Thread: History Lesson From Les Hiddins.

Originally Posted by garrycol

Also don't forget the English were exploring the NW Coast at least 100 years before Cook "discovered" Australia. Likewise the Dutch, Portuguese and Spanish were here at least 80 years before that - so up to 200 years before Cook.

Torres
Tasman
Dampier
Hartog

are the well known ones but there are more.

Garry

G'day mate it sounds very likely that Dutch settlement Les is talking about was indeed there,any thoughts on why no trace or evidence has not been found? From what i know there is no records from the Dutch about this.

Anthropologists think Dutch survivors from Zuytdorp wrecked in 1712 at Shark Bay WA have descendents in the local indigenous community (Carpets of Silver- Playford)

The Dutch vessel Duyfken explored and charted the Gulf of Carpentaria in 1606. It was not wrecked on the Australia coast

There are quite a few historic records of ships wrecked on the west coast and there were known survivors (from other survivors) that were never seen again - bit later rumours of light skinned and blond aborigines just inland from the west coast.

So it would seem there may have been whites living with aborigines and over time as the "black" gene is more dominant than the "white" gene these white features would slowly fade. I guess DNA testing was developed too late to test aboriginals in the area as white colonisation years later would disguise and earlier European DNA in the aboriginal population.

I doubt there was a population of 300 Europeans - where did they supposedly exist.

Garry

Thanks for sharing the Les Hiddens stuff.

A comment on Q&A or was it Legally Black?, the other night that Muslims discovered Australia, got me googling
Turns out, some coins from the 10th century, have been found on Wessel Is
They were thought to have originated from a former African sultanate in Kilwa, near modern-day Tanzania

Read more: Coins found suggest Australia was discovered SIX CENTURIES before Captain Cook arrived on the island | Mail Online
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

Originally Posted by Grappler

A comment on Q&A or was it Legally Black?, the other night that Muslims discovered Australia, got me googling
Turns out, some coins from the 10th century, have been found on Wessel Is
They were thought to have originated from a former African sultanate in Kilwa, near modern-day Tanzania

Read more: Coins found suggest Australia was discovered SIX CENTURIES before Captain Cook arrived on the island | Mail Online
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

We can keep doing this almost ad infinitum - it was really discovered by whomever the aborigines used to be way back. Perhaps they ousted who was here before them.

I love finds of old coins in place. Unfortunately, they only give us an earliest possible date, not a latest possible date.

I just saw & bought the "total" Les Hiddins collection, 5CD set from the ABC shop,...I do remember Les, so I'm very much looking forward to viewing them.
Pickles.

As said above, some people from the Batavia wreck got ashore (Peter Fitzsimmons wrote a book about it I read recently) and there were certainly other Dutch wrecks.
It is said the Chinese first got here in 1421, but that story is disputed, like so many others.
Captain Cook didn't 'discover' Australia - people have been sailing boats to Australia for at least 50,000 years.