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Willem Janszoon made the first recorded European landfall on the Australian continent in 1606 in the Duyfken. Janszoon traveled to the Dutch East Indies in 1598 for the Oude compagnie and became an officer of the Dutch East India Company (VOC) from its establishment in 1602.

Contents 1 Voyage 1.1 Turnabout 1.2 Return to Banda 2 Torres Strait 3 Notes 4 References

Janszoon left Banda in the Banda Islands in September 1605 for Bantam so that the Duyfken could be fitted out and supplied for its voyage.^[1] On November 18, 1605, the Duyfken sailed from Bantam to the coast of western New Guinea. Although all records of the voyage have been lost, Janszoon’s departure was reported by Captain John Saris. He recorded that on:

November 18, 1605, a small Dutch pinnace departed here for the discovery of the land called New Guinea, which, it is said, may yield a great amount of wealth...^[2]

Although there are no records of the voyage, a copy was made of Janszoon’s lost map of his expedition in about 1670. This map was sold to the Österreichische Nationalbibliothek in Vienna in 1737.^[3] It can be deduced from this map that Janszoon then sailed to Ambon (the headquarters of the VOC), Banda, the Kai Islands, the Aru Islands and Deyong Point on the coast of Papua.^[4] After exploring the coast of Papua the Duyfken rounded Vals Point and crossed the eastern end of the Arafura Sea, without seeing Torres Strait, into the Gulf of Carpentaria, and made a landfall at the Pennefather River (which he called the Batavia, 12°13′S, 141°44′E) 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. He proceeded over Albatross Bay to Archer Bay ( 13°16′S, 141°39′E), the confluence of the Archer and the Watson Rivers, which he named Dubbelde Rev (Double River) and then on to Dugally River, which he named R. Visch (Fish River).^[5]

Finding the land swampy and the people inhospitable and with the killing of some of his men on various shore expeditions, he apparently decided to turn back at Cape Keerweer ("Cape Turnabout", 13°55′S, 141°28′E). The reason given for the turnabout can be found in the VOC’s Instructions to Abel Jansen Tasman, issued in Batavia in January 29, 1644, which sets out an account of the earlier voyage:

...the first was undertaken in the year 1606 with the yacht 't Duijffken, by order of President Jan Willemsz Verschoor (who then managed the Company's affairs in. Bantam) on which voyage the Islands of Key and Arouw were visited in passing, and the unknown south and west coasts of Nova Guinea were discovered over a length of 220 miles from 5 to 13¾ degrees southern latitude, it being only ascertained that vast regions were for the greater part uncultivated, and certain parts inhabited by savage, cruel black barbarians who slew some of our sailors, so that no information was obtained touching the exact situation of the country and regarding the commodities obtainable and in demand there; our men having by want of provisions and other necessaries been compelled to return and give up the discovery they had begun, only registering in their chart, with the name of Cape Keerweer, the extreme point of the discovered land in 131 degrees southern latitude.^[6]

Janszoon then retraced his route north, to the north point of Vliege Bay, which Matthew Flinders called Duyfken Point ( 12°34′S, 141°35′E). He then passed his original landfall at Pennefather River and continued on the present Wenlock River ( 12°03′S, 141°55′E). This river was also formerly called the Batavia River, due to an error made in the chart made by the Carstenszoon 1623 expedition.^[7] According to Carstenszoon the Batavia River was:

a large inlet, which the men of the Duyfken, in the year 1606, went up with the boat, on which occasion one of them was killed by the arrows of the natives.^[8]

Janszoon then proceeded past Skardon ( 11°46′S, 142°00′E), Vrilya Point ( 11°14′S, 142°07′E), Crab Island ( 10°58′S, 142°06′E), Red Wallis Island ( 10°51′S, 142°01′E), Red Wallis Island ( 10°52′S, 142°02′E) to 't Hooge Eylandt ("the high island", now called Muralug Island or Prince of Wales Island at 10°41′S, 142°11′E), on which some of them landed. The expedition then passed Badu Island ( 10°07′S, 142°09′E) to the Vuyle Bancken, the continuous coral reefs between Jervis Island and New Guinea. Janszoon called the land he had discovered Nieu Zelandt after the Dutch province of Zeeland but this name was not adopted, and was later used by Tasman to name New Zealand.

Janszoon then proceed back to Banda via the south coast of New Guinea.^[9] On 15 June 1606 Captain Saris reported the arrival of:

…Nockhoda Tingall, a Tamil from Banda, in a Javanese junk, laden with mace and nutmegs, which he sold to the Gujaratis; he told me that the Dutch pinace that went to explore New Guines had returned to Banda, having found it: but in sending their men on shore to propose trade, nine of them were killed by the heathens, who are man-eaters: so they were forced to return, finding no good to be done there.^[10]

A reference to the outcome of the expedition was made as a result of Willem Schouten’s 1615 voyage on behalf of the Australische Compagnie from the Netherlands to the Spice Islands via Cape Horn. The VOC sought an order from the Dutch Government prohibiting the Australische Compagnie from operating between Ceylon and 100 miles east of the Solomon Islands and in 1618 in pursuit of this order it presented a memorandum arguing that,

...seeing that the United East-India Company has repeatedly given orders for the discovering and exploring the land of Nova Guinea, and the islands east of the same, since, equally by our orders, such discovery was once tried about the year 1606 with the yacht de Duyve by Skipper Willem Jansz and sub-cargo Jan Lodewijs van Rosinghijn, who made sundry discoveries on the said coast of Nova Guinea, as is amply set forth in their journals.^[11]

In 1622, prior to Jan Carstenszoon’s 1623 exploration of the Gulf of Carpentaria, Hessel Gerritszoon published a map, which included the coastline of part of the west coast of Cape York. Although this map shows this coast as an extension of New Guinea, it includes a note that refers to Spanish maps, no doubt based on Luis Váez de Torres’s voyage through Torres Strait in 1606 (although the Dutch did not know this), that appeared to contradict this. It noted that while the Spanish maps were inconsistent with each other, they would, if confirmed, imply that New Guinea did not extend more than 10 degrees south, “then the land from 9 to 14 degrees must be separate and different from the other New Guinea”. ^[12]

In early October 1606, Torres completed his voyage through the Torres Strait, although the Dutch knew nothing of it. Willem Janszoon returned to the Netherlands, perhaps in the belief that the south coast of New Guinea was joined to the land along which he sailed. On the other hand his own chart did not show that he claimed to have continuously followed the coastline where Torres Strait is found.^[13]

Both Carstenszoon in 1623 and Tasman in 1644 were directed to attempt to find a passage in the area of Torres Strait, but failed.^[14] Sometimes the Dutch still wondered whether there was a passage, such as expressed by G. E. Rumphus, an officer of the VOC, some time after 1685:

The Drooge bocht (shallow bay), where Nova-Guinea is surmised to be cut off from the rest of the Southland by a passage opening into the great South-Sea, though our men have been unable to pass through it owing to the shallows, so that it remains uncertain whether this strait is open on the other side.^[15]

However, Dutch maps continued to suggest that Cape York and New Guinea were contiguous until James Cook clearly demonstrated the existence of the Strait in 1770.

• Heeres, J. E. (1898, 1965). Abel Janszoon Tasman's Journal. Amsterdam, Los Angeles: Royal Dutch Geographical Society, Project Gutenberg of Australia, 163. 
• Heeres, J. E. (1899). Part Borne by the Dutch in the Discovery of Australia 1606-1765. London: Royal Dutch Geographical Society, Project Gutenberg of Australia, 114. 
• Mutch, T. D. (1942). The First Discovery of Australia. Sydney: Mutch, Project Gutenberg of Australia, 55. 
• Janssen, Willem (fl. 1603 - 1628). Australian Dictionary of Biography.