To browse Academia. A book about the exploration and survey of the Australian coast. Royal Historical Society of Queensland Journal, Some of Australia's earliest or more 'fine grained' European exploration was conducted by runaways, whalers and other persons. Rather than being part of official or funded expeditions, these folk explored as part of their survival or work. Their largely forgotten achievements are increasingly being reconstructed, indicating that Australia experienced a greater deluge of European 'wanderings' than is usually imagined.
It identifies several unknown or under-rated early explorers of this district; reconstructs their routes; and considers the significance of their interaction with local Indigenous groups.
Tjop tjop! Festchrift for Christer Westerdahl The occasion of his 70th birthday on November 13, , Christer Westerdahl's conceptual frameworks for identifying and understanding maritime cultural landscapes have spread far beyond their original Euro-pean roots and found a place in the works of many other archaeologists worldwide , including in Australia.
This paper looks at the first encounters between European mariners and the Australian landscape, focusing on a single site on Dirk Hartog Island, on the western Australian coast. From the early 17th century Dirk Hartog Island became one of the few fixed and known points on the largely unmapped Australian coastline.
Over a period of several hundred years its northern tip was repeatedly visited by a succession of Dutch, French and English explorers, sometimes accidentally but usually intentionally, replicating each other's movements up the cliffs to stand on the rocky headlands overlooking Shark Bay. More importantly, each group left behind a physical testament to their presence, alternately removing, repairing or adding to the monuments left by those who preceded them.
