INDEX

• Introduction
• Maps
• Significant Places in Australia's Maritime History
• Naming Australia
• Naming Australia's Coastal Features

WHO DID DISCOVER AUSTRALIA?

• The Phoenecians & Egyptians
• The Greeks & Romans
• The Chinese
• The Muslims
• The Portuguese
• The Dutch
• The British
• The French

COLONIAL EXPLORATION

• Index
• The French
• The British
• Other
• Inland explorers

The Discovery of Australia: Ancient and historic maps relating to Australia

19th Century

This is the century in which all the gaps were filled in the map of Australia as Matthew Flinders, then others after him, accurately charted the whole coastline of the island continent.

CHARLES FRANCOIS BEAUTEMPS-BEAUPRE (1766-1854)
A distinguished French hydrographical engineer, C.F. Beautemps-Beaupre was the hydrographer to the expedition of Bruny D'Entrecasteaux on his voyage to the Pacific in 1792-1793.

• Atlas du voyage de Bruny-Dentrecasteaux, contre-amiral de France, commandant les fregates la Recherche et l'Esperance, fait par ordre du gouvernement en 1791, 1792 et 1793 [cartographic material] : publie par ordre de sa majeste l'empereur et roi, sous le ministere de son excellence le vice-amiral Decres ...
  A series of charts that were included in "Atlas du Voyage de Bruny-Dentrecasteaux" and published by the French Depot General des Cartes in Paris in 1807.

FRANCOIS PERON (1775-1810)
Frenchman Peron was one of three naturalists to accompany Nicolas Baudin on his voyage of discovery around the Australian coast of 1801-03 in Le Géographe and Le Naturaliste. Péron is described as the first informed zoologist to land in Australia. He collected an enormous amount of material and his extensive fieldwork and attention to detail was ahead of its time.

• 'Plan de la ville de Sydney', F. Peron, Map of Sydney in 1802.
• Chart of Dirk Hartog Island and Shark Bay, Baudin Expedition, 1802
• Flinders & Baudin expedition maps of the South Australian coastline (downloadable)

ROBERT WILKINSON
Robert Wilkinson was active in London as a cartographic publisher from 1785 to 1825. He produced a number of nice works, including a General Atlas and a re-issuance of Bowen & Kitchen's English Atlas, along with excellent large format separate maps.

• The Islands of the East Indies with the Channels between India, China & New Holland.
  Map Maker: Robert Wilkinson, London,1806
  Highly detailed map, covering the region between Formosa and Hainan islands in the North and Australia in the South. Excellent detail in the Philippines and South East Asia.
• New South Wales, New Zealand, New Hebrides and the Islands Adjacent, comprising the Discoveries of Mendana, Qurios, Carteret, Bougainville, Surveille, Cook, Shortland, &c
  Map Maker: Robert Wilkinson, London / 1810
  Interesting regional map, extending from the Solomon and Queen Charlotte Island in the North to New South Wales and New Zealand. Includes large insets of L. Howes and Norfolk areas and Port Jackson. An interesting and detailed coastal chart during the early era of discovery in these regions. Robert Wilkinson was active in London as a cartographic publisher from 1785 to 1825. He produced a number of nice works, including a General Atlas and a re-issuance of Bowen & Kitchen's English Atlas, along with excellent large format separate maps.

AARON ARROWSMITH 1750-1823
Born in Winston, Durham, England, he moved to London around 1770 and established a map-making and publishing enterprise later run by his nephew, John. John Arrowsmith (1790-1873) was also cartographer of great repute, he was one of the founders of the Royal Geographic Society.

• New Holland
  Map Maker: Aaron Arrowsmith, London, 1809
  One of the earliest obtainable separate maps of Australia. No detail, except along the coastline. New South Wales is the only territory mentioned.

MATTHEW FLINDERS (1774-1814)
British Navy lieutenant Matthew Flinders and frenchman Nicolas Baudin (1754-1803) were the leaders of two separate expeditions, one English, the other French, which were sent out by their governments to chart the unknown southern coast of Australia, and to determine whether or not Australia was one continent or two very large islands. Both men had distinguished themselves on prior expeditions. Flinders, with his friend George Bass, had refined the charts for the New South Wales coasts, in several lengthy voyages in small boats, and had also proven the existence of a strait between Australia and Van Diemen's Land in their circumnavigation of the island in the Norfolk in 1798/9. Baudin had led two successful scientific expeditions to the Indian Ocean and the West Indies, collecting plants and specimens for museums. Flinders' charts, drawn during his circumnavigation of Australia, were the basis upon which today's Admiralty Charts were produced.

• Flinders & Baudin expedition maps of the South Australian coastline (downloadable)
• Flinders Expedition Maps, Charts & Illustrations

 PHILLIPPE MARIE VAN DER MAELEN

• Partie De La Nouvelle Hollande Oceanique
  Map Maker: Phillippe Marie Vandermaelen, Brussels,1825
  Highly detailed regional map of part of Victoria and Tasmania, extending from Port Philip in the East to Mt. Dromedary and Port Dromedary in the Northwest and showing Wilson Promontory, Canal De Kent, Iles, Furneaux and the Northern half of Tasmania. Dozens of early place names. The map predates Melbourne' but Arthur's Seat, Port Western and Cape Schank appear, along with extensive notes on the terrain around Port Philip. Many notes throughout Tasmania. Several minor wormholes in the blank sea and bit of misfolding, but still an excellent example of this early and highly detailed regional map. From Vandermaelen's remarkable 6 volume atlas, which if combined as globe gores forms an immense globe. Vandermaelen accomplished the first atlas mapping of the world on a uniform scale.
• A French chart of New Holland circa 1850

ANDRICEAU-GOUJON

• Carte De L'Oceanie
  Map Maker: Andriveau-Goujon, Paris, 1850
  Highly detailed map of the Pacific, extending from Hawaii (Iles Sandwich) to Australia ou Nouvelle Hollande. Nice detailed treatment of New Zealand and Polynesia-Micronesia. Large inset of New South Wales. An excellent mid-19th Century map. Decorative Piano Key Border.

ADAM BLACK 1784 - 1874
Publisher. Born in Edinburgh, the son of a master-builder, Black was at the High School in the city. Having been a bookseller's apprentice, he set up the company of Adam and Charles Black with his nephew to sell books in 1807. They began publishing in 1817 and Black was able to purchase the rights to the Encyclopaedia Britannica following Archibald Constable's bankruptcy (1826). He was also able to secure the rights to Sir Walter Scott's novels in 1854.
Black served as Lord Provost of Edinburgh (1843-8) and as Liberal Member of Parliament for the city (1856-65). He is remembered by a statue in East Princes Street Gardens (1877).

• Australia
  Map Maker: Adam & Charles Black, Edinburgh, 1854
  Detailed map of Australia, hand colored by provinces and highlighting the gold regions in gold. Large inset of Van Diemen's Land. The map demonstrates the limited explorations in the interior, with only the Victoria River, Torrens Basin, Traveller's Valley, the Stanley and Grey Mtn Ranges and a hand full of other details in the interior. One of the best large format atlas maps of the region from the mid-19th Century, during Australia's gold rush.

JOHN DOWER

• The Islands of the East Indies, John Dower, London. Bonne, Rigobert, Paris 1783
  From G.T.F. Raynal's Atlas de Toutes les Parties du Globe Terrestre, 1783-1784.

ADOLPH STEILER 1775&endash;1836
German cartographer. He worked most of his life in the Justus Perthes Geographical Institution, Gotha, which published his general atlas (1817&endash;22; 10th ed. tr. 1934&endash;39).

• Australien [Australia]
  Map Maker: Adolf Stieler, Date: Gotha,1883
  Very detailed map of region illustrating the great precision in Stieler's work.