
1623
Pera (Jan Carstensz) and Arnhem (Willem van Coolsteerd)
Following random contacts by Dutch ships with Australia’s west coast, the VOC (Dutch East India Company) administration in Batavia decided to mount a concerted effort to map the South Land. This led to the charting of the eastern side of the Gulf of Carpentaria, as shown on the world map, Nova totius terrarum orbis geographica.
Two VOC ships—the Pera and the Arnhem—had been sent out in 1623, by the Governor of Amboina (now Ambon) in the East Indies. Their mission: to follow up the reports of the captain of the Duyfken, Willem Janszoon, and to search for gold on the south coast of New Guinea.
With Captain Jan Carstensz commanding the Pera and Captain Willem van Coolsteerd aboard the Arnhem, the ships left Amboina on 21 January 1623 and by the end of March had reached the region of the Torres Strait. Both captains explored the southern coast of New Guinea but missed the strait and, like Janszoon 17 years earlier, instead entered the Gulf of Carpentaria, where they thought False Cape was part of New Guinea (Carstensz in fact named Cape York Nova Guinea).
Sailing south along the western side of Cape York Peninsula, the vessels reached 13° 47’S, the most southerly point achieved by the Duyfken, on 14 April. Ten days later, when they had reached 17° 8’S, their captains decided to turn back.
At this point the two ships, for reasons unknown, became separated. The benefits of their parting were, however, immeasurable.
Carstensz, aboard the Pera, steered north and charted the Gulf of Carpentaria, naming it for Pieter de Carpentier, the Governor-General in Batavia. Van Coolsteerd, on the other hand, sailed west and mapped the country to the north, on the other side of the gulf, the region known today as Arnhem Land, and the Wessel Islands. The Arnhem is thought to have made landfall at 13° 14’S, near present-day Cape Grey.
The discoveries made by the crew of the Pera were quickly included on world maps—in the case of one Dutch-French map, as soon as 1628. Those made by the Arnhem, however, were virtually ignored until Abel Tasman put the region on the map after his voyage of 1642–1644.
