of Cape York Peninsula in Queensland. First Europeans evidently known to have landed in Australia. |
| 1606 |  1-9 October : Louis Vaez De Torres sails through the Torres Strait with the San Pedro and Los Tres Reyes, the first European recorded to have done so. |
| 1616 | October: Dirk Hartog landed the Eendracht on Dirck Hartog Island off the coast of Western Australia and left a pewter plate with his name and the date. He stayed on the island for two days. Evidently the second European ship whose crew landed on Australian soil. |
| 1618 | May: Haevik Claeszoon van Hillegom sailed the Zeewolf past the North West Cape. |
| 1618 | July: Lenaert Jacobszoon sails the Mauritius past the North West Cape and names two waterways. On board was Supercargo Willem Janszoon, former Master of the Duyfken, who writes to the VOC in Amsterdam about the 'discovery' of an island at the west coast during this yoyage. Willem Janszoon therefore arrived in Australian waters for a second time. |
| 1619 | July: Frederik De Houtman and J Dedel land in the Swan River region and on the Albrolhos and Rottnest Islands in the Dordrecht and the Amsterdam. |
1622 | 't Wapen van Hoorn ran aground near Shark Bay, but is refloated. |
| 1622 | The crew of the Leeuwin mapped the south westerly coast of Western Australia noting there is a southcoast curving eastwards. Cape Leeuwin was named after the ship. |
| 1622 | Publication of the Map of the Pacific – the oldest existing map showing any locally charted part of Australia - compiled by VOC cartographer Hessel Gerritszoon. It includes the information gathered by Janszoon in 1606. |
| 1622 |  The Tryall is wrecked on the West Australian Coast at Tryall Rocks – the first known European wreck on the Australian coastline. 46 people flee in two small vessels, including EIC Captain John Brookes, and a further 93 are left to perish. |
| 1623 | January: J Carstenszoon and W van Coolsteerdt land the Pera and the Arnhem on the west coast of Cape York Peninsula and sail on to what is now Arnhemland. |
| 1623 | Claes Hermanszoon lands the Leijden south of Dirck Hartog Island and Australia’s first European baby is born here. The Leijden returned to our west coast1626. |
| 1626 | Daniel Janszoon Cock sails the Leijden along the coastline between Zuytdorp Cliffs and Dirck Hartog Island but does not land. |
| 1627 | Commander Peter Nuyts and Skipper Francois Thijssen in 'tGulden Zeepaert chart the south coast of Australia as far as Fowler’s Bay – the first map of part of the south coast and of part of the South Australian coast. |
| 1627 | The Governor General of the Dutch 'United East-Indies Company' (VOC), Jan Pieterszoon Coen aboard one of the vessels Galias, Utrecht and Texel which almost collide with the Albrohos reefs in Western Australia. He recommends making a map of the continent for the VOC. |
| 1627 | J van Roosenburgh sails in ‘t Wapen Van Hoorn and makes revisions to the 1616 Eendracht’s map of the Dirck Hartog Island area. |
| 1628 | Gerrit Frederikszoon De Witt sails the Vianen along the North West Coast and maps 370 kilometres of the West Australian coastline. |
| 1629 | June: Fransisco Pelsaert wrecks the Batavia on the De Houtman Abrolhos Islands and the mutiny of the Batavia follows. First armed conflict between Europeans in Australian history.The Wiebe Hayes led VOC side, builds 'fort' and holds off attacks by mutineers. After sailing north for help Pelsaert returns in the ship Sardam, rescues the survivors mutiny, conducts trial and punishment of Mutineers at the islands. |
| 1629 | November: Wouter Loos and Jan Pelgrom De Bye –two of the mutineers of the Batavia mutiny – are taken in a small boat to the mouth of the Hutt River on the mainland and are left with equipment to fend for themselves as punishment for their role in the mutiny. First recorded convict immigrants to Australia. |
| 1635 | Wijbrandt Geleynszoon De Jongh in the Amsterdam charts the West Australian coast around latitude 25 degrees S. |
| 1636 | G.T. Pool and Piet Pieterszoon chart the Gulf of Carpentaria in the Klein Amsterdam and the Wesel. |
| 1642 | Abel Janszoon Tasman claims Van Diemens-Land (Tasmania) for Holland and sails across to become the first to chart part of New Zealand in the Heemskerck with the Zeehaen captained by Gerrit Janszoon (no relation of Willem) . |
| 1644 | Abel Janszoon Tasman with the vessels Limmen, Zeemeeuw and Braq charts 4000 km of the North Australian coast, but did not find the entrance to Torres Strait. First navigator to have widely circumnavigated the continent. |
| 1646 | Sir Robert Dudley publishes the first map by an Englishman (in Latin) that inlcudes part of the Australian coastline. |
| 1648 | Jan Janszoon Zeeuw maps the West Australian coastline in the Leeuwerik approximately 25-26 degrees S. |
| 1656 | 28 April: Captain Pieter Albertszoon’s De Vergulde Draeck is wrecked around 100 kms north of Perth. 7 men sail in small boat to Batavia for help. 68 sailors initially stranded on the coast are never seen again despite several subsequent VOC search parties. (This year 350 year ago) |
1656 | De Goede Hoop and De Witte Valk rescue vessels try search the area. Through bad weather only De Goede Hoop lands men for search, but looses 11 men in the process. Captain and crew of De Vergulde Draeck not found. |
1657 | Flyboat Vink also searches for DeVergulde Draeck survivors on its journey from Cape of Good Hope to Batavia, also without results. |
| 1658 | Samuel Volckersen sails the De Waekende Boey and the Emmeloort in search of the De Vergulde Draeck crew and land on both the mainland and Rottnest Island. His artist makes the first European pictorials of Australia. |
| 1658 | Abraham Leeman and thirteen others, having been abandoned by Volckersen on the Green Islets off the central west coast of Western Australia, sail back to the south coast of Java in a small boat with almost no food or water – only four survive the ordeal and accross Java to arrive in Batavia. |
| 1658 | Jacob Pieterszoon Peereboom sails the Elburgh in the Cape Leeuwin region and Geographe Bay. He sees Aborigines, their huts and tools. |
| 1678 | Jan van der Wall charts the North West coast from North West Cape to Roebuck Bay in the De Vliegende Zwaan. |
| 1681 | Captain Daniel sails the London around the northern part of the De Houtman Abrolhos Islands and makes the first description of part of Australia in English and the first map of part of Australia in English. |
| 1687 |  Captain, later Admiral, Duquesne-Guitton sails with the L’Oiseau en route from Cape of Good Hope taking a French Ambassdor, Claude Ceberet, to set up an Embassy in the Kingdom of Siam, sights the WA coast and sails near the Swan River on the 4th of August. The first recorded French contact with Australia. |
| 1688 | Captain Read and William Dampier sail the Cygnet into King Sound or Collier Bay in Western Australia and stay around two months whilst repairing their ship. |
| 1694 | The Ridderschap van Holland is possibly shipwrecked on the Western Australian coast, or could have been taken by pirates. 326 people go missing, including Skipper Dirck de Lange and de Hon. James Couper. |
| 1696-97 | Looking for the Ridderschap van Holland, Willem De Vlamingh charts the Perth region with the vessels Geelvinck, Nijptang and Weseltje. He travels 80 kms inland on the Swan River with the ship’s artist Victorszoon making pictorials of the coast. De Vlamingh replaces Hartog’s pewter plate and then charts Christmas Island on his return trip. |
| 1699 | 6 Aug: William Dampier in the Roebuck, names Shark Bay on the Western Australian Coast after seeing many sharks. Also lands on Dirck Hartog Island. Attacked by locals. (Note: Dampier did not call on any Australian coast that had not been surveyed before by Dutch skippers in either '99 or '88) |
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| 1704-05 | Maarten van Delft, Andries Rooseboom, and Pieter Hendrikszoon chart the coast of Arnhem Land in the Nieuw Holland, the Waijer, and the Vosschenbosch and record extensive contacts with locals. |
| 1712 | The Zuytdorp is wrecked on the West Australian coast, 60 kms north of the mouth of the Murchison River. After some time, the survivors moved north, never to be seen again by Europeans. In 1927 the survivors’ campsite on the river was discovered. Coins helped identify the wreck. |
| 1727 | June: Jan Steyns’ Zeewijk is wrecked on the Houtman Abrolhos. His crew builds a longboat -the Sloepie – the first European sailing vessel built in Australia. They reach Batavia in it. |
| 1756 | J E Gonzal and L L van Asschens sail the Rijder and the Buijs around the Gulf of Carpentaria and Cape Keer Weer and record extensive contact with locals, report favourably about Australia. The 250 year anniversary of this voyage ocurred in 2006. Gonzal apears to have sailed through Torres Strait in both directions. |
| 1768 | Louis Antoine de Bougainville sails the Boudeuse and Etoile and is stopped 100 kms from the Australian Coast by the Great Barrier Reef. |
| 1770 | Captain James Cook charts the East Coast from Point Hicks to Possession Island in the Endeavour. Makes landfall at several places including Botany Bay. He claims "possession of the whole eastern coast" for England from Point Hicks to Possession Island "by the name of New South Wales" as he "may land no more upon the eastern coast of New Holland". |
| 1772 | Francois Alesno de St Allouarn sails the Gros Venture along the WA coast from Cape Leeuwin to Shark Bay and on to Melville Island. He claims Australia for France. |
| 1772 | Marc-Joseph Marion Dufresne sail the Mascarin and the Marquis de Castries to Tasmania (Marion Bay and Blackman Bay) makes first French contact with Tasmanian Aborigines causing the death of the first Tasmanian Aborigine in defence of his home land. After landing in New Zealand, 28 of the crew, including Marion, are killed and eaten by Maoris. |
| 1773 | Tobias Furneaux in HMS Adventure charted, (as part of Cooks 2nd voyage after getting separated from Cook sailing Resolution), the east coast of Tasmania and Furneaux Islands. Landed at Adventure Bay. |
| 1772 | Francois-Alesno de St Alouarn sailed from Cape Leeuwin to north of Shark Bay where be buried an Act of Possession claiming the west coast of New Holland for France. |
| 1788 | Captain Arthur Phillip with the Sirius, Supply and nine other vessels comprising the ‘First Fleet’ lands at Botany Bay 18 January, at Camp Cove on 22 January, Sydney Cove 23 January |
| 1788 | Jean François Galaup Comte de La Pérouse sails La Boussole and L’Astrolabe into Botany Bay and lands there as the First Fleet is moving to Sydney Cove. After moving north into the Pacific they disappear near the Solomon Islands, thought to have been shipwrecked there. |
| 1788-89 | William Bligh in HMS Bounty visits Tasmania at Adventure Bay en route to Tahiti. After the mutiny he sailed west in the Bounty’s launch and crossed the Barrier Reef at 12 degr 46 sec south and went north using a new found passage through Torres Strait north of Thursday Island. |
| 1789 |  John Henry Cox in the Mercury (aka Gustaf III), a nominally Swedish expedition to exploit NW America, called at South Tasmania and charted a small part of it- Maria Island. |
| 1791 | George Vancouver in Discovery and Chatham names various land marks on the south coast of Western Australia, including King George Sound. Observes Aboriginal occupation. |
| 1791 | Edward Edwards returned with some of the Bounty Mutineers in the Pandora, charted a stretch of the Barrier Reef east of Torres Strait, was then wrecked on the reef. The survivors sailed to Timor in the boats. |
| 1791-92 | John McCluer, captain with the (English) East India Company after surveying in Papua and New Guinea returns west to Benkulen via northern Australia coasts. Sailed with the Panther and the Endeavour |
| 1792-93 | Antoine Bruny d’Entrecasteaux circumnavigates Australia one and a half times in the Recherche and the Esperance in search of La Pérouse. Lands in Tasmania twice. |
| 1793 | The Italian Captain Alessandro Malaspina on both a spying and scientific mission sails in charge of the Spanish navy vessels Descubierta and Atrivida via Nw Guinea and Nw Caledonia to Australia and lands 13 March in Sydney. He was received cordially and left 11 April for Tonga. |
1793 | Private expedition captained by Sir John Hayes to Tasmania and Nw Guinea; explored and named Derwent River and Risdon Cove, visited Adventure Bay, with the vessels Duches of Bengal and the Duke of Clarence. 24 April to 9 June. |
| 1795 | 28 October to 3 November: George Bass and Matthew Flinders explore the Georges River in the small Tom Thumb. |
| 1796 | January to March: Matthew Flinders sails to Norfolk Island in the Reliance. |
| 1796 | 25 March to 2 April: Bass, Martin and Flinders take the slightly larger Tom Thumb II and explore the Port Kembla area and encounter many Aborigines. |
| 1797 | Sydney Cove wrecked on Preservation Island off Tasmania sailing from Bengal. 17 crew members reach coast of Victoria near Lakes Entrance. The first Europeans to land in Victoria and the first Asians, as the group included a number of Bengali sailors.Three survive an epic coastal walk to Port Jackson, including one Bengali |
| 1797 | August: George Bass takes a 28 foot long whaleboat and finds the three survivors from the Sydney Cove, as well as coal, near Wollongong. |
| 1797-98 | George Bass takes a whaleboat and records Bass Strait, Twofold Bay, Shoalhaven and Western Port. |
| 1798 | Matthew Flinders takes the Norfolk on a charting trip and circumnavigates and charts Tasmania on his first voyage as Captain. |
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1800 | Secret whaling expedition: The Kingston with Cpt Thomas Dennis and the Ellligood under Cpt Christopher Dickson, both whalers, caught three whales in King Georges III Sound WA in 11 August- 5 September, after which they went to Oyster Harbour. Here they left an inscribed piece of metal as evidence, which was found by Flinders' crew soon after (see below). ( info RD) |
| 1800-02 | Lt James Grant and John Murray sailing the Lady Nelson from England to Port Jackson chart some of the remaining uncharted coasts of Victoria. John Murray finds and enters Port Phillip Bay January 1802 |
| 1801 | Emmanuel Hamelin's (see next item) junior officer Louis de Freycinet finds the De Vlamingh pewter plate on Dirck Hartog island left there over a century ago and later takes it to Paris. |
| 1801-03 | Nicolas Baudin and Emmanuel Hamelin chart the West Australian coast including Denial Bay, Spencer Gulf, Kangaroo Island and the southern Tasmanian coasts in the Geographe and the Naturaliste. They abandon the voyage in June and Baudin dies in Mauritius in August. De Freycinet takes command on the return voyage of the locally purchased Casuarina. |
| 1801-03 | Matthew Flinders circumnavigates the continent in the Investigator and completes charting of the South Coast of Australia and charts more accurately many of the previously charted coasts. He meets Baudin at Encounter Bay on 8 April 1802. |
| 1804 | Mathew Flinders creates his first preliminary (almost complete) map of the Australian coast when a prisoner at Mauritius and has it smuggled to England. The case is not opened until he returns. |
| 1811 | Louis de Freycinet publishes “Atlas” in Paris with the first published 'complete' map of the Australian coast (after publishing maps of parts of the coast earlier) including data from the Baudin voyage. |
| 1814 | Matthew Flinders publishes “Narrative” in London including his reviewed map of Australia including the data from his voyage. He indicates a desire to acknowledge the Navigators that came before him and implements this in some of the place names on his map. |
| REGULAR VISITORS |  Makassan fishermen have harvested trepang from our Northern coasts, selling them to the Chinese, from the 17th century onwards, but possibly earlier. But no individual, year or particular landing was recorded until Flinders mentions them in his records. Inconclusive evidence suggests that Makassans may have come to Australia since the 14th century, but not to catch trepang. |
