
View of Batavia, 1730
View of the city of Batavia, seen from out to sea
with many ships in the foreground, including four East Indiamen.
KITLV / Royal
Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies
After the Dutch arrived in the East Indies in 1596, the VOC (Dutch East India Company) established its headquarters in the city of Jayakarta, on the island of Java.
Later renamed Batavia, the city (now Jakarta) soon became the capital of the East Indies and the principal harbour for Dutch ships sailing to and from Europe.
The Governor-General and Council in Batavia controlled all VOC trade in Asia, and the city reflected the company's monopolistic approach. Private trade at most of the ports was prohibited, except in Batavia.

View of the city and castle of Batavia in two parts 1650–1700
Collection
Museum Bronbeek
The VOC was not the first to use the monopoly approach. But it was the VOC and its appetite for new markets that eventually put Australia on the map.
Soon after the company established its base in the city, Batavia became the launching place for the first of many Dutch voyages of discovery beyond the Spice Islands.
In 1605, VOC headquarters in Amsterdam issued an order to Frederick de Houtman, Governor in Batavia: 'There must be more charting, mapping and exploring of the lands further east of the Spice Islands and a renewed search for a passage through to the Pacific Ocean'.
The twin objectives of the expeditions to the unknown south were trade and territory: commanders of the voyages were instructed to find new commercial prospects and acquire new land. They were the orders that effectively signalled the beginning of the Dutch discovery of Australia.

Desepascaert vertoont de wegh, soo int
heen als in het weerom seylen, die gehouden is bij het jacht het Duijfien
in het besoecken van de landen beoosten Banda, tot aen Nova Guinea.
Map
of the islands in the Banda Sea and the New Guinea region showing the tracks
of the Duyfken in 1606.
engraving; 61.5 x 56.0 cm
Reproduction: Monumenta cartographica, Hague: Martinus Nijhoff,
1925
National Library of Australia
Captained by Willem Janszoon, the voyage of the Duyfken in 1606 was the first of several planned voyages to the north of Australia. A secret map, Dese pascaert vertoont, shows the route of the Duyfken and the first European landfall on the Australian continent, at 11°45'S. Most VOC voyages, commercial or explorative, were secret. But maps of their voyages soon revealed to the world the extent of their discoveries. Janszoon's discoveries were thought to be an extension of New Guinea as the Duyfken had missed Torres Strait.
No second voyage of discovery to the south lands was organised until 1623, though the Dutch did consider it. In 1620, prompted after a series of accidental landfalls on Australia's west coast, the Seventeen urged closer investigation of the extent of Janszoon's discoveries.
In 1622, Dutch exploration of the unknown South Land suddenly became urgent. In that year, the English ship the Trial (or Tryall) became the first European ship to come to grief on the Australian coast. The Trial was wrecked off the Montebello Islands, in north-west Australia. Captain John Brookes and 45 of his crew sailed in two boats to Batavia to mount a rescue, but 93 people left behind died.The safety of the VOC ships was paramount. On 29 September, VOC officials in Batavia instructed the captains of the de Haringh and Hasewint to combine the search for new trading opportunities with the pressing need to chart unknown, and possibly dangerous, stretches of coastline.
The main object for which you are dispatched on this occasion is, that for 45° or 50°S, or from the farthest point to which the land shall be found to extend southwards within these latitudes, up to the northernmost extremity of the South Land you will have to discover and survey all capes, forelands, bights, lands, islands, rocks, sandbanks, depths, shallows, roads, winds, currents and all that appertains to the same, so as to be able to map out and duly mark everything in its true latitude, longitude, bearings and conformation. You will moreover go ashore in various places and diligently examine the coast in order to ascertain whether or not it is inhabited, the nature of the land and the people, their towns and inhabited villages, the divisions of their kingdoms, their religion and polity, their wars, their rivers, the shape of their vessels, their fisheries, commodities and manufactures, but especially to inform yourselves what minerals, such as gold, silver, tin, iron, lead, and copper, what precious stones, pearls, vegetables, animals and fruits, these lands yield and produce.

Carten dese landen Zin ontdeckt bij de compangie ontdeckers behaluen
het norder deelt van noua guina ende het West Eynde van Java dit Warck
aldus
[Bonaparte Tasman map]
‘Map these lands were discovered by the Company's
explorers except for the northern part of New Guinea and the west end of
Java.'
manuscript map, hand-coloured; 73.0 x 95.0 cm
State Library of New South
Wales
While this project came to nothing, the following year the voyage of discovery of the ships Pera and Arnhem added significantly to Dutch knowledge of the Gulf of Carpentaria, and the discoveries of Jan Carstensz began to appear on regional and world maps.
Twenty years later, the VOC was still probing, and Dutch discoveries reached their climax with Abel Tasman's two voyages in 1642–43 and 1644.
In August 1642, Anthonie van Diemen, Governor-General of the East Indies from 1636 to 1645, instructed Abel Tasman to 'sail to the partly known as well as the undiscovered South and East lands, to discover them and find some important lands, or at the very least some practicable passages to well known rich places, to be used eventually to enhance and enlarge the general welfare of the company'.
New Holland, as the Dutch and for a time the rest of the world would come to know Australia, offered little through trade in the way of spices or precious stones or produce. With only a few exceptions, the Dutch navigators had experienced some of the most desolate and inhospitable of Australia's coasts. They were confounded by their contact with Indigenous Australians.
After the loss of several ships and with little to show for its effort, the VOC began losing interest in the South Land with each expedition. The last significant voyage commissioned by the company was that of Willem de Vlamingh in 1696.
Some VOC expeditions that left Batavia to explore the South Land
Duyfken, 1606
Captain Willem Janszoon, sailing in the Duyfken, made landfall on the western side of Cape York Peninsula in north Australia and charted about 320 kilometres of coastline. It was Europe's first recorded contact with Australia.
Pera and Arnhem, 1623

Sir Robert Dudley (1574–1649)
Carta particolare della costa Australe
scoperta dall'Olandesi … d’ Asia Carta
Part of the coast of New
Holland.
engraving; 47.5 x 37.3 cm
Firenze: Nella stamperia di Francesco Onofri,
1647
Northern Territory Library
Captain Jan Carstenszoon in the Pera and Captain Willem van Coolsteerd in the Arnhem explored the south coast of New Guinea and the western side of Cape York Peninsula. Carstenszoon went on to chart the Gulf of Carpentaria, naming it for Pieter de Carpentier, the Governor-General in Batavia. Meantime, van Coolsteerd charted the northern part of Arnhem Land.
Heemskerck and Zeehaen, 1642
Abel Tasman, commanding the Heemskerck and Zeehaen, became the first European to sight Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania), Statenlandt (New Zealand) and the islands of Tonga and Fiji. Tasman charted much of Tasmania, but missed Bass Strait and the east coast of the continent, proceeding east to New Zealand.
Zeemeeuw, Limmen and Bracq, 1644
Commanding a second expedition of three ships, the Zeemeeuw, Limmen and Bracq, Tasman charted much of Australia's north and north-west coasts, from Cape York in the east to Point Cloates in the west.
Vink, 1657
The Vink sailed to Batavia with orders to search for survivors of the VOC ship Vergulde Draeck, which had hit a reef and sunk off the coast of Western Australia, about 100 kilometres north of present-day Perth, on 28 April 1656. After 75 survivors managed to struggle ashore, a crew of seven sailed to Batavia to raise the alarm. The Vink's rescue mission was unsuccessful.
Waeckende Boei and Emeloort, 1658
Joining the search for the Vergulde Draeck were the Waeckende Boei and Emeloort, commanded by Samuel Volkerson and Aucke Pietersz Jonck. They also failed to find any wreckage.
Vliegende Swaan, 1678
Captain Jan van der Wall mapped the north-west coast of New Holland in the Vliegende Swaan, from present-day Dampier to the Exmouth Gulf.
Geelvink, Nijptangh and Wieseltje, 1696
Commanded by Willem de Vlamingh, three ships were sent to look for the wreck of the VOC ship Ridderschap van Holland and explore New Holland. No trace of the ship was found but the expedition explored Rottnest Island, the mainland around the Swan River and landed on Dirk Hartog Island. Before heading for Batavia, de Vlamingh retrieved Hartog's pewter plate and left one of his own in its place.
De Vossenbosch, Waaier and Nova Hollandia, 1705
Under the command of Commander Maarten van Delft, the de Vossenbosch, Waaier and Nova Hollandia explored the Gulf of Carpentaria and north coast of New Holland.
Rijder and Buis, 1756
The Rijder, commanded by Captain Jean Gonzal, and the Buis, skippered by Captain Lavienne Lodewijk van Asschens, explored the Gulf of Carpentaria.
View or download a list of all Dutch voyages (228Kb pdf) from Great Southern Land by Michael Pearson (DEH 2005)
