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AFUW-ACT
Inc. Meeting Report
Topic: AUSTRALIA AND INDONESIA Before Captain Cook
Speaker: PROF. DR Campbell MCKnight
Indonesia has been inhabited for 100,000 years and Australia for 50,00
years. Winds come from Asia in December and January as NW Monsoon; later
in the year they blow back towards Asia. These winds brought people
to Australia; the ancestors of the Aborigines came to Australia about
50,000 years ago. The dingo came 5-600 years ago so they must have come
with people from India. Northern Australia is the final edge of SE Asia.
Relations are not therefore a new thing.
HISTORY FROM WRITTEN RECORDS
Who was the first European to come to Australia? None of us knew! The
first record of a boat from Europe was the Dovekin with Captain Wilhelm
Janz (Bill Jones), which came from Holland. In 1605 he was sent to Moluccas
for spices; he kept going east and came to Cape Turnback in Queensland.
He discovered it was quicker to get into the westerlies then trades,
which was how Dirk Hartog arrived 10 years after Wilhelm.
In 1622 the Trial was wrecked on Montebello Island and the men escaped
to Java. In 1629 the Batavia came with Americans - it has been reconstructed
in Sydney, In 1688 Reid arrived in the Cygnet; and in 1699 Dampier,
a good writer, came on a scientific visit. In the late 19th century
the Dutch East Indies controlled the trade and wanted to know what was
going on so sent two expeditions, one to Melabelle Is., the other to
Cape York Peninsula where they made contact with the Aborigines.
John Pierre Purry, a Swiss wine merchant, joined the DEI CO and went
to Djakarta where he tried to persuade the Company to set up a colony
at 30 degrees South to grow wheat and wine. He could not persuade them,
so tried in England where he eventually got permission. Purrys have
turned up in the 1850's in the Yarra Valley.
TRADE WITH MAKASSAR
China in the 18th century trebled its population so required extra resources.
Trepang was in demand - it was buried, smoked, then dried and would
then keep forever. It was found in the seas round Makassar and then
in northern Australia. Makasssans would come to Australia with the NW
monsoon; after fishing and collecting trepang they would then sail back
when the winds changed. They did not trade in Australia. Flinders came
north to the Gulf of Carpentaria and met the Makassans. He had a Malay
working with him so they were able to communicate. There are records
of Aboriginal people going back to Makassar.
Campbell met an old man in Makassar in 1969 who remembered going to
Australia as a small boy.
WHAT DOES THIS SAY TO US TODAY?
1. Tropical Australia is different to the rest of the country.
2. Today a culture is being built beyond multiculturism.
Australia is more than just British.
The 400th anniversary of Wilhelm Janz is coming, so we need to see Australia
with more equanimity and welcome newcomers. Muslim tombs of the 18th
century have been excavated in the north.
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