Janszoon's Duyfken Reaches the Northern Coast of Australia

Timeline

1. c. 1605–1606Bantam · BantamSeeking trade opportunities in New Guinea and the 'lands east and south,' the Dutch East India Company dispatched Janszoon to command the fast pinnace Duyfken from Bantam. The vessel first reconnoitered New Guinea's south coast, then crossed the eastern end of the Arafura Sea, unaware of what would later be called the Torres Strait.
2. c. 1606Near the mouth of the Pennefather River · Cape York PeninsulaDuyfken entered the eastern side of the Gulf of Carpentaria and landed near a river mouth on the west coast of Cape York Peninsula. This was the first documented European landing on the Australian continent. Janszoon regarded the coast he saw as a southern extension of New Guinea rather than a separate continent.
3. c. 1606Turn-Reverse Point · Gulf of CarpentariaJanszoon continued south along the west coast, charting the coast between about 11° and 14° south latitude, as far as the place later called Turn-Reverse Point. The crew clashed with local Indigenous people, several Dutch sailors were killed, and the expedition was forced to turn back north, ending this phase of reconnaissance around the Banda area.
4. 1606Gulf of Carpentaria · Gulf of CarpentariaBecause no strait was found between New Guinea and the land sighted, Janszoon's track led Dutch charts for a long time to depict the west coast of Cape York as a southern extension of New Guinea. A few months later Torres passed through the strait from east to west, but Spain kept the route secret, and Europe did not correct this geographical error until the eighteenth century.