1705

March – July

Three Dutch ships (De Vossenbosch, Waaier and Nova Hollandia) under the command of Commander Maarten van Delft explore the Gulf of Carpentaria and the northern coast of New Holland.

1712

July/August

The VOC ship Zuytdorp is lost without trace in the winter of 1712 whilst on a voyage from Holland to Batavia. The wreck is now known to lie on the cliffs just south of Shark Bay, WA, named after the wreck. Of the seven East India ships known to be lost off the coast of Western Australia, the English East India Company’s, the Zuytdorp is the only wreck from which survivors did not reach the nearest European settlement at Batavia to tell the tale. The wreck is first discovered in 1927, but it is not until 1964 that the first successful dives are undertaken in the area as the site is remote and is only safe to dive on a few days of the year.

1722

March/April

In September 1676, Argent Roggeveen, a man of diverse professions and interests, is commissioned to embark on an expedition to explore the Southland but a lack of funds due to the Anglo-Dutch War sees it shelved. With the help of the VOC’s sister business, the Dutch West India Company, his son Jacob, equips three ships (Arena, Tienhoven and Afrikaanse Galei) for the enterprise. They begin their voyage on 26th July 1721 and sail around Cape Horn and into the Pacific. As Roggeveen did not travel as far east as Cook is to travel 48 years later, he did not discover Australia’s east coast, rather he finds a number of South Pacific islands including American Samoa and Easter Island. Roggeveen enters the Tuamoto atolls with his three ships, one of which is wrecked on the windward side of the atoll of Takapoto. Five men desert and may have repaired the vessel well enough to reach the island of Anna. Iron cannon are still visible on Takapoto in the 1830s. Ill heath causes Roggeveen to head home via the coasts of New Guinea and Batavia.

1727

June 9

The VOC ship Zeewijk, carrying a rich cargo that includs 315,836 guilders in cash, stored in ten chests, is wrecked on Half Moon Reef in the Abrolhos Islands group on 9th June 1727. When the ship hits the reef, it does not go down immediately, in fact it is seven days after the wreck that most of the people are taken to safety on nearby Gun Island. On 10th July, the longboat sets sail for Batavia under the command of the upper steersman, with 11 others who are generally regarded as the most capable of the seamen. They are never heard of again. The survivors who remain manage to salvage all ten money chests from the wreck, taking them to Gun Island. By the end of October, the Zeewijck castaways conclude that the longboat could not have reached Batavia, as otherwise a relief ship would have appeared before then. They make the courageous decision to construct a small ship from the wreckage of the Zeewijck with the objective of sailing it to Batavia. The Sloepie is completed in a little over four months and sets sail on 26th March 1728, some 10 months after the Zeewijk had been wrecked. It completes a speedy voyage, reaching Batavia on 30th April with 82 survivors. The Zeewijk is believed to be the last VOC ship to be wrecked on the Australian coast. The wreck was found by divers of the Royal Australian Navy in 1952.

1728

October 27

Britsh navigator and explorer Capt James Cook, born Marton, Yorkshire, England.

1738

October 11

Arthur Phillip, the first Governor of the Colony of New South Wales, born in London, England, the son of the language teacher, Jakob Phillip, from Frankfurt, Germany. A laconic, retiring and even lonely man, Phillip begins his arduous apprenticeship at Greenwich Hospital, a training school for the sons of seamen.

1754

February 17

French explorer of the Australian coastline, Nicolas Baudin, born St Martin, Ile de Ré, France.

September 9

Colonial Governor of New South Wales Capt William Bligh, born St. Tudy, near Plymouth, England.

1756

April 1 – June 25

The ships Rijder, with Captain Jean Gonzal, and Buis, with Captain Lavienne Lodewijk van Asschens, explore the Gulf of Carpentaria making landfall a number of times.

1761

April 25

1st Lieutenant Fletcher Christian of HMS Bounty. who leads a mutiny on 25th April 1789 against Captain William Bligh, born Moreland Close, England.

1770

April 19 – August 22

The British barque Endeavour, under Lieut James Cook, sails from Plymouth on 26th August 1768 with the primary mission of observing the transit of Venus while in Tahiti. After the observation, the expedition leaves Tahiti. On 7th October 1769 land on the eastern side of New Zealand’s North Island is sighted. Cook plots the coastline that Tasman has barely touched. By mid March, after extensive exploration of the South Island, Cook then plots a course for Van Dieman’s Land. The first sighting of the Australian mainland occurs on 19th April 1770 west of the south eastern prominence of the continent. Sailing north, Cook reaches and enters Botany Bay on 29th April. A cairn marks the place where they come ashore. After two weeks of exploration, Cook continues northward, naming features. Endeavour grounds on a reef on 10th June. Cannon, gear and ballast are jettisoned and after 23 hours, the Endeavour is floated free. The ship is eventually brought to safety at the mouth of a river which Cook names after her. The Endeavour is beached and during a seven week sojourn, the hull is repaired. When the Endeavour finally sets sail, it escapes away from the mainland and into the sea beyond the Reef. On Tuesday, 21st August 1770, Cook reaches the peninsula tip. The next day he goes ashore on an island in the York group (Possession Island) and proclaims the lands he has discovered for the King. Cook then passes out of the reef and into Torres Strait towards the coast of New Guinea, then west along the southern coast of Java and around the west end of the island into Batavia.

April 19

Lieut Zachary Hicks sights the point of land which now bears his name as Point Hicks (Cape Everard).

April 29

Cook enters Botany Bay and stays a week while Joseph Banks collected specimens.

June 10

Making its way north, Endeavour runs aground on the Barrier Reef. Repairs and storms hold them up for seven weeks.

August 22

At Possession Island, Queensland, Cook claims the land in the name of King George III, and takes possession of the whole of the east coast of Australia from Point Hicks to Cape York and names it New South Wales.