c.1570–1630
The first European to map a segment of the Australian coastline was Willem Janszoon, captain of the Duyfken.
Little is known of his early life. He was probably born and raised in Amsterdam, and is thought to have become an officer cadet at the age of 16. Two years later, while on duty aboard ship in the English Channel, he watched the English navy defeat the Spanish Armada and prevent the invasion of England.
In 1598, Janszoon made his first voyage to the East Indies aboard the Hollandia, and in 1606 set sail from Java in the VOC (Dutch East India Company) ship, the Duyfken, to explore the region south-east of the East Indies, his goal to find new trading markets and a passage through to the Pacific Ocean. Instead, he encountered the western side of Cape York Peninsula, where he charted about 320 kilometres of coastline.
Janszoon remains a largely unknown figure in the story of the exploration of Australia. The log and journal of his 1606 voyage is lost. The Duyfken chart survived and was copied into the Atlas Blaeu van der Hem in 1670. Janszoon again sailed to the west coast as chief merchant aboard the Mauritius in 1618. It is thought that Janszoon was appointed governor of Banda in 1623, and retired in 1629. The Duyfken expedition was the first of the deliberate attempts by the Dutch to explore the region from Java.
