Australia Research. A Brief History of Australia

The material presented in the article is aimed at forming an idea of ​​who is the discoverer of the continent. The article contains reliable historical information. The information will help you obtain true information from the history of the discovery of Australia by sailors and travelers.

Who discovered Australia?

Every educated person today knows that the discovery of Australia by James Cook occurred when he visited the east coast of the continent in 1770. However, these lands were known in Europe long before the famous English navigator appeared there.

Rice. 1. James Cook.

The ancestors of the indigenous population of the mainland appeared on the continent approximately 40-60 thousand years ago. This historical segment dates back to ancient archaeological finds that were discovered by scientists in the upper reaches of the Swan River at the western tip of the mainland.

Rice. 2. Swan River.

It is known that people ended up on the continent thanks to sea routes. This fact also indicates that it was these pioneers who became the earliest sea travelers. It is generally accepted that at that time at least three heterogeneous groups settled in Australia.

Explorers of Australia

There is an assumption that the discoverers of Australia were the ancient Egyptians.

TOP 2 articleswho are reading along with this

From history we know that Australia was discovered several times by different people:

• Egyptians;
• Dutch admiral Willem Janszoon;
• James Cook.

The latter is recognized as the official discoverer of the continent for humanity. All these versions are still controversial and contradictory. There is no clear point of view on this issue.

During research carried out on the Australian mainland, images of insects similar in appearance to scarabs were found. And during archaeological research in Egypt, researchers discovered mummies that were embalmed using eucalyptus oil.

Despite such clear evidence, many historians express reasonable doubts about this version, since the continent became famous in Europe much later.

Attempts to discover Australia were made by the world's navigators back in the 16th century. Many Australian researchers assume that the first Europeans to set foot on the continent were the Portuguese.

It is known that in 1509, sailors from Portugal visited the Moluccas, after which in 1522 they moved to the northwest of the mainland.

At the beginning of the 20th century, naval guns that were created back in the 16th century were found in this area.

The unofficial version of the discovery of Australia is the one that states that the discoverer of the continent is the Dutch admiral Willem Janszoon. He was never able to understand that he had become the discoverer of new lands, because he believed that he was getting closer to the lands of New Guinea.

Rice. 3. Willem Janszoon.

However, the main history of Australian exploration is attributed to James Cook. It was after his travels to unknown lands that the active conquest of the mainland by Europeans began.

Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation

Omsk State Pedagogical University

Department of Physical Geography

Geographers are explorers of Australia.

Abstract

Completed: student

Faculty of Geography

group 16 Zakharova Evgeniya

Checked: teacher

Departments of Physical Geography

Balashenko Valentina Ivanovna

Omsk 2003

Plan:

1. Introduction

2. Pedro Fernandez de Quiros

3. Janszoon Willem

4. Abel Tasman

5. James Cook

6. Flinders Matthew

7. Sturt Charles

8. Stewart John McDouall

9. Leichhardt Ludwig

10. Burke Robert O'Hara

11. Sir John Forrest

12. Conclusion

13. References

Introduction

At the beginning of the 17th century in the Southern Hemisphere, the ghost of the greatest continent - Australia of the Holy Spirit - began to take on increasingly clear outlines. Often, real geographical achievements were not achieved suddenly and not by one specific person. So the discovery of Australia did not happen immediately, and many navigators took part in this enterprise.

Long before James Cook discovered Australia, people dreamed about it. The fact is that scientists argued that the fourth continent was necessary in order to maintain the balance of the Earth, but the people hoped to find gold, pearls, spices or some other unprecedented wealth there. So they searched for Australia for a long time.
And there at that time the aborigines lived calmly, looked at the world optimistically and believed that man and nature were one, and their totems (animals, plants or natural phenomena with which they identified themselves) would protect them from any troubles and misfortunes. However, in 1770, James Cook solemnly sailed his ship along east coast"New Earth", called it New South Wales and declared it the property of the British Crown. It is interesting that in fact, a certain Dutchman, Willem Janszoon, sailed to the shores of Australia a little earlier, however, he did not appreciate the merits of the lands he found, therefore, apparently, he was not appreciated as a discoverer. On the other hand, it must be said that the British crown assessed these lands in a rather unique way - they decided to organize prison settlements there. And they organized it!
By the early 40s of the last century, the construction of the continent had achieved noticeable success. Life in Australia had become quite bearable, and sending convicts there lost all meaning.
Since 1840, a stream of free migrants poured there. Australians today are very proud of their convict ancestors: it’s prestigious. The descendants of decent great-grandfathers are looked upon there somewhat condescendingly.

Pedro Fernandez de Quiros (1565-1614)

Belief in the existence of another continent prompted the Spaniard Mendaña to travel from America to the southern part Pacific Ocean, where he discovered some of the Marshall and Solomon Islands and Ellis Island.
His second expedition included the young captain and helmsman Pedro Fernandez de Quiros (1565-1614), who also believed in the existence of the Southern continent.
Quiros was only thirty years old when he went to Peru and received a position as captain and chief helmsman of Mendaña. The expedition consisted of three hundred and seventy-eight people, placed on four ships. Unfortunately, Mendaña took his wife and a crowd of relatives with him.
Quiros, who at first hesitated whether to take part in the expedition, soon became convinced that his doubts were well founded. All affairs were handled by Senora Mendaña, an arrogant and power-hungry woman, and the head of the military detachment turned out to be a rude and tactless person.
But Quiros decided not to pay attention to anything and continued to conscientiously fulfill his duties.
On July 26, 1595, sailors saw an island at a distance of approximately 4,200 kilometers from Lima, which they named Magdalena. When about four hundred natives came in canoes to the ships and brought coconuts and fresh water for exchange, the Spanish soldiers turned this friendly visit into a massacre, ending in a panicked flight of the natives. Such cases were repeated more than once in the future. In 1605, 3 ships under the command of Pedro Fernandez de Quiros set out from Callao to search for the Southern mainland. The expedition discovered land, which was mistaken for the Southern Continent and called Australia Espirito Santo. It subsequently turned out that it was an island from the New Hebridean group. In mid-1606, two ships lost sight of Quiros's ship during a storm and continued sailing under the command of Luis Vaez de Torres. The ships passed along the southern coast of New Guinea, separating it from the Southern mainland, but information about this was buried in the secret archives of Spain.

Janszoon Willem . Dutch navigator of the 17th century. In 1606 he discovered Australia (west coast of the Cape York Peninsula). The Dutch navigator Wilem Janszoon, on the ship "Dyfken" in 1605, "discovered in the southern part of the Indian Ocean a vast landmass called Zeidlandt (South Land), which began to be considered part of the Southern continent. At the beginning of 1606, Janszoon turned southeast, crossing the Arafura Sea and approached the western coast of the Cape York Peninsula in the Gulf of Carpentaria. Of course, these names were given later, and then the Dutch made the first documented landing on the shore of an unfamiliar land. Then the Drifken sailed south along the flat deserted coast, reaching the cape on June 6, 1606. Kerver. In Albatross Bay, the crew met the natives for the first time. A skirmish occurred in which several people died on both sides. Continuing the voyage, Janszon traced and mapped approximately 350 kilometers.

coastline of the Cape York Peninsula to its extreme northern tip and called this part of the peninsula New Guinea, believing that it was a continuation of this island.

Abel Tasman(1603-1659). In 1642, the Governor-General of the Dutch Indies, Van Diemen, decided to establish whether Australia was part of the Southern Continent and whether New Guinea was connected to it, and also to find a new road from Java to Europe. Van Diemen found the young captain Abel Tasman, who, after going through many trials, won the reputation of an excellent connoisseur of the sea. Van Diemen gave him detailed instructions on where to go and how to act.
Abel Tasman was born in 1603 in the vicinity of Groningen into a poor family, independently mastered reading and writing and, like many of his fellow countrymen, linked his destiny with the sea. In 1633 he appeared in Batavia and on a small ship East India Company traveled around many islands of the Malay Archipelago. In 1636, Tasman returned to Holland, but two years later he again found himself in Java. Here in 1639 Van Diemen organized an expedition to the North Pacific Ocean. It was headed by experienced navigator Matthijs Quast. Tasman was appointed as the skipper of the second ship.
Kvast and Tasman had to find mysterious islands, allegedly discovered by the Spaniards east of Japan; these islands on some Spanish maps bore the tempting names "Rico de oro" and "Rico de I" ("rich in gold" and "rich in silver").
The expedition did not live up to Van Diemen's hopes, but it explored the Shona waters and reached Kuril Islands. During this voyage, Tasman established himself as a brilliant helmsman and an excellent mandir. Scurvy killed almost the entire crew, but he managed to navigate the ship from the shores of Japan to Java, withstanding brutal attacks from the Taifu along the way.
Van Diemen showed considerable interest in Zeidlandt, and he was not disappointed by the failures of Gerrit Pohl's expedition. In 1641, he decided to send a new expedition to this land and appointed Tasman as its commander. Tasman had to find out whether Zuydlandt was part of the Southern Continent, establish how far it extended to the south, and find out the routes leading from it eastward into the still unknown seas of the western Pacific Ocean.
Tasman was provided with detailed instructions, which summarized the results of all voyages carried out in the waters of Zuydlandt and the western part of the Pacific Ocean. This instruction has been preserved, and Tasman’s daily notes have also survived, which make it possible to reconstruct the entire route of the expedition. The company provided him with two ships: the small warship Heemskerk and the fast flute (cargo ship) Zehain. One hundred people took part in the expedition.
The ships left Batavia on August 14, 1642 and arrived on the island of Mauritius on September 5. On October 8, we left the island and headed south and then south-southeast. On November 6 we reached 49° 4" south latitude, but were unable to move further south due to a storm. Member of the expedition

Vischer proposed sailing to 150° east longitude, keeping to 44° south latitude, and then along 44° south latitude to go east to 160° east longitude.
Under the southern coast of Australia, Tasman thus passed 8-10° south of Neates's route, leaving the Australian mainland far to the north. He followed east at a distance of 400-600 miles from the southern coast of Australia and at 44° 15" south latitude and 147° 3" east longitude, he noted in his diary: "... all the time the excitement comes from the southwest, and although every day we saw floating algae, we can assume that in the south there is no big land..." This was an absolutely correct conclusion: the closest land south of the Tasman route - Antarctica - lies south of the Antarctic Circle.
On November 24, 1642, a very high bank was noticed. This was the southwest coast of Tasmania, an island which Tasman considered part of Zeidlandt and called Van Diemen's Land. It is not easy to establish exactly which part of the coast the Dutch sailors saw on this day, because the maps of Vischer and another member of the expedition, Gilsemans, differ significantly from each other. Tasmanian geographer J. Walker believes that it was a mountainous coast north of Macquarie Harbor.
On December 2, the sailors landed on the shores of Van Diemen's Land. “On our boat,” writes Tasman, “there were four musketeers and six oarsmen, and each had a pike and a weapon at his belt... Then the sailors brought various greens (they saw them in abundance); some varieties were similar to these, that grow on the Cape of Good Hope... They rowed four whole miles to a high cape, where on the flat areas all kinds of greenery grew, not planted by man, but from God, and there were fruit trees here in abundance, and in wide There are many streams in the valleys, which, however, are difficult to reach, so you can only fill a flask with water.
The sailors heard some sounds, something like playing a horn or striking a small gong, and this noise was heard nearby. But they were unable to see anyone. They noticed two trees 2-2 1/2 fathoms thick and 60-65 feet high, and the trunks were cut by sharp stones and the bark was torn off in some places, and this was done in order to get to bird nests. The distance between the notches is about five feet, so it can be assumed that the people here are very tall. We saw traces of some animals, similar to the imprints of tiger claws; (the sailors) brought the excrement of a four-legged animal (so they believed) and some beautiful resin that oozed from these trees and had the aroma of gumilak... Along the coast of the cape there were many herons and wild geese..."
Having left the anchorage, the ships moved further north and on December 4 passed the island, which was named Maria Island in honor of Van Diemen's daughter. Having passed by the Schaugen Islands and the Frey-sine Peninsula (Tasman decided that this was an island), the ships reached 4G34" south latitude on December 5. The coast turned to the northwest, and in this direction the ships could not advance due to headwinds. Therefore, it was decided was to leave coastal waters and go east.
Tasman on his map connected the shore of Van Diemen's Land with the Earth

Australia is one of the most exotic English-speaking countries in the world. Thanks to its high standard of living and attractive immigration policies, many are considering it as a place to live or work. If you are learning English to move to Australia, either for work, study or pleasure, it will be useful to gain a basic understanding of the country's history.

Prehistoric Australia

About 50 thousand years ago southern mainland The first people arrived in Australia - the world's earliest sea travelers. Geologists believe that at that time the island of New Guinea in the north and Tasmania in the south were part of the continent.

After several thousand years, the continent began to be actively populated. The earliest archaeological discovery of human remains in Australia is the so-called Mungo Man, who lived approximately 40 thousand years ago. From it, scientists determined that the first inhabitants of Australia were massive and tall people.

In prehistory, Australia was settled by people over several waves. About 5 thousand years ago, with another stream of settlers, the dingo dog appeared on the mainland - the only non-marsupial Australian predator. Only by the 2nd millennium BC did the Australian Aborigines acquire modern look, evolving and mixing with newly arrived settlers.

The Aborigines formed diverse tribes with their own languages, cultures, religions and traditions. At the time of the discovery of Australia by Europeans, about 500 tribes lived on the mainland, speaking about 250 different languages. None of them had a written language, so their history is poorly known. They used symbolic drawings, retelling ancient legends in them. These myths and archaeological finds are the only data that historians studying Australia can use.

Since people began to inhabit Australia quite a long time ago (for comparison, people arrived in America only 13 thousand years ago, a full 27 thousand years later) and did not experience the influence of the rest of the world before the arrival of Europeans, the Australian Aboriginal civilization is considered one of the oldest continuous cultures in the world.

European continental exploration

It is officially believed that Australia was discovered by the Dutch navigator Willem Janszoon in 1606. He sailed to the Gulf of Carpentaria in the north of the mainland and landed on the Cape York Peninsula - the northernmost point of Australia, which is located only 160 kilometers from New Guinea. A year before him, the Spaniard Luis Vaez Torres swam in these waters, who passed very close to the Australian coast and even supposedly saw land on the horizon, but mistook it for another archipelago.

There are several other alternative theories for the discovery of Australia. According to one of them, before Willem Janszoon, the mainland was discovered by Portuguese sailors. The flotilla under the leadership of de Siqueira explored the route to the Moluccas and sent several expeditions around the archipelago. One such expedition, led by Mendonsa in 1522, supposedly visited the northwestern shores of Australia.

The theory of the early discovery of Australia seems plausible, since it was on the west coast that 16th century cannons were found in the 20th century. Unusual finds have been discovered more than once on the mainland, which can only be explained by the early voyages of Europeans to the Australian shores. However, these theories are considered controversial. In addition, the discovery of Australia remained unknown to Europe until the voyages of the Dutch.

Janszoon declared the found territories the possession of the Netherlands, although the Dutch never began to develop them. Over the next few decades, the Dutch continued to explore Australia. In 1616, Derk Hartog visited the west coast; three years later, Frederic de Houtman explored several hundred kilometers of coastline. In 1644, Abel Tasman began his famous sea voyages, during which he discovered New Zealand, Tasmania, Fiji and Tonga, and also proved that Australia is a separate continent.

The Dutch explored only the west coast of Australia; the rest of the coastline and inland remained unexplored until the voyages of James Cook a century later, in 1769. It was believed that New Holland (the first name of Australia) discovered by the Dutch did not belong to the hypothetical southern continent Terra Australis Incognita, the existence of which had been suspected since ancient times. New Holland was an inhospitable place with a difficult climate and hostile natives, so for a long time they showed no interest in it.

In the mid-18th century, the British came up with the idea of ​​exiling convicts to the islands of the Southern Ocean or to a supposedly existing continent called the Unknown Southland. In 1769, English Lieutenant James Cook set sail on the ship Endeavor to Tahiti on a secret mission to find the Southern Continent and explore the shores of New Holland.

Cook sailed to the east coast of Australia and landed at Botany Bay. Having examined the coastal lands, he concluded that they were quite favorable for founding a colony. Cook then traveled along the coast in a northwesterly direction and found a strait between Australia and New Guinea (thus proving that this island was not part of the mainland). The navigator did not complete the task of finding the Southern Continent.

During his second expedition around the world, Cook explored the southern latitudes and came to the conclusion that there were no large lands in them except Australia. The dreams of Terra Australis were destroyed, but a free name remained. In 1814, the English navigator Matthew Flinders proposed calling New Holland Australia. By that time, colonies from several states already existed on the mainland, which did not immediately accept the proposal, but over time began to use this name. In 1824 it became official.

British colonization of Australia

Cook recommended Botany Bay for settlement. The first fleet with settlers set off here in 1787. These were convicts - but for the most part not malicious criminals, robbers and murderers, but former traders and farmers sentenced to short terms for minor crimes. Many of them were soon given pardons and allocated plots for farms. The rest of the settlers were infantrymen with their families, officers and other employees.

The ships found a convenient place for colonization near Botany Bay - Port Jackson Bay, where they founded a settlement in Sydney Cove. The founding date of the colony, 26 January 1788, later became a national holiday, Australia Day. A month later, the governor of the settlement officially announced the creation of a colony, which was called New South Wales. Locality became named after the British Home Secretary, Viscount Sydney. This is how the city of Sydney appeared - now the largest and most developed in Australia.

The governor of the colony tried to improve relations with the aborigines, helped convicts reform, and established trade and agriculture. The first years were difficult for the settlers: there was not enough food, the convicts had few professional skills, and new convicts arriving in the colony turned out to be sick and disabled after a long and difficult voyage. But the governor managed to develop the colony, and from 1791 its affairs began to go uphill.

Living conditions for convicts were harsh. They had to do a lot of work to create a colony: build houses and roads, help farmers. They were starving and exposed severe punishments. But the pardoned prisoners remained in Australia, received their allotments and could employ convicts themselves. One of these former prisoners grew the first successful wheat crop in 1789. Soon the colony began to provide itself with food.

In 1793, the first free settlers arrived in Sydney (not counting the military guarding the convicts). They were given land free of charge, provided with agricultural equipment for the first time, and given the right to free movement and use of prison labor.

Mainland exploration

After the founding of the colony, exploration of Australia continued. Europeans used the services of local guides, so most trips were successful. In 1813, the Blaxland, Lawson and Wentworth expedition traversed the Blue Mountains ranges west of Sydney and found extensive grazing lands. In 1824, the expedition of Hume and Howell made many important discoveries, discovered the Murray River and its tributaries, and discovered many new pastures.

In 1828, Charles Sturt discovered the Darling River and reached the point where the Murray River flows into the Great Australian Bight. Then a whole series of expeditions followed, filling in the gaps of previous research. European and Australian explorers preserved many original titles places instead of giving your own. In 1839, Polish explorer Strzelecki climbed Australia's highest peak, Mount Kosciuszko in the Australian Alps.

In 1829, Great Britain claimed the entire western part of Australia. The colony of New South Wales was divided into several, the colonies of Victoria, South Australia, Queensland, Northern Territory, and Swan River appeared. Settlers gradually spread throughout the continent. At this time they were founded major cities Melbourne and Brisbane.

The Aborigines, under the pressure of European colonists, retreated from the coasts inland. Their numbers were greatly reduced due to diseases brought by the settlers. In the mid-19th century, the entire indigenous population was moved to reservations, many by force.

By 1840, the tradition of sending convicts to Australia began to be forgotten, and after 1868 it was no longer practiced.

Gold rush

In the 1850s, the gold rush began in Australia. The British authorities established licenses for gold mining, which did not please the gold miners. In 1854, prospectors from Ballarat launched what is now known as the Eureka Rebellion. The rebels created the Ballarat Reform League and presented a number of demands to the government: introduce universal suffrage, cancel gold mining licenses, and abolish property restrictions for parliamentary candidates.

The resistance of the gold miners was crushed, they were arrested and put on trial. But the court did not find the rebels guilty. Many of the miners' demands were satisfied: their licenses were canceled and they were given the right to appeal to parliament. The Eureka Rebellion stimulated the development of liberalism in Australia. This event became one of the key events in the history of the country.

In 1855, New South Wales gained the right to self-government, remaining part of the British Empire. Other Australian colonies soon followed. Their governments dealt with internal affairs, while Great Britain continued to be in charge of foreign policy, defense and trade.

The Gold Rush sparked an economic boom in Australia. The next few decades were prosperous for Australians. In the 1890s, the economic situation began to deteriorate, at the same time the labor movement began to grow, new political parties began to emerge, and the Australian colonies began to think about unification.

Commonwealth of Australia

For ten years, the colonies discussed the issue of unification and prepared to create a single country. In 1901 they created the Commonwealth of Australia, a federal state that was a dominion of the British Empire. In the early years, the capital of the Union was the city of Melbourne, but already in 1911, the future capital of Australia, the city of Canberra, began to be built on the specially designated Federal Capital Territory. In 1927, the city was completed and the Union government settled in it.

A little later, the Federation included several territories that had previously been subordinate to Great Britain: the islands of Norfolk, Cartier and Ashmore. It was assumed that Australia would include New Zealand, but she preferred to seek independence from Great Britain on her own.

Australia's economy was heavily dependent on exports. The country had to import large quantities of grain and wool. The Great Depression, which began in the United States in 1929, and the subsequent global economic crisis severely affected Australia. The unemployment rate rose to a record 29%.

In 1931, the British Parliament adopted the Statute of Westminster, which established the position of the dominions. According to it, the British dominions received full official independence, but retained the right of the British monarch to serve as head of state. Australia only ratified this statute in 1942, becoming effectively independent from Great Britain.

History of Australia after independence

Second world war boosted Australia's economy. The Australians received a promise of protection from the United States in the event of a Japanese attack, so they took part in hostilities without risk to themselves. After the war, many residents of dilapidated Europe decided to move to Australia. The Australian government encouraged immigration, wanting to increase the country's population and attract talent.

By 1975, two million immigrants had arrived in Australia. Most of them are former residents of Great Britain and Ireland. Thus, most of the Australian population are native speakers of English, which has transformed into the Australian dialect. Official language the state does not.

In the 70s, the Australian government carried out a number of important reforms, the significance of which remains to this day: free higher education, abolition of compulsory military service, recognition of Aboriginal land rights and others. From a former convict colony, Australia has become a highly developed country with one of the highest levels of immigration.

L

In the summer of 1801/02, naval sailor Matthew Flinders on the ship Investigator completed surveying the Great Australian Bight and discovered a number of islands there (including the Investigator group, at 134°30"E) and at 136°E. found an entrance to another, narrow bay, which he mistook for a strait separating New South Wales from New Holland proper (in the west), therefore crossing the entire continent to the Gulf of Carpentaria: so distrustful were they then of the Dutch exploration of the northern coast of the mainland. But Flinders was soon personally convinced. , that this is not a strait, but a bay (Spencer). Having left it and following the strait (Investigator) first in an easterly and then a northerly direction, Flinders was again inspired by hope, but was even more disappointed: there was also a bay in the north (St. Vincent). ), separated from Spencer by a narrow peninsula (York), shaped like a boot. From this bay it emerged to the southeast by another strait (Baxtairs), and at 36° S a large hilly and wooded island opened in front of it (Kangaroo - 4350). km), and off the coast of the mainland there is a bay (Encounter), All names in brackets are given by Flinders. He named the big island Kangaroo because of the abundance of these marsupials there, the meat of which was eaten by the entire crew of the Investigator. In English, “encounter” is an unexpected meeting. behind which a wide estuary was visible - the mouth of the river. Murray.

To the chagrin of the Englishman Flinders, the French ship "Geographer" of a scientific expedition under the command of a military sailor stood in the bay Nicola Bodena, who behaved politely but reservedly. But the more talkative researcher is a naturalist Francois Peron reported: the French made major discoveries off the southern coast of the mainland and he, Peron, intends to call the explored coastal strip “Napoleon Bonaparte’s Land.” Bodin's expedition was organized by the Paris Academy of Sciences in 1800 by order of the government to explore New Holland, part of which France claimed. In addition to the Geographer, the expedition had at its disposal the ship Naturalist under the command of captain Jacques Emmanuel Hamelin. The base was Fr. Mauritius in the Indian Ocean, then part of France (called Ile-de-France).

At the end of May 1801, the French approached the northwestern coast of New Holland and discovered the Peron Peninsula in Shark Bay (at 26° S latitude), and at the exit from the bay - the Geographer and Naturalist straits (north of the island. Derk-Hartog). Winter has come with winds, rains and fogs. In the fog (during a storm), the ships separated, and Boden continued filming alone. In July, he mapped the sloping sandy shore of Eighty Mile Beach, where the Great Sandy Desert meets the ocean. Further to the northeast, he photographed a scattered group of small islands - the Bonaparte Archipelago - and discovered (secondarily, after Abel Tasman) a vast bay, christening it Joseph Bonaparte. Off the coast of the Arnhem Land Peninsula, Boden discovered the Peron Islands.

There were many scurvy patients on board. For their treatment, “Geographer” went to Fr. Timor, where “Naturalist” also came by agreement. Three months later, the ships sailed from Timor and reached Tasmania in mid-January 1802. Mass scurvy began again. Boden had to stay there for a month, and, taking advantage of this, he surveyed the eastern coast of the island. The French names of the objects he discovered appeared on the map: the Freycinet Peninsula, Oyster Island and a number of smaller islands, bays and peninsulas.

The French then crossed the open ocean to the southwestern tip of Australia, described the small Geographe Bay and turned east. Soon the ships were separated again; Boden, continuing his journey, discovered Fr. Kangaroo - regardless of Flinders - reached Encounter Bay, where he met the British. The scurvy was getting worse, and the Geographer went to Port Jackson to treat the sick. Finding the Naturalist there, Boden sent him to France with reports and collections, and he himself went south in mid-November 1802. He completed his tour of Tasmania, repeating the work of Flinders, moved to Timor, and from there to Mauritius, where in September 1803 Bodin died, and the Geographer returned to France with large new zoological and botanical collections.

So, the French, almost simultaneously with the British, completed the discovery of Tasmania and the southern coast of Australia. The expeditions of Flinders and Boden finally proved that the Great Australian and Spencer Gulfs are completely unconnected with the Gulf of Carpentaria, separated from it by a large expanse of land, and that, therefore, New Holland is a single continent.

However, a small “gap” remained in the coastline of the southeastern part of the continent; all sailors missed the entrance to the very convenient large harbor. At the beginning of January 1802, this bay (Port Phillip) was discovered by an English captain John Murray. Having completed the inventory of his find, he went out to sea and in the western part of Bass Strait discovered Fr. King. (In June 1835, on the northern shore of Port Phillip, a group of colonists founded a settlement, which two years later received the name Melbourne.)

In 1802–1803 Flinders sailed around New Holland. He explored in detail the east coast north of 32°30" S and traced the entire length of the Great Barrier Reef Groups of islands, reefs and a sea passage are named after Flinders.- a long (2300 km) ridge of coral formations - reefs and islands, stretching in an almost continuous chain along the eastern coast of the mainland from 22°30" S (Swain Reefs) to 9° S (southern coast of New Guinea). Flinders also examined the Torres Strait and found that a safe passage was located to the north of the Prince of Wales. accurate map- to the Wessel Islands, near the northeastern ledge of Arnhem Land. In 1814, Flinders published the book A Voyage to Terra Australia. It was in it that he proposed to rename the southern continent from New Holland to Australia; Previously it was Terra Australis Incognita - “Unknown Southern land“, but now it has been explored, and therefore the epithet “unknown” disappears. In the same year, 1814, Flinders died.

The discovery of the coast of Tasmania was completed by a whaler James Kelly; in the summer of 1815/16, with four companions, he walked around the island in a whaleboat and discovered the bays of Port Davey and Macquarie, deep into the land, in the southwest and west.

In 1817–1821 English naval sailor Philip Parker King completed the exploration of Australia from the sea, putting on relatively accurate maps those shores of the mainland that had previously been poorly studied. He conducted the survey on the Mermaid tender (84 tons) in 1817–1820. and on the brig Bathurst (170 tons) in 1821. On the Mermaid in 1818–1819. swam nerd Allen Cunningham and officer John Oxley(see below) and also the Australian Bongari, participant in both voyages of M. Flinders.

King made a new inventory of the northeastern coast of the continent from Hervey Bay (24°50" S) to the Torres Strait, as well as the northern coast - from the Wessel Islands to Dampier Land. In the far north of Australia (11–12° S . w.) King penetrated the vast Van Diemen Bay, discovered the Coeberg Peninsula, the wooded islands of Melville and Bathurst (6200 and 2040 km²) and traced both Dundas and Clarence straits, separating these islands from the mainland in the southern part. Of the Timor Sea, he discovered the Cambridge, Admiralty and Collier bays, and further to the south-west, at the 17th parallel, King Bay, extending into the land for about 100 km, and thus proved that Dampier Land is a peninsula. came to the conclusion that in the north of Australia there are very wide mouths through which even the largest rivers can flow into the sea. King also clarified. coastline Western Australia from Dampier Land to Cape Luin.

The discovery of the last relatively small sections of the Australian coast is associated with the name of an English sailor John Clemens Wickham, captain of the famous Beagle. Approaching the western shores of the continent in November 1837, the ship entered King Bay (the name belongs to Wickham). Officer John Lort Stokes in two boats he described the southern bay and discovered the mouth of the river. Fitzroy and traced the course of the river for 40 km. Having completed the inventory of the entire bay in March 1838, the Beagle moved northeast, and in September Wickham discovered, and Stokes photographed, a bay they called Port Darwin, one of the best harbors in Australia. Returning to the southwest, Wickham and Stokes in October described another Bay they discovered, Queens Channel, with the river flowing into it. Victoria, rapidly rushing towards the ocean in the high rocky shores. This find confirmed, as some geographers believed, the myth of a gigantic river with a huge internal delta: a map of the continent published in 1827 shows a huge stream about 3.4 thousand km long, collecting water from the entire territory of Australia north of the 30th parallel.

However, the exploration - in general terms - was completed only of the coasts of Australia, and its internal regions still remained a continuous “blank spot”. And many years passed until dozens of researchers erased it.

Immediately after the founding of the convict colony Port Jackson (Sydney), officers of the convoy corps began exploring the rivers flowing to the Pacific Ocean from the nearby Blue Mountains. Made a start Arthur Phillip, appointed as the first Governor of New South Wales. In mid-1788, while examining Broken Bay north of Sydney, he discovered the river flowing into the bay. Hawkesbury and its tributaries - Macdonald and Colo. And west of Sydney the officer Watkin Tench then he discovered R. The Nepean, which turned out to be the main source of the Hawkesbury.

However, escort officers had no incentive to explore the interior mountain regions. Only 25 years later, in May 1813, a small detachment of free colonists Gregory Blaxland penetrated beyond the Blue Mountains west of Sydney, along the river valley. Cox (one of the upper reaches of the Nepean - Hawkesbury), and encountered vast grassy plains there, quite suitable as pastures. In this area, two rivers flowed from the Blue Mountains and crossed the plain. Who discovered them in 1813–1815. topographer George William Evans named the northern river Macquarie, and the southern one Lachlan, in honor of the then governor of the colony Lachlan Macquarie.

In 1817–1818 D. Oxley, A. Cunningham and Evans traced both rivers. It turned out that Lachlan, describing a large arc curved to the north, then entered the swampy lowland in front of which the travelers stopped, and that the river. The Macquarie also apparently ends in swamps. On the way back to Sydney, they crossed several rivers flowing north and reached the river. Namoya, flowing to the northwest. Having risen to a high plain bordered on the south by the Liverpool ridge (length 150 km, height up to 1372 m), crossing the ridge, they follow the river. Hunter reached the ocean at the end of 1818.

In 1823, A. Cunningham, moving northwest from the Liverpool ridge, reached the large river. Baruon, crossing the lowland. The water in the river was fresh. He did not, however, follow the course of the river for a significant distance. In 1824–1825 two free colonists, Hamilton Hume (Hume) And William Howell, with one companion, sailed southwest, from the Blue Mountains to the western corner of Port Phillip Bay. On this route they crossed the upper Murrumbidgee ( Big Water), flowing here to the north, followed the inner, continent-facing foot of the Australian Alps (the name belongs to them) and in mid-November 1824 they discovered the upper Murray (Murray) - the “Yuma River”, carrying its waters to the west, and its left tributaries are Ovens and Goulburn. They climbed the “excellent grass-lined valley of Goulburn” to its headwaters and rounded the southwestern spur of the Australian Alps.

In 1827 A. Cunningham explored the area north of Liverpool Ridge. He saw a number of rivers rising in the "eastern mountains" (the New England Range, more than 200 km long, up to 1510 m high) and flowing to the northwest and west, including Guaidir, Macintyre and Dumeric. Beyond Dumerik, he came to a high plain, bounded in the north by the river. Condamine. F. P. King's map of the northern coast and Cunningham's personal observations led him to the assumption that either in the center of Australia there was a huge lake fed by the water of newly discovered rivers, or they inevitably merged to form one or more powerful rivers crossing the continent. He even admitted that one of these great rivers could end in the north-west of Australia, in King's Bay, that is, more than 3000 km in a straight line from the New England ridge.

So, in 1813–1827. Many streams of varying power were discovered, carrying their waters from the outlying mountains - the Great Dividing Range, traced for 1400 km, into the interior of the mainland. The colonial government commissioned an officer Charles Sturt examine their course and determine whether they are connected with each other; the possibility of their flow into the mythical inland sea was not excluded.

Sturt had studied the work of his predecessors and knew how difficult it was to survey in years when there was heavy rainfall. The year 1828, being very dry, seemed to him the most convenient for research. Accompanied by G. Hume, in November of the same year, he first descended the Macquarie Valley and discovered that the river was almost dry, and that the swamps that his predecessors had spoken of did not exist.

Sturt walked along the dry riverbed, looking for a river with fresh water - Barwon (discovered in 1823 by Cannishham), and at the beginning of 1829 he came across another, as it seemed to him, and a very large river, the water in it was salty: it flowed through the salt desert. He named this river the Darling, in honor of the then Governor of New South Wales Ralph Darling.

At the end of that same year, which turned out to be rainy, Sturt began sailing boats down the river. Lachlan reached the relatively deep Murrumbidgee, but then descended to the river. Murray. He recognized it as the lower course of the river through which Hume and his companions crossed. Sturt sailed down the Murray. And at the end of January 1830, having reached 142° E. etc., he saw that a river (Darling), carrying fresh water, flows into Murray from the north. He then reached the mouth of the Murray and found that the river flowed into a shallow lagoon (Lake Alexandrina), at that time connected to Encounter Bay.

Sturt returned back to the marginal mountains, taking boats up the Murray and Murrumbidgee. He made a major discovery - he found out (so far, however, in the most general outline) hydrography of South-Eastern Australia. Sturt described his travels in the book Two Expeditions to the Interior of South Australia (1833).

Of course, much still remained unclear. Almost nothing was known about the flow of the Murray above the mouth of the Murrumbidgee: it was not clear whether the freshwater river flowing into the Murray from the north was connected with that brackish drying stream discovered by Sturt in 1829. These important questions were resolved by a military topographer Thomas Mitchell. He assumed that the Barwan and Darling were the same river, and at the end of 1831 he began his research with it. He discovered that the Darling has not one, but at least three sources (the southernmost is Namoi). In the middle of 1835 Mitchell walked to the place on the Darling where Sturt found salt water, but the water this year turned out to be fresh. The following year, he explored the southeastern region of Australia and discovered between 141–142° E. d. the mouth of a small river (Glenelg), climbed along its valley to its sources. He then headed northeast across mountainous country(Australian Alps), covered with tall eucalyptus trees (up to 140 m) and cut through by numerous rivers. Mitchell was so impressed with the area that he named it Australia Felix.

In April 1839 he landed in Sydney Pavel Edmund Strzelecki, a Polish emigrant (from the then Prussian part of Poland), trained as a geographer and geologist (he graduated from Oxford University). Belonging to an impoverished count's family, he raised funds for travel by selling natural history and ethnographic collections to Western European museums. For six months he wandered through the Australian Alps, surveyed, and in the summer, reaching the upper Murray, which he later traced to its source, he discovered a high mountain (February 15, 1840) and climbed it. “I used the majestic peak,” Strzelecki wrote to his homeland, “which no one had climbed before me, with its eternal snow and silence, to perpetuate on this continent in the memory of future generations a dear name, revered by every Pole - every friend of freedom... . In a foreign land, on a foreign land... I called it Mount Kosciuszko.”

Australian geographers assigned this name to the highest point of the mainland (2228 m), although in the 80s. and it was finally proven that Strzelecki did not climb it, but the neighboring peak of the Snowy Mountains, 9 m lower (Townsend, 2219 m). Named after geographer Thomas Townsend, who explored the Australian Alps in 1846–1850.

Having crossed the southwestern spurs of the Australian Alps, Strzelecki reached Western Port Bay, making his way through the thickets of bushes and groves of eucalyptus and acacia trees of the southeastern coastal strip (Gippsland), the agricultural potential of which he highly appreciated.

In 1842, Strzelecki moved to Tasmania and was the first geologist to study the island. In 1845, his “Physical Description of New South Wales and Van Diemen’s Land” was published in London. In the south of the Great Artesian Basin, north of the Flinders Ranges, lies a creek (dry river) about 250 km long, which Australian geographers named Strzelecki Creek - a tribute to their respect and gratitude to one of Australia's greatest explorers. In 1954 and 1957, detailed biographies of P. E. Strzelecki were published in London and Warsaw.

At the beginning of 1846, while exploring the upper Darling basin, T. Mitchell discovered at approximately 28° south. w. r. Balonne (at the upper reaches - Condamine), and to the west of it - Warrego and proved that both rivers flow from the north into the Darling. He traced Warrego to the source and thus basically completed the discovery river system Murray - Darling. The length of the Murray is 2570 km, the Darling - 2740 km Total area Murray-Darling basin 1160 thousand km².

In 1829, two cities were founded in southwest Australia: at the mouth of the river. Swan (Swan) - Perth, near King George Bay - Albany. From there, in order to expand the territory of the colony, trips were made into the interior of the country, which were not very far yet. First of all, the Darling Range was discovered east of Perth, and the Stirling Range, named after the founder of the colony, north of Albany James Sterling. In the summer of 1830/31, officer Thomas Bannister walked from Perth to Albany and found that country (the southwestern corner of Australia) suitable for colonization.

At the beginning of 1839, officer George Gray began exploring the western coast of Australia: he landed on an island in Shark Bay and at 25° south. w. opened the mouth of the river. Gascoigne. Soon, during a storm, the party lost most of its provisions. Gray headed south by sea in three boats, but beyond the 28th parallel he was wrecked in a cove into which a relatively large river (Murchison) flowed. The rest of the journey to Perth - about 500 km - had to be walked along the coast, which made a more favorable impression on Gray than on his sailor predecessors, but it was not confirmed by further research.

In 1836, the city of Adelaide, the center of South Australia, arose on the shores of the Gulf of St. Vincent. It became the starting point for expeditions whose purpose was mainly to search for grazing lands. In May 1839, a sheep farmer Edward John Eyre, while exploring the coastal strip near Spencer Gulf, discovered the almost meridional Flinders Ridge with heights of up to 1189 m, to the west of it - the salt lake Torrens (up to 5.7 thousand km²). In July of the same year, while exploring the Eyre Peninsula near Spencer Gulf, a sheep farmer discovered the low Gawler Range in its northern part.

At the end of July 1840, passing north from Spencer Gulf, Eyre found that Lake Torrens had turned into a salt marsh. Further to the north, he discovered another salt lake, which he considered a continuation of Torrens. From one of the peaks of the ridge, Flinders Eyre saw a large salt marsh in the east, which he also took to be part of the huge “horseshoe-shaped” Torrens. In 1843, E. Frome proved the fallacy of this assumption: having walked along the eastern slope of the ridge, he was convinced that the salt lake Frome (2–3 thousand km²) was an isolated basin. Later (in 1858–1860) it was established that this is a separate body of water called Lake Eyre (up to 15 thousand km²). Returning to the sea, Eyre and a small detachment walked along the coast to the west, receiving water and food supplies from another detachment sailing on a ship: neither food nor water could be obtained on land in this desert strip. Eyre stopped at 132 ° 30 "E and sent the ship to Spencer Gulf for provisions and fresh water. The ship returned to him at the end of January 1841, but Eyre headed further west only a month later, reducing the number of satellites to five people, of whom three died by July 27, when he arrived at King George Bay (at 118° E). ​​During this four-month journey, Eyre and a young Australian. Wiley walked over 2000 km, mostly through a completely waterless desert, along the plain, behind which the name Nullarbor (Latin - “Not a single tree”) was assigned, in English pronunciation Nullarbor.

At the end of 1848, the topographer Augustus Gregory, traveling straight north from Perth for about 500 km. discovered and examined the river basin. Murchison. He tried to advance from its middle course to the northwest, to Shark Bay, but retreated before the desert. In 1852 he tried again and this time reached Shark Bay.

40s in the east of Australia, a relatively wide strip was explored - from the South Tropic to Gippsland, while to the west of the Darling Basin, all inland areas remained “blank spots”. In the south, only the coastal strip and partly the area of ​​large salt lakes were known, in the west - only the southwestern corner of the mainland and a narrow coastal strip to the river. Gascoigne inclusive. Most of Western Australia, Central and Northern Australia remained still “unknown lands”.

In October 1844, a naturalist in the service of the New South Wales Government, a German Ludwig Leichhardt went at the head of an expedition from Brisbane across the river. Condamine to the Gulf of Carpentaria. Along this route, the expedition in November 1844 - February 1845 discovered the Dawson and Mackenzie rivers with the latter's largest tributaries (Comet and Isaac) and their watersheds (Expedition and Peak ranges). But Leichhardt did not trace Dawson and Mackenzie to their merger and did not know that they constituted the r. Fitzroy (total length of Dawson - Fitzroy 960 km). Further north, in March - April 1845, the expedition discovered and explored the basin of the second major river flowing into the Pacific Ocean, the Berdekin (560 km).

Having crossed the northern section of the Great Dividing Range, which he had traced for at least 400 km, Leichhardt and his companions along the valleys of the Lind and Mitchell rivers descended to the Gulf of Carpentaria in early July. And in July - October they walked around the entire southern coastal strip of the bay, opening the lower reaches of a number of rivers, including the Gilbert and Roper. Leichhardt assigned these significant rivers the names of his English companions - the naturalist John Gilbert And John Roper. He did not forget his youngest comrades either: detailed maps of Northern Australia show, for example, the river. Calvert and Mount Murphy, in honor of the 19-year-old James Calvert and 15 year old John Murphy. He only offended himself: p. Likehart and the Lykehart Range (as the English pronounced his surname) were named after him by other Australian explorers. Then following to the northwest, the expedition crossed the Arnhem Land Peninsula and in mid-December 1845 reached Van Diemen Bay and the northern coast of the Koberg Peninsula, to the military settlement of Port Essington. In fourteen and a half months, Leichhardt covered more than 4 thousand km, mostly through unexplored areas. Everyone returned to New South Wales by sea. Leichhardt became the first explorer of the vast regions of Australia later called Queensland and the Northern Territory. The materials of his expedition were published in 1847.

In December 1847, Leichhardt left Brisbane at the head of a new expedition, intending to cross the Australian mainland in three years. He proceeded through the Darling Valley along the river. Bark, from where he sent the last news (received April 3, 1847). Then the entire expedition (9 people) went missing. People in Sydney began to worry only four years later. From 1852 to 1869, a number of search parties were sent, but no traces of travelers could be found.

After the founding of the colony of South Australia, Charles Sturt went to serve there. The primary task of the colony, which was inhabited only by free people, was to develop cattle breeding. Eyre found only deserts and semi-deserts, but he did not go far north into Central Australia, the nature of which was completely unknown. Judgments about her were made only based on guesswork, and there were all sorts of guesses. Sturt himself, studying the migrations of birds in South Australia, made the incorrect conclusion that in the dry season they fly to the center of the continent and that there were therefore abundant sources of irrigation there.

In August 1844, Sturt, leading a government expedition, set out from Adelaide in search of new pastures. Carrying out a special task, he first went to the northeast, to the lower Darling, to Lake Menindee (32°30" S), from there he turned north, and at 30° S - to the northwest. path in January 1845, he crossed low mountains (the southern spur of the Gray Range), buried one of his companions, James Poole, in this “great stone desert”, and came out onto a plain crossed by the beds of drying rivers - Strzelecki Creek and Barka (lower branches of the large Coopers Creek, about 1,400 km long). North of Lake Eyre, travelers reached almost the center of the continent, to the Simpson Desert. On the eastern edge of the desert, on the middle reaches of the Mulligan River (near 25° S), Sturt. forced to retreat due to lack of water, the expedition returned to Adelaide at the beginning of 1846. Sturt described this journey in the two-volume “Tale of the Expedition to Central Australia” (1849).

In September 1855, O. Gregory began work in the north-west of Australia with a study of the high-water and rapid river in the rainy season. Victoria (570 km), flowing into the southeastern part of Joseph Bonaparte Bay, passed from its headwaters to Sturt Creek and traced it to the northern edge of the Great Sandy Desert. The river flowed into a small salt lake - and the hope of opening a large reservoir in the center of the continent evaporated. This route made it possible to identify eastern border Kimberley plateau. Returning to the river. Victoria, O. Gregory, moving mainly to the southeast, reached the Pacific Ocean at 24° south in 1856. w. (vs. Fr. Curtis). He thus made the first crossing of the continent in a south-easterly direction and established in general terms the relief of Northern Australia. True, it did not move more than 500 km from the sea coast.

In 1858, O. Gregory went in search of Leichhardt from Brisbane to the northeast to the point from which Leichhardt sent his last letter. Finding nothing, he descended along the valley of Cooper's Creek and Strzelecki Creek to the Flinders Range and, following its eastern foot, reached Adelaide. So he crossed Australia a second time, now in a southwestern direction, and in the Coopers Creek basin he moved almost 900 km from the sea, but still did not reach Central Australia.

In 1857–1861 Francis Gregory, brother of Augustus, made four voyages through the northern part of Western Australia. He successively discovered there, between 20 and 28° S. sh., the De Gray, Fortescue, Ashburton rivers and the Hamersley mountain range extending south of Fortescue. Its length is 250 km; Peak Brus (1235 m) is the highest point in Western Australia. Based on materials from his travels, F. Gregory compiled a schematic geological map of the territory west of 120° east. to the Indian Ocean, between 20 and 28° S. w.

In 1879 Alexander Forrest, leading a large expedition, for the first time explored the dissected Kimberley plateau (about 270 thousand km²) in northwestern Australia, and discovered and traced the King Leopold ridge (length 230 km, peak 937 m) in its southern part.

After the discovery of the richest gold deposits in South-Eastern Australia and the founding of the separate colony of Victoria south of Murray (1851) in Melbourne, its new capital, the Geographical Society, which had large funds, arose. The society organized a large expedition in 1858 with the task of exploring the most convenient dry route from Victoria to the northern edge of the mainland and finding a route for the trans-Australian telegraph. An Irishman was appointed head of the expedition Robert O'Hara Burke, who served as police inspector of the new colony from 1853. Burke had no special education, and due to the nature of his previous work, he was completely unprepared for leadership geographical expedition this type. However, its initiators and some of Burke’s companions were more to blame than he for the tragic outcome of the enterprise. For some unknown reason, the Melbourne society suggested that he cross the continent in both directions, instead of taking the expedition by sea from the northern coast to Melbourne. It should be noted that Burke, for the first time in Australia and quite expediently, used not only horses, but also camels imported from Afghanistan to move through the deserts.

On August 20, 1860, the expedition left Adelaide to the north. Along the way, Burke established two food depots on the lower Darling (at Lake Menindee) and on Cooper's Creek. Then he and the medic William John Weale(as an astronomer) with two companions crossed Central Australia, following mainly up the bed of the Diamantina Creek, crossed the Selwyn ridge and along the valley of the river. Flinders sailed down to the Gulf of Carpentaria in early February 1861, completing the first meridional crossing of Australia.

Immediately Burke, acting according to instructions, set off on the return journey, fearing that he would not have enough food to reach the nearest base. People and animals were very exhausted. In mid-April, one of Burke's companions died. This misfortune delayed the detachment for a day, costing the lives of two more. When the travelers reached the food base on Cooper Creek, it turned out that the day before arrival the base commander had evacuated it, leaving only a note and very little food “just in case.” Later, he justified himself by saying that he had waited a long time for Burke and his companions and decided that all four had died.

When the travelers moved away from the base, they had only two camels left - the rest of the animals had died earlier. The camels were shot, and three of them ate their meat for some time. The occasional Australians provided some assistance to the Europeans, but they themselves had very few supplies. A few weeks later, Wills fell behind completely exhausted, and the next day Burke died. The fourth participant in the campaign, almost dying of hunger John King picked up by Australians in the lower reaches of Cooper's Creek, where he was found by a rescue team sent from Melbourne Alfred Howitt. Wheels' diary has survived, the only reliable source of information about Burke's campaign north of second base.

Search parties from the east and north traced the channels of Diamantina, Cooper's Creek to their sources, as well as a number of rivers flowing into the southeastern part of the Gulf of Carpentaria. In 1861 he went from there to the southwest William Landsborough. He discovered the Barkley Plateau In 1877, Nathaniel Buchanan, having climbed the Barkley Plateau, discovered that it was covered with savanna with valuable forage grasses and walked southeast along its steep northern escarpment and Selwyn Ridge to the Great Dividing Range, and then followed Thomson Creek to its mouth (Cooper's Creek system).

In 1860, a Scots colonist and explorer began attempting to cross Australia. John McDuel Stewart(Sturt's companion in 1844–1845). The first one was unsuccessful, but at the end of June he finally reached 19° S. sh., opening the central MacDonnell mountain range near the Southern Tropic, to the north of it the Stuart Bluff ridge (“Stewart's Ledge”), and behind it the small Davenport and Murchison ridges. Stewart tried again at the end of November 1860. It was again unsuccessful, although this time (late May 1861) he reached the Newcastle Creek, which flows into the salt Lake of the Woods (at 17°30" S). Stewart was less less than 300 km to the Gulf of Carpentaria, but not expecting to find supplies there (he had few left), he returned to Adelaide.

In December 1861, Stewart set out north for the third time, reached Lake Woods and found a path to the sea north of the river. Newcastle Creek through thickets of bushes (scrab), which previously seemed impassable to him, along Beardham Creek, a small southern tributary of the river. Roper. From Roper he moved northwest to the river. Adelaide and along it reached Van Diemen Bay at the end of July 1862, making the second meridional crossing of Australia. Its route was soon used - with slight deviations in both directions - for the construction of the trans-Australian telegraph. With legitimate pride, Stuart wrote that he led his entire detachment unharmed from sea to sea. Greatly exaggerating, of course, he praised Northern Australia as “the most wonderful country that man has ever seen.” His last expedition was also of great agricultural importance. She found that in some inland areas of Northern Australia there were vast areas that could be exploited by pastoralists.

The western interior of Australia remained completely unexplored. The “assault” of these hinterlands began in 1869 from the west. Surveyor officer John Forrest left Perth in mid-April at the head of a small well-armed cavalry detachment. Having traveled a total of almost 2 thousand km to the northeast (about a thousand of them in unexplored terrain) through the desert region of Central Australia with numerous salt lakes and isolated hills, Forrest reached almost 123° east in early July. D. at 29° S. w. From there he turned back. Of the salt lakes he discovered, three turned out to be relatively large - Barley, Salt Lakes and Monger.

Other explorers continued their “assault” from the trans-Australian telegraph line: they walked from Adelaide to one of the stations in the center of the continent, and then penetrated the deserts in a westerly direction. Summer 1872/73 Ernest Giles And William Goss, moving on horseback along the parallel 24° S. sh., discovered the George-Gils ridge (at 132° E), and to the southwest of it - the drying up salt lake of Amadies. Giles tried to go further, but stopped in front of a sandy desert. In the summer of 1873/74 Giles, Goss and Alfred Gibson on horseback they went from the telegraph to the west along the 26th parallel and discovered the Musgrave ridge (length about 200 km) with a peak of 1440 m (at 131 ° 30 "E). From there they proceeded to the northwest and penetrated to 125 ° E., discovering on the way the Peterman ridge (length 180 km, peak 1219 m), and the Gibson sandy desert, where A. Gibson died while looking for water.

In mid-1873 Peter Warburton, who had previously (in 1856) explored Lake Torrens, passed from the ridge. McDonnell to the headwaters of Sturt Creek (at 20° S), and from there turned west. Warburton crossed the Great Sandy Desert for the first time; he went to the upper reaches of the river. De-Gray. He then crossed the upper reaches of a number of creeks and ended his journey at Nikol Bay (20°30" S).

D. Forrest remained faithful to “his” direction. In the autumn (April) 1874 he climbed the river valley. Murchison, finding it quite suitable for cattle breeding, turned east and walked through the semi-deserts between 25–26 ° S. w. from one drying up spring to another, through a chain of salt lakes: in winter (in August) he crossed the desert strip by chance at its narrowest place - between the Gibson and Great Victoria deserts - and reached the ridge. Musgrave, and from him went down the river valley. Albergues to the telegraph line (late September). Forrest often climbed the hills closest to the route line and surveyed the area to the north and south. According to his observations, in both directions, as far as the eye could see, stretched a flat, sometimes slightly undulating country with sandy hills overgrown with spinifex grass; sometimes it was just an ocean of spinifex. He came to the conclusion that the interior regions of Western Australia he explored were completely unsuitable for European colonization.

In 1875, E. Giles, keeping approximately the 30th parallel, penetrated from the telegraph line west into the Great Victoria Desert (the name given to him), and crossed it; having then passed through a chain of drying up lakes, at Lake Moore (117 ° 30 "E) he turned southwest towards Indian Ocean near Perth. From there Giles in January 1876 headed north to the upper reaches of Ashburton, and from 24° S. w. moved towards the center of the continent and, keeping generally to the 24th parallel, crossed from west to east the Gibson Desert, before which he retreated in 1874. His conclusions regarding the nature of the interior of Western Australia generally coincided with the opinions of John Forrest. In 1875–1876 Giles traveled more than 8,000 km on horseback. He was the author of five books, including Geographical Travels in Australia (1875), Diary of a Forgotten Expedition (1880) and the two-volume Australia Twice Crossed (1889).

Thus, from 1872 to 1876, a gigantic desert strip between 20–30° S was discovered and crossed by several routes. sh., which is conventionally divided into three deserts: Greater Sandy (in the north), Gibson (in the center), Greater Victoria (in the south). After this, only relatively small “white spots” remained unexplored in Inner Australia, eliminated in the 20th century.

Thanks to the efforts of many expeditions, it was possible to dispel three main myths that largely determined the course of the discovery and study of Australia. The first to refute the idea of ​​the presence of a meridional strait, supposedly dividing the entire continent into two halves. Then it was the turn of the legend of the giant river to disappear. And finally, it turned out that in the center of Australia there is no inland sea or lakes. However, instead of this mythical reservoir, underground lakes and even a sea of ​​fresh water were discovered.

A meteorologist started the study of Australian artesian basins Henry Russell, who had been studying the Darling Basin since 1869. In 1878 Ralph Tate discovered artesian waters in the Lake Eyre area. Then Russell published an article in August 1879. In it, he argued that the artesian basin in New South Wales extends west of the watershed mountains from the river. Lachlan north to the river. Dumeric, i.e. up to the Queensland border.

In 1895, geologist Edward Pitman associated underground aquifers with Triassic porous sandstones distributed in the outback of New South Wales in a strip up to 700 km wide. By 1914, Pitman had delineated the entire Great Artesian Basin and described it in the book “The Great Australian Artesian Basin and the Sources of Its Waters.” The basin extends from the Gulf of Carpentaria to the south for 2000 km, its width is 700–1800 km, its area is more than 1700 thousand km² (the second in the world - after West Siberian).

30s XIX century An English naval sailor and hydrographer worked off the north-eastern coast of Australia Francis Price Blackwood. In 1842 he returned to these waters as captain of the ship Fly. For more than two years, Blackwood led hydrographic work in the western, reef-strewn strip of the Coral Sea, between the mainland and the Great Barrier Reef, exploring this reef along its entire length, finding the safest passages between its parts. He was the first to accurately map the wide Capricorn Strait and its fringing reefs near the Southern Tropic, including the Capricorn Islands and Swain Reefs, at 21° S. w. - Cumberland Islands, between 16°40" and 9°20" S. w. - the outer (eastern) line of reefs for more than 900 km, to the southern coast of New Guinea. Expedition member geologist Joseph Beat Jewkes compiled the first scientific description of the Great Barrier Reef (published in 1847).

At the beginning of 1845, having passed through the North-East Passage into the Gulf of Papua, Blackwood first described this bay, and discovered the estuary of the large river. Fly, named after his ship. From there, Blackwood sailed through the Torres Strait and the Arafura Sea to the North Australian Coeberg Peninsula, delivered the crew of two ships (70 people) that had been wrecked in the Torres Strait from Port Essington to Singapore, moved to Sydney and at the end of 1845 returned to England.

Among the hydrographers - researchers of the Australian seas of the 40s. young naval sailor stands out Owen Stanley, an excellent draftsman who illustrated his own and other people’s reports. In 1847–1849 patient with epilepsy. O. Stanley, commanding the old ship Rattlesnake, again worked in Australian waters, mainly in the Torres Strait area. His most important achievement was a detailed inventory of the south-eastern coast of New Guinea and adjacent islands to the Louisiade archipelago: his maps (published in 1855) were used until 1955. Working in very difficult conditions - eternal anxiety on the “old ship” in dangerous waters - O. Stanley's poor health undermined him so much that, barely reaching Sydney (1850), he died on board the ship at 39 years of age. The Owen-Stanley Ridge, which stretches for 250 km along the eastern shore of the Gulf of Papua (peak 4035 m), was later named after him, which he traced along its entire length.

In the second half of the 19th century, when preparations were intensively made for the division of Oceania between the imperialists and the mass extermination of its indigenous inhabitants took place, the voice of the great Russian humanist was heard throughout the world in their defense. Nikolai Nikolaevich Miklouho-Maclay As a 19-year-old boy in 1866, as an assistant to the German zoologist Ernst Haeckel, he sailed to Madeira and the Canary Islands, and visited Morocco. In 1869, he visited the shores of the Red Sea and Asia Minor to study lower marine animals. But he was drawn to unexplored areas not yet visited by Europeans.

And he chooses the northeastern coast of New Guinea. At the request of the Russian Geographical Society in 1870, he was delivered there - around South America- on the screw corvette "Vityaz" under the command Pavel Nikolaevich Nazimov and landed in September 1871 on the coast of New Guinea east of Astrolabe Bay - later called the Miklouho-Maclay coast. The corvette officers discovered and described the Vityaz Strait between this coast and the island. Long Island. Miklouho-Maclay lived on “his” shore until December 1872, studying the language, morals and customs of the Papuans, and won their love and trust with patience, restraint, truthfulness and a cordial attitude. At the beginning of 1873, the screw clipper "Emerald" came for him under the command of Mikhail Nikolaevich Cumani. The officers described the Emerald Strait separating the island. Karkar from New Guinea.

On a Russian clipper, Miklouho-Maclay sailed to the Philippines, and from there moved to Java. In 1874, he sailed on a Dutch ship to Sulawesi, Timor and the Moluccas. From there, on a Malay sailing ship (“prau”), he crossed to the western coast of New Guinea, explored it, sailed again to the Moluccas and Sulawesi and returned to Java, where he lived until 1875. Then Miklouho-Maclay explored the interior of the Malacca Peninsula. In 1876–1877 he visited again New Guinea, lived on “his” shore and collected valuable anthropological and ethnographic collections. Based on his observations, Miklouho-Maclay came to the conclusion about species unity and kinship human races, destroying the anti-scientific idea of ​​the supposedly existing “lower” and “superior” races.

At the end of 1877, Miklouho-Maclay went on an English schooner to Singapore, where he remained for more than six months due to serious illness. In 1878 he moved to Sydney. In 1879–1880 he sailed from there to New Caledonia and other islands of Melanesia, continuing anthropological research, and visited the southern coast of New Guinea. Returning to Australia, he launched an agitation against the slave trade, which was widespread in Melanesia. In 1881, he again visited the southern coast of New Guinea with a punitive expedition on an English corvette. Thanks to his intercession, the corvette commander abandoned the burning of the Papuan village and the wholesale extermination of its inhabitants. In 1882, Miklouho-Maclay returned to St. Petersburg through the Suez Canal, thus completing the circumnavigation that began on the Vityaz in 1870.

He did not live long in his homeland. In 1883 he went to Australia, then to Java. There Miklouho-Maclay accidentally found the Russian corvette Skobelev (formerly Vityaz). His commander Vadim Vasilievich Blagodarev brought the traveler to the shore of Miklouho-Maclay. The corvette officers described the northwestern part of Astrolabe Bay and discovered Alexey Bay and a number of small islands there, the largest of which Blagodarev named Fr. Skobeleva.

After spending some time among Papuan friends, Miklouho-Maclay returned to Australia, lived there until 1886, then moved with his family to St. Petersburg, but died a year later (1887). He left a large scientific and literary legacy. His most important works were published by the USSR Academy of Sciences (Collected Works. In 5 volumes, 1950–1954). He became one of the favorite heroes of Soviet youth. Books about him are published and republished in the USSR.

Enouese naturalist Luigi Maria Albertis in 1876, at the head of a party of 11 people, he went up the river on a steam boat provided to him by the authorities of New South Wales. Fly, the mouth of which was discovered by Blackwood, is 800 km from the sea. Along this entire length of the river. The fly, which crossed a huge lowland, was navigable. In mid-June, in the north, Albertis saw a high mountain range (up to 3860 m) - the Victor Emanuel ridge. He described his travels in the two-volume book “On New Guinea” (1880), from which it is clear that he spoke with the Papuans “from a position of strength” and not all of his shots were at game or into the sky.

In 1872–1874 the southeastern part of New Guinea was explored by an English naval sailor John Moresby on the ship "Basilisk". To the west of the Louisiades archipelago, he discovered a group of small islands and the Goshen passage between the D'Entrecasteaux Islands and the New Guinea ledge. To the north of Huon Bay, Moresby saw the high mountains of Saruvaged (peak 4107 m); their northwestern extension is the Finistere ridge. In the Gulf of Papua he found a convenient harbor, which he named in honor of his father, Admiral Port Moresby.

In November 1884, Eastern New Guinea was divided into two parts: the northern part was captured by the Germans; southern - the British, who declared it a protectorate and called it Papua.

Otto Finsch, a German merchant turned zoologist, visited New Guinea acting on behalf of the German New Guinea Company, which had established a colony in the northeastern part of the island. In total he made five voyages along the northern coast of New Guinea. In May 1885, along a large green and lemon spot in the sea, Finsch discovered the river. The Sepik, the largest waterway of the new colony (length 1300 km), and went up the river for about 50 km. In its lower reaches it flowed through a swampy plain. In the distance to the south, Finsch saw a mountain range and named it after Bismarck. Finsch also explored a large archipelago in the New Guinea Sea, dubbed the Bismarck Archipelago by the Germans.

In 1887, geographer and astronomer Carl Schrader went up the river Sepik at 1100 km. In the south, he saw relatively high (up to 2880 m) mountains - the Central Range ridge. The discovery of a convenient road into the interior of central New Guinea was another achievement of Schrader. The German-Dutch border commission ascended along this path to the upper reaches of the river at the 141st meridian in 1910. And two years later, the Germans conducted extensive research in the river basin. Sepik, examined a number of its southern tributaries and, along one of them (the April River), penetrated into the central part of the Central Range ridge. One of the expedition members, entomologist Richard Thurnwald, rose to the sources of the river. Sepik, discovered the range named after him, and thus established the western border of the Central Range.

Among the researchers of the new British protectorate, Captain Henry Charles Averill, who discovered Strickland in 1885 - the largest tributary of the river. Fly and the Governor William McGregor- in 1889 - 1890 he traced the flow of the river. Fly, almost 1000 km from the mouth, discovered and examined part of its upper tributary, the Palmer.

The Dutch, who captured the western part of New Guinea, were late in exploring its interior. Only in 1905 did they examine the slow river. Digul is almost 550 km from the mouth. A year later, a military detachment with the participation of two naturalists studied a number of other rivers flowing through the central lowland, including the river. Lorenz, and examined the wide river. Eilanden. The detachment continued to study the river. Digul, now its two major tributaries, having completed the acquaintance with the central lowland. Both the southern group and the military parties operating from the northern coast of New Guinea were stopped by a powerful ridge with high peaks (the Maoke Mountains). They were first reached by Lieutenant F. van der Ven: near 139° east. d. He discovered several snowy peaks and met a group of pygmies.

The Dutch began exploring the northern coast of New Guinea in 1883, having become familiar with the lower reaches of the river. Mamberamo. They began a detailed study of its basin in 1909. At the end of this year, a military detachment under the command of Captain Francena Herdershe, having overcome two rapids of the river, which made its way in the latitudinal mountains of Van-Pec, in mid-February 1910 he discovered a “lake-plain” formed by the confluence of the two components of the river. Mamberamo. Herdershe chose the western branch (Tariku River) and along its valley climbed the mountains almost to the line of eternal snow. Malaria, which killed most of the porters, forced the Dutch to turn back.

In 1913–1914 a large party led by a captain J. Opperman, conducted a more detailed acquaintance with the river basin. Mamberamo, divided into two groups. One reached the source of the river. Tariku and examined its southern tributaries. Another examined the entire course of the river. Taritatu, the eastern component of Mamberamo, rose to the sources of its two main tributaries, including the river. Sobger. Thus, the Dutch discovered and explored the northern slopes of the Maoke Mountains for more than 500 km.

Web design © Andrey Ansimov, 2008 - 2014

The first stage of the voyage of Dutch sailors in the 17th century.

Until the 17th century Europeans received scattered information about Australia and New Guinea from Portuguese navigators. The year of discovery of Australia is considered to be 1606, when the Dutch navigator W. Janszoon explored a section of the western coast of the Cape York Peninsula in the north of the continent. During the 17th century. The main discoveries were made by Dutch travelers, with the exception of the Spanish expedition of 1606, in which L. Torres discovered the strait between New Guinea and Australia (later named after him). Due to the priority of the Dutch, Australia was originally called New Holland.
In 1616, D. Hartog, heading to the island of Java, discovered a section of the western coast of the continent, the exploration of which was almost completely completed in 1618-22. The southern coast (its western part) was explored in 1627 by F. Theisen and P. Neits.
A. Tasman made two trips to Australia, the first to circumnavigate Australia from the south and prove that it is a separate continent. In 1642, his expedition discovered the island, which he named Van Diemen's Land in honor of the Dutch governor of the East Indies (then this island was renamed Tasmania), and the island "States Land" (present-day New Zealand). On a second voyage in 1644 he explored the northern and northwestern coasts of Australia.

The second stage of the English and French naval expeditions of the 18th and first half of the 19th centuries.

At the turn of the 18th century. The English navigator and pirate W. Dampier discovered a group of islands named after him off the coast of northwestern Australia. In 1770, during his first circumnavigation of the world, J. Cook explored the eastern coast of Australia and found out the island position of New Zealand.
In 1788, a colony for English convicts was founded in Sydney, then called Port Jackson.
In 1798, the English topographer D. Bass discovered the strait separating Tasmania from Australia (the strait was later named after him).
In 1797-1803, the English explorer M. Flinders walked around Tasmania, the entire continent, mapped the southern coast and the Great Barrier Reef, and surveyed the Gulf of Carpentaria. In 1814, he proposed calling the southern continent Australia instead of New Holland. Many are named after him geographical features on the mainland and in adjacent seas.
During the same period, a French expedition led by N. Boden discovered some islands and bays. F. King and D. Wicken completed work on exploring the coast of Australia in 1818-39.

The third stage was land expeditions of the first half of the 19th century.

Initially, during this period, due to the difficulties of overcoming the vast inland deserts, expeditions were concentrated mainly in coastal areas. C. Sturt, T. Mitchell passed through the Great Dividing Range, reaching vast plains, but without going deep into them, they explored the basin in southeastern Australia largest river continent Murray and its tributary Darling.
In 1840, the Polish traveler P. Strzelecki discovered the highest peak in Australia, Kosciuszko.
The English explorer E. Eyre in 1841 made a passage along the southern coast from the city of Adelaide in the southeastern part of the mainland to King George Bay.
In the 40s exploration of the deserts of the Australian interior begins. Sturt in 1844-46 explored the sandy and rocky deserts in the southeastern part of the mainland. In 1844 -45, the German scientist L. Leichhardt crossed north-eastern Australia, crossed the Dawson, Mackenzie and other rivers, reached the interior of the Arnhem Land Peninsula, and then returned to Sydney by sea. In 1848 his new expedition went missing. The unsuccessful search for the expedition was undertaken by the Englishman O. Gregory, who studied inner area Arnhem Land Peninsula, crossed the eastern edge of the central deserts.

The fourth stage was inland expeditions of the second half of the 19th and 20th centuries.

The first to cross Australia from south to north, from Adelaide to the Gulf of Carpentaria, were English explorers R. Burke and W. Wills in 1860; on the way back, in the area of ​​Coopers Creek, Burke died.
The Scottish explorer J. Stewart crossed the mainland twice in 1862, making a great contribution to the study of the central regions. Subsequent expeditions of E. Giles (1872-73, 1875-76), J. Forrest (1869, 1870, 1874), D. Lindsay (1891), L. Wells (1896) and other English travelers explored the deserts of Central Australia in detail: Big Sandy, Gibson and Great desert Victoria.
In the first third of the 20th century, thanks to the work of mainly English geographers, the main little-studied areas in the interior of Australia were mapped.