1401

1. Chinese sailors visit near Darwin (NT), evidence of 15th Century Ming statuette found.

1451

1. Dutch documents record the journeys of Macassan trepangers (Indigenous traders from Indonesia) to ‘Marege’, as the Macassans call Australia.

1500

1. Until approx. 1700: Indonesian trepang (sea slugs, sea cucumber) fishers visit northern Australia.

1588

1. Macassan praus sail to the north eastern coast of the Northern Territory. Trade between Aboriginal people and the Macassans continues until it is stopped by the South Australian government in 1906.

1600

1. Bone tool deposits at Otway Peninsula, Victoria suggest Aboriginal people were working with animal skins.

1606

1. Dutchman Willem Jansz and the people on his ship Duyfken explore the western coast of Cape York Peninsula, the first Europeans to have contact with Australian Aboriginal people. The two groups clashed.

   

2. The Spaniard Luis Vaez De Torres is the first European who sails through Torres Strait.

1620

1. The oldest dated rock painting is believed to come from the 1620s. The rock painting depicts a sailing boat and is proof of Aboriginal people’s early contact, possibly with Macassars from Indonesia fishing for trepang ^[1].

1623

1. Dutchman Jan Carstenz described several armed encounters with Aboriginal people on the northern coast of Australia. Shots were fired and an Aboriginal man was hit.

References