Willem Jansz

Nothing is known of Janszoon's early life. He is first recorded as entering into the service of the Dutch East India Company (VOC) as a mate aboard the ''Hollandia'', part of the second fleet dispatched by the Dutch to the Dutch East Indies in 1598.

He again sailed from the Netherlands for the East Indies in December 1603 as captain of the '' Duyfken '' (or ''Duijfken'', meaning "Little Dove"), part of a fleet of twelve ships. Once in the Indies, Janszoon was sent to search out other outlets for trade, particularly in "the great land of Nova Guinea and other East and Southlands."

On November 18 1605 , the ''Duyfken'' sailed from Bantam to the coast of western New Guinea . She then crossed eastern end of the Arafura Sea , without seeing Torres Strait , into the Gulf Of Carpentaria , and made a landfall at the Pennefather River on the western shore of Cape York in Queensland , near the modern town of Weipa . This is the first recorded European landfall on the Australian continent. Janszoon proceeded to chart some 320 Km of the coastline, which he thought to be a southerly extension of New Guinea.

Finding the land swampy and the people inhospitable (ten of his men were killed on various shore expeditions), at Cape Keerweer ("Turnabout"), south of Albatross Bay, Janszoon headed home and arrived back at Bantam in June 1606 . He called the land he had discovered "Nieu Zelandt," but this name was not adopted, and was later used by Abel Tasman to name New Zealand .

The Duyfken was actually in Torres Strait in March 1606, a few weeks before Torres sailed through it. Janszoon returned to the Netherlands in the belief that the south coast of New Guinea was joined to the land along which he coasted, and Dutch maps reproduced this error for many years to come.

Although there have been many suggestions that earlier navigators from China , France or Portugal may have discovered parts of Australia, the ''Duyfken'' is the first European vessel known to have done so.

Janszoon served in the Netherlands East Indies for several periods ( 1603 - 11 , 1612 - 16 , including a period as governor of Fort Henricus on Solor, and 1618 - 28 , during which time was served as admiral of the Dutch fleet and as governor of Banda 1623 - 27 ). Janszoon was awarded a Chain of Honour in 1619 for his part in capturing four ships of the British East India Company which had aided the Javanese in their defence of the town of Jakarta against the Dutch. In 1628 he retired to the Netherlands with the rank of admiral.

The original journals and charts made during Janszoon's 1606 voyage have been lost, but the National Library Of Austria in Vienna holds a copy of the map made around 1670 . The map, which shows the location of the first landfall in Australia by the ''Duyfken'', is part of the ''Atlas Blaeu Van der Hem'', brought to Vienna in 1730 by Prince Eugene Of Savoy .

REFERENCES

''A short History of Australia'' by Ernest Scott

Information About

Willem Jansz