Australia exploration in brief. The most famous travelers and their discoveries

Some researchers suggest that the Portuguese were the first Europeans to reach shores of australia back in the 1920s.

As the main evidence, supporters of this theory cite the following points:

• maps of Dieppe published in France in the middle of the 16th century. They depict a large stretch of land between Indonesia and Antarctica, called Java la Grande, with symbols and explanations in French and Portuguese;
• the presence of Portuguese colonies in Southeast Asia at the beginning of the 16th century. In particular, the island of Timor is located only 650 km from the Australian coast;
• various finds found along the Australian coastline are attributed to early Portuguese travelers.

In addition, the French navigator Binot Polmier de Gonneville claimed to have landed on some land east of the Cape of Good Hope in 1504, after the ship was blown off course by the wind. For some time he was credited with the discovery of Australia, but later it turned out that the lands he visited were part of the coast of Brazil.

Discovery of Australia by the Dutch

The first undeniable discovery of Australia is documented at the end of February 1606. The expedition of the Dutch East India Company, led by Willem Jansson, landed from the ship "Duifken" ("Dove") on the coast of the Gulf of Carpentaria. Jansson and his comrades explored the coast of New Guinea. Sailing from the island of Java to the southern coast of New Guinea and moving along it, after some time the Dutch reached the shores of the Cape York Peninsula in northern Australia, believing that they were still watching the coast of New Guinea.

Apparently, for some reason, the expedition did not notice the Torres Strait, which separates the coasts of New Guinea and Australia. On February 26, the team landed near the place where the city of Waipa is located today and was immediately attacked by the natives.

Subsequently, Jansson and his people sailed along the coast of Australia for about 350 km, from time to time making landfalls, but everywhere they ran into hostile natives, as a result of which several sailors died. The captain decided to return back, without realizing that he had discovered a new continent.

Since Jansson described the coast he explored as deserted and swampy, the new discovery did not arouse any interest. The East India Company equipped its ships in search of new lands rich in spices and jewels, and not for the sake of geographical discoveries as such.

In the same year, Luis Vaes de Torres sailed through the same strait, apparently not noticed by the Jansson expedition and later named Torres. It is possible that Torres and his comrades visited the northern coast of the continent, but there is no written evidence of this.

In 1616, another ship of the Dutch East India Company, under the control of Dirk Hartog, reached the shores of Western Australia, in the Shark Bay area (Shark Bay) at about 25 degrees south latitude. The navigators explored the coast and nearby islands for three days. Finding nothing of interest, Hartog continued north along the previously unexplored coastline to 22 degrees S, after which he headed for Batavia.

In 1619, Frederick de Houtman and Jacob d'Erdel explored the Australian coast at 32 degrees S in two ships. sh. moving gradually to the north, where at 28 degrees S. discovered a strip of reefs called Houtman's Rocks.

In subsequent years, Dutch sailors continued to sail along the coast of Australia, calling this land New Holland, without bothering to explore the coast properly, because they did not see any commercial benefit in it. The vast coastline may have piqued their curiosity, but it did not encourage them to explore the country's resources. Exploring the western and northern coasts, they formed the impression of the newly discovered lands as swampy and barren. During that period, the Dutch never saw the southern and eastern shores, much more attractive in appearance.

On July 4, 1629, the Batavia, a ship of the Dutch East India Company, was shipwrecked off the Houtman Rocks. After the mutiny that happened soon after, part of the crew built a small fort for their protection - this was the first European structure in Australia.

According to some estimates, between 1606 and 1770 more than 50 European ships visited the shores of Australia. Most of them belonged to the Dutch East India Company, including the ships of Abel Tasman. In 1642, Tasman, trying to go around the so-called New Holland from the south, discovered an island, which he called Van Diemen's Land (later this island was renamed Tasmania). Moving further east, after some time the ships reached New Zealand. However, Tasman never got close to Australia on his first voyage. Only in 1644 did he manage to explore in detail its northwestern coast and prove that all the territories previously discovered during the Dutch expeditions, with the exception of Van Diemen's Land, are parts of a single mainland.

English studies

Almost until the end of the 80s of the 17th century, practically nothing was known in England about the lands discovered by the Dutch. In 1688, a pirate ship carrying the Englishman William Dampier anchored on the northwest coast, near Lake Melville. There was not much to plunder there, and after several weeks of repairs, the ship left the inhospitable shores. However, this voyage had some consequences: returning to England, Dampier published a story about his journey, which interested the English Admiralty.

In 1699, he set off on a second voyage to the shores of Australia, on the Roebuck ship provided to him. As in the previous case, he visited the barren northwest coast and after 4 months of research was forced to return without finding anything. noteworthy. Since Dampier was unable to provide any facts that could interest the Admiralty, interest in new lands waned for almost three-quarters of a century.

In 1770, an expedition led by Lieutenant James Cook went to southern part Pacific Ocean on the sailboat "Endeavour" ("Attempt"). The navigators were supposed to make astronomical observations, but Cook had secret orders from the British Admiralty to search for the southern continent Terra Australis Incognita, which, according to geographers of the time, extended around the pole. Cooke reasoned that since so-called New Holland had a west coast, there must also be an east coast.

The expedition landed on the east coast of Australia at the end of April 1770. The landing site, originally named Stingray Bay, was later renamed Botany Bay due to the strange and unusual plants found there.

Cook named the open lands New Wales and later New South Wales. He had no idea about the scale of his discovery, as well as the fact that this island is a whole continent, 32 times larger than Britain itself. Among other things, Cook was the first European to visit the Great barrier reef. The ship that stumbled across it spent the next seven weeks under repair.

The British returned in 1778 to colonize new lands.

British colonies

It was decided to begin the colonization of the lands discovered by James Cook, using convicts as the first colonists. The first fleet, led by Captain Arthur Philip, consisting of 11 ships carrying a total of about 1350 people, arrived in Botany Bay on the 20th of January 1788. However, the area was considered unsuitable for settlement and they moved north to Port Jackson.

Governor Philip issued an order establishing the first British colony in Australia. The soil around Sydney Harbor was poor. The young colony relied both on developing farms along the Parramatta River, 25 kilometers upstream to the west, and on buying food from the natives.

The Second Fleet in 1790 brought badly needed supplies and various supplies; however, among the newly arrived prisoners there were a large number of patients, many of them were close to death and useless for the colony. The second fleet became known as the "Death Fleet" - 278 convicts and crew members died during this voyage, while the first time there were only 48 people who died.

The colony experienced many other difficulties, including a significant male preponderance of about four per woman, which had been a problem in the settlement for many years.

Several other British colonies were also created.

Van Diemen's Land

The first British settlement on the island was at Risdon in 1803, when Lieutenant John Bowen landed with about 50 settlers, crew, soldiers and convicts. In February 1804, Lieutenant David Collins established a settlement at Hobart. The colony of Van Diemen's Land was established in 1825, and from 1856 officially became known as Tasmania.

Western Australia

In 1827, Major Edmund Lockyer built a small British settlement at King Georges Sound (Albany). Captain James Stirling became its first governor. The colony was created specifically for convicts, and the first prisoners arrived in 1850.

South Australia

The British province of South Australia was founded in 1836 and became a Crown colony in 1842. Although South Australia was not created for convicts, a number of former prisoners subsequently moved there from other colonies. About 38,000 immigrants arrived and settled in the area by 1850.

Victoria

In 1834, the Henty brothers arrived in Portland Bay, and John Batman settled on the site of the future Melbourne. The first immigrant ships arrived in Port Phillip in 1839. In 1851, Victoria (Port Phillip area) separated from the New South Wales.

queensland

In 1824, a colony known as Moreton Bay Settlement was established at Radcliffe by Lieutenant John Oxley, later known as Brisbane. About 19 hundred people were sent to the settlement between 1824 and 1839. The first free European settlers moved into the area in 1838. In 1859, Queensland seceded from New South Wales.

northern territory

In 1825 the land occupied today northern territory, was part of New South Wales. In 1863 control of the area was given to South Australia. The capital Darwin was founded in 1869 and was originally known as Palmerston. On January 1, 1911, the Northern Territory seceded from South Australia and became part of the Commonwealth of Australia.

After the colonization of the coast, a period of active exploration began. However, until 1813, none of the expeditions could overcome the high mountain range located along the east coast. After the passage was discovered, in 1815 Governor Macquarie crossed the Blue Mountains and founded the city of Bathurst on the other side. Many researchers rushed deep into the mainland.

John Oxley was the first serious explorer who surveyed the channels of the rivers Lochlan, Macquarie and several others. Charles Sturt in search of the mythical inland sea, discovers the Darling River, explores the Lochlan and Marambigee river systems. John McDual Stuart explores the territories north of Adelaide, Friedrich Leichhardt crosses Cleveland and the Northern Territories, discovering many small rivers and land suitable for agriculture along the way, and in 1858-60 Robert Burke crosses the mainland from north to south for the first time. Nathaniel Buchanan finds vast pastures on the Barkley Plateau, which later became the center of Northern Australia's sheep farming.

In addition to those listed, many other researchers continued to study the mainland, discovering new lands and contributing to the further development of Australia.

The first stage of the voyage of the Dutch sailors of the 17th century.

Until the 17th century scattered information about Australia and New Guinea reached Europeans from Portuguese navigators. The year of discovery of Australia is 1606, when Dutch navigator V. Janszon examined a section of the western coast of the Cape York Peninsula in the north of the continent. During the 17th century the main discoveries were made by Dutch travelers, with the exception of the Spanish expedition of 1606, in which L. Torres discovered the strait between New Guinea and Australia (later named after him). Due to the priority of the Dutch, Australia was originally called New Holland.
In 1616, D. Hartog, heading for the island of Java, discovered a section of the western coast of the continent, the survey of which was almost completely completed in 1618-22. South coast (its western part) was studied in 1627 by F. Theisen and P. Neyts.
Two journeys to Australia were made by A. Tasman, who was the first to circumnavigate Australia from the south and prove that it is a separate continent. In 1642, his expedition discovered the island, which he named Van Diemen's land in honor of the Dutch governor of the East Indies (then this island was renamed Tasmania), and the island "Land of the States" (present-day New Zealand). During a second trip in 1644 he explored the northern and northwestern coasts of Australia.

The second stage of the English and French sea expeditions of the 18th first half of the 19th centuries.

At the turn of the 18th century the English navigator and pirate W. Dampier discovered a group of islands off the coast of northwestern Australia, named after him. In 1770, during his first circumnavigation of the world, J. Cook explored the eastern coast of Australia, found out insular position New Zealand.
In 1788, a colony for English convicts was founded in Sydney, which was then called Port Jackson.
In 1798, the English topographer D. Bass discovered the strait separating Tasmania from Australia (later the strait was named after him).
In 1797-1803, the English explorer M. Flinders went around Tasmania, the entire mainland and mapped the southern coast and the Great Barrier Reef, surveyed the Gulf of Carpentaria. In 1814, he proposed instead of New Holland to call the southern mainland Australia. Many are named after him geographic features on the mainland and adjacent seas.
In the same period, a French expedition led by N. Bodin discovered some islands and bays. Completed work on the study of the coast of Australia F. King and D. Wicken in 1818-39.

The third stage of land expeditions of the first half of the 19th century.

Initially, during this period, due to the difficulties of overcoming the vast inland deserts, the expeditions were concentrated mainly in coastal areas. C. Sturt, T. Mitchell passed through the Great Dividing Range, reaching the vast plains, but without going deep into them, explored in southeastern Australia the basin of the largest river of the Murray continent and its tributary Darling.
In 1840, the Polish traveler P. Strzelecki discovered the highest peak Australia, Kosciuszko.
In 1841, the English explorer E. Eyre made a voyage along the south coast from the city of Adelaide in the southeastern part of the mainland to King George's Bay.
In the 40s. study of the deserts of the interior of Australia begins. Sturt in 1844-46 explored the sandy and rocky deserts in the southeastern part of the mainland. In 1844-45, the German scientist L. Leichhardt crossed northeastern Australia, crossed the Dawson, Mackenzie and other rivers, reached the interior of the Arnhemland peninsula, and then returned to Sydney by sea. In 1848 his new expedition went missing. The unsuccessful search for the expedition was undertaken by the Englishman O. Gregory, who explored the interior of the Arnhem Land peninsula and crossed the eastern outskirts of the central deserts.

The fourth stage is intracontinental expeditions of the second half of the 19th and 20th centuries.

English explorers R. Burke and W. Wills were the first to cross Australia from south to north, from Adelaide to the Gulf of Carpentaria, in 1860; Burke died on the way back near Coopers Creek.
The Scottish explorer J. Stuart crossed the mainland twice in 1862, and made a great contribution to the study central regions. In subsequent expeditions, E. Giles (1872-73, 1875-76), J. Forrest (1869, 1870, 1874), D. Lindsay (1891), L. Wells (1896) and other English travelers explored the deserts of Central Australia in detail: Bolshaya Peschanaya, Gibson and big desert Victoria.
In the first third of the 20th century, thanks to the work of mainly English geographers, the main little-studied areas in the interior of Australia were mapped.

The material presented in the article is focused on the formation of an idea of ​​who is the discoverer of the continent. The article contains reliable historical information. The information will help to obtain truthful information from the history of the discovery of Australia by sailors and travelers.

Who discovered Australia?

Every educated person today knows that James Cook discovered Australia when he visited the east coast of the mainland in 1770. However, these lands were known in Europe long before the appearance of the famous English navigator there.

Rice. 1. James Cook.

The progenitors of the indigenous population of the mainland appeared on the continent about 40-60 thousand years ago. Ancient archaeological finds date back to this historical period, which were discovered by scientists in the upper reaches of the Swan River at the western tip of the mainland.

Rice. 2. Swan River.

It is known that people ended up on the continent thanks to sea routes. This fact also indicates that it was these pioneers who became the earliest sea travelers. It is generally accepted that at that time at least three heterogeneous groups settled in Australia.

Australian discoverers

There is an assumption that the ancient Egyptians became the discoverers of Australia.

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It is known from history that Australia was discovered several times by different people:

• the Egyptians;
• Dutch admiral Willem Janszon;
• James Cook.

The latter is recognized as the official discoverer of the continent for mankind. All these versions are still controversial and controversial. There is no single point of view on this issue.

During studies that were carried out on the territory of the Australian mainland, images of insects were found that were outwardly similar to scarabs. And when archaeological research in Egypt, researchers discovered mummies that were embalmed using eucalyptus oil.

Despite such clear evidence, many historians express reasonable doubts about this version, since the continent became famous in Europe much later.

Attempts to discover Australia were made by navigators of the world as early as the 16th century. Many researchers in Australia make the assumption that the first Europeans to set foot on the continent were the Portuguese.

It is known that in 1509 sailors from Portugal visited the Moluccas, after which in 1522 they moved to the northwest of the mainland.

At the beginning of the 20th century, ship guns were found in this area, which were created back in the 16th century.

The unofficial version of the discovery of Australia is the one that says that the Dutch admiral Willem Janszon is considered the discoverer of the mainland. He could not understand that he had become a discoverer of new lands, because he considered that he had approached the lands of New Guinea.

Rice. 3. Willem Janszoon.

However, the main history of Australian exploration is attributed to James Cook. It was after his travels to uncharted lands that the active conquest of the mainland by Europeans began.

In the summer of 1801/02, the naval sailor Matthew Flinders on the ship "Investigator" completed the survey of the Great Australian Bight, discovered a number of islands there (including the Investigator group, at 134 ° 30 "E) and at 136 ° E. found an entrance to another, narrow bay, which he took for a strait separating New South Wales from New Holland proper (in the west), therefore crossing the entire mainland to the Gulf of Carpentaria: so distrustfully then were the Dutch explorations of the northern coast of the mainland.But Flinders soon personally convinced that this is not a strait, but a bay (Spencer).After leaving it and following the strait (Investigator), first to the east and then to the north, Flinders was again inspired with hope, but was disappointed even more quickly: there was also a bay to the north (St. Vincent ), separated from Spencer by a narrow, boot-shaped peninsula (York), from which it emerged southeastward by another strait (Baxstairs), and at 36°S a large, hilly and wooded island (K enguroo - 4350 km), and off the coast of the mainland - a bay (Encounter), All titles in brackets are given by Flinders. Big Island he named the Kangaroo because of the abundance of these marsupials there, on the meat of which the entire crew of the Investigator ate. In English, "encounter" is an unexpected meeting. behind which a wide estuary was visible - the mouth of the river. Murray.

To the chagrin of the Englishman Flinders, the French ship "Geograph" of a scientific expedition under the command of a naval sailor was in the bay. Nicola Boden, who was courteous but restrained. But the more talkative researcher is a naturalist Francois Peron reported: the French had made major discoveries off the southern coast of the mainland, and he, Peron, intended to call the explored seaside strip "Napoleon Bonaparte's Land." Bodin's expedition was organized by the Paris Academy of Sciences in 1800 by order of the government to explore New Holland, part of which France claimed. In addition to the "Geographer", the expedition had at its disposal the ship "Naturalist" under the command of captain Jacques Emmanuel Amelin. The base was Fr. Mauritius in the Indian Ocean, then owned by France (under the name of Île-de-France).

At the end of May 1801, the French approached the northwestern coast of New Holland and discovered the Peron Peninsula in Shark Bay (at 26 ° S. Lat.), and at the exit from the bay, the Straits of the Geographer and Naturalist (to the north of about. Derk-Hartog). Winter has come with winds, rains and fogs. In the fog (during a storm) the ships parted, and Boden continued shooting alone. In July, he mapped the sloping sandy shore - Aity Mile Beach, where the Great Sandy Desert rises to the ocean. Further to the northeast, he photographed a scattered group of small islands - the Bonaparte archipelago - and discovered (secondarily, after Abel Tasman) a vast bay, christening it Joseph Bonaparte. Off the coast of the Arnhemland Peninsula, Bodin discovered the Peron Islands.

There were many scurvy patients on board. For their treatment, the Geographer went to Fr. Timor, where, by agreement, the Naturalist also came. Three months later, the ships sailed from Timor and in mid-January 1802 reached Tasmania. Mass diseases of scurvy began again. Bodin had to stay there for a month, and, taking advantage of this, he made a survey of the eastern coast of the island. The French names of the objects discovered by him appeared on the map: the Freycinet Peninsula, the Oyster and a number of smaller islands, bays and peninsulas.

The French then crossed the open ocean to the southwestern tip of Australia, described the small Geographer's Bay and turned east. Soon the ships parted again; Bodin, continuing his journey, discovered Fr. Kangaroo - regardless of Flinders - and reached Encounter Bay, where he met with the British. The scurvy was getting worse, and the Geographer went to Port Jackson to treat the sick. Finding the Naturalist there, Bodin sent him to France with reports and collections, and he himself went south in mid-November 1802. He completed his round of Tasmania, repeating the work of Flinders, went to Timor, and from there to Mauritius, where in September 1803 Bodin died, and the "Geographer" with new large zoological and botanical collections returned to France.

So, almost simultaneously with the British, the French completed the discovery of Tasmania and the southern coast of Australia. The expeditions of Flinders and Boden finally proved that the Great Australian and Spencer bays are completely unconnected with the Gulf of Carpentaria, separated from it by a large expanse of land, and that, consequently, New Holland is a single mainland.

However, a small "gap" remained in the coastline of the southeastern part of the continent; all sailors missed the entrance to a very convenient large harbor. In early January 1802, this bay (Port Phillip) was discovered by an English captain John Murray. Having completed the inventory of his find, he went to sea and in the western part of the Bass Strait discovered Fr. King. (In June 1835, on the north bank of Port Phillip, a group of colonists founded a settlement that two years later became known as Melbourne.)

In 1802–1803 Flinders sailed around New Holland. He explored in detail the east coast north of 32°30"S and traced the entire length of the Great Barrier Reef. There are groups of islands, reefs and a sea passage named after Flinders.- a long (2300 km) ridge of coral formations - reefs and islands, stretching in an almost continuous chain along the eastern coast of the mainland from 22 ° 30 "S (Swain reefs) to 9 ° S (southern coast of New Guinea). Flinders also examined the Torres Strait and found that a safe passage was to the north of Prince of Wales Island.In order to completely destroy the legend, which he himself had previously believed, about the sea arm dividing the mainland into two parts, he again examined the Gulf of Carpentaria and made the first accurate map of it - to the Wessel Islands, off the northeast ledge of Arnhem Land. In 1814, Flinders published the book Journey to Terra Australia. It was in it that he proposed to rename the southern mainland from New Holland to Australia; earlier it was Terra Australis Incognita - "Unknown Southern land", now it has been explored, and therefore the epithet "unknown" disappears.In the same year, 1814, Flinders died.

The discovery of the coast of Tasmania was completed by a whaler James Kelly; in the summer of 1815/16, with four companions, he circled the island on a whaleboat and discovered in the southwest and west the bays of Port Davy and Macquarie, deeply protruding into the land.

In 1817–1821 English military sailor Philip Parker King completed the study of Australia from the sea, putting on relatively accurate maps those coasts of the mainland that had previously been poorly studied. He filmed at the Mermaid tender (84 tons) in 1817–1820. and on the brig Bathurst (170 tons) in 1821. On the Mermaid in 1818-1819. swam nerd Allen Cunningham and officer John Oxley(see below), as well as an Australian bongari, a participant in both voyages of M. Flinders.

King made a new inventory of the northeastern coast of the continent from Hervey Bay (24 ° 50 "S) to Torres Strait, as well as the northern coast - from the Wessel Islands to Dampier Land. In the far north of Australia (11-12 ° S . sh.) King penetrated the vast Van Diemen Bay, discovered the Coberg Peninsula, the wooded Melville and Bathurst Islands (6200 and 2040 km²) and traced both Dundas and Clarence Straits, which separate these islands from the mainland. of the Timor Sea, he discovered the bays of Cambridge, Admiralty and Collier, and further to the south-west, at the 17th parallel, King Bay, protruding into the land for about 100 km, and thus proved that Dampier Land is a peninsula. came to the conclusion that in the north of Australia there are very wide mouths through which even the largest rivers can pour into the sea.King also specified the coastline of Western Australia from Dampier Land to Cape Luin.

The discovery of the last relatively small sections of the Australian coast is associated with the name of an English sailor John Clemens Wickham, captain of the famous ship "Beagle". Approaching the western shores of the continent in November 1837, the ship entered King Bay (the name belongs to Wickem). Officer John Lorth Stokes on two boats he described the southern bay, opened the mouth of the river. Fitzroy and traced the course of the river for 40 km. Having finished in March 1838 an inventory of the entire bay, the Beagle moved northeast, and in September Wickham discovered and Stokes photographed the bay, which they called Port Darwin, one of the best harbors in Australia. Returning to the southwest, Wickham and Stokes in October described another bay they discovered, the Queens Channel, with the river flowing into it. Victoria, swiftly rushing towards the ocean in high rocky shores. This find confirmed, as some geographers believed, the myth of a giant river with a huge internal delta: a map of the continent published in 1827 shows a grandiose stream about 3.4 thousand km long, collecting water from all over Australia north of the 30th parallel.

However, the study was completed - in general terms - only on the coast of Australia, and its inland regions still remained a solid "blank spot". And many years passed until dozens of researchers erased it.

Immediately after the founding of the penal colony of Port Jackson (Sydney), the officers of the convoy corps began to explore the rivers flowing to the Pacific Ocean from the nearby Blue Mountains. Start laid Arthur Phillip appointed as the first governor of New South Wales. In the middle of 1788, he, examining the Broken Bay to the north of Sydney, discovered the river flowing into the bay. The Hawkesbury and its tributaries the MacDonald and the Colo. And west of Sydney an officer Watkin Tench Then he discovered R. Nepian, which turned out to be the main source of Hawkesbury.

However, the escort officers had no incentive to explore the inland backcountry. Only 25 years later, in May 1813, a small detachment of a free colonist Gregory Blackland penetrated the Blue Mountains west of Sydney, along the valley of the river. Cox (one of the upper reaches of the Nepian - Hawkesbury), and met there vast grassy plains, quite suitable as pastures. In this area, two rivers flowed from the Blue Mountains and crossed the plain. who discovered them in 1813-1815. topographer George William Evans named the northern Macquarie River and the southern Lachlan, after the then governor of the colony Laclana Macquarie.

In 1817–1818 D. Oxley, A. Cunningham and Evans traced both rivers. It turned out that Lachlan, describing a large arc, curved to the north, then enters into a swampy lowland, in front of which the travelers stopped, and that the river. Macquarie also seems to end up in the swamps. On the way back to Sydney, they crossed several rivers flowing north, and reached the river. Namoi, flowing to the northwest. Having risen to a high plain, bordered from the south by the Liverpool ridge (length 150 km, height up to 1372 m), having crossed the ridge, they along the river. Hunter reached the ocean at the end of 1818.

In 1823, A. Cunningham, moving northwest from the Liverpool ridge, reached a large river. Barwon crossing the lowlands. The water in the river was fresh. He did not trace, however, the course of the river for a considerable distance. In 1824–1825 two free colonists, Hamilton Hume (Hume) And William Howell, with one satellite passed southwest from the Blue Mountains to the western corner of Port Phillip Bay. On this route they crossed the upper Murrumbidgee ( Big Water), flowing north here, followed along the inner, continental-facing foot of the Australian Alps (the name belongs to them) and in mid-November 1824 discovered the upper Murray (Murray) - the “Yuma River”, carrying its waters to the west, and its the left tributaries are the Owens and Goulburn. They climbed "the valley of Goulburn, clad with excellent grass" to its headwaters and rounded the southwestern spur of the Australian Alps.

In 1827, A. Cunningham explored the area north of the Liverpool Ridge. He saw a series of rivers springing from " eastern mountains”(New England Ridge, length more than 200 km, height up to 1510 m) and flowing to the northwest and west, including Guaidir, McIntyre and Dumerik. Behind Dumerik, he ended up on a high plain, bounded in the north by the river. Condamine. F. P. King's map of the north coast and Cunningham's personal observations led him to the assumption that either there was a huge lake in the center of Australia, fed by the water of newly discovered rivers, or that they inevitably merge to form one or more powerful rivers that cross the continent. He even admitted that one of these great rivers might end in the northwest of Australia, in King's Bay, that is, more than 3,000 km in a straight line from the New England Ridge.

So, in 1813-1827. many streams of various capacities were discovered, carrying their waters from the marginal mountains - the Great Dividing Range, traced for 1400 km, into the depths of the mainland. The colonial government instructed an officer Charles Sturt examine their course and establish whether they are connected with each other; the possibility of their falling into the mythical inland sea was not ruled out.

Sturt had studied the work of his predecessors and knew how difficult it was to shoot in years of heavy rainfall. The year 1828, being very dry, seemed to him the most convenient for research. Accompanied by G. Hume, in November of the same year, he first went down the Macquarie Valley and found that the river was almost dry, and there were no swamps that his predecessors spoke of.

Sturt went along the dry channel, looking for a river with fresh water - Baruon (discovered in 1823 by Kannishham), and at the beginning of 1829 he stumbled upon another, as it seemed to him, and, moreover, very big river, the water in it was salty: it flowed through the saline desert. He named this river the Darling, after the then governor of New South Wales Ralph Darling.

At the end of the same year, which turned out to be rainy, Sturt began sailing in boats down the river. Lachlan, reached the relatively full-flowing Murrumbidgee, but went down to the river. Murray. He recognized in it the lower reaches of the river through which Hume and his companions crossed. Sturt swam down the Murray. And at the end of January 1830, having reached 142 ° E. he saw that a river (Darling) flows into Murray from the north, carrying fresh water. Then he got to the mouth of the Murray and found that the river poured into a shallow lagoon (Lake Alezandrina), at that time connected to Encounter Bay.

Sturt returned back to the edge mountains, going up the Murray and Murrumbidgee in boats. He made a major discovery - found out (so far, however, in the most general terms) the hydrography of Southeast Australia. Sturt described his travels in the book "Two Expeditions in the Interior of South Australia" (1833).

Of course, there was still much that was unclear. Almost nothing was known about the flow of the Murray above the mouth of the Murrumbidgee: it was not clear whether the freshwater river flowing into the Murray from the north was connected with that brackish drying stream discovered by Sturt in 1829. These important questions were resolved by a military topographer Thomas Mitchell. He assumed that the Barwan and the Darling were one and the same river, and at the end of 1831 he began his research from it. He discovered that the Darling had not one, but at least three sources (the southernmost one being Namoi). In the middle of 1835, Mitchell walked to the spot on the Darling where Sturt had found salt water, but the water was fresh that year. The following year, he inspected the southeastern region of australia, discovered between 141–142° E. the mouth of a small river (Glenelg), rose along its valley to its source. He then headed northeast through mountain country(Australian Alps), covered with the highest eucalyptus trees (up to 140 m) and cut through numerous rivers. This area made such an impression on Mitchell that he named it Australia Felix ("Happy Australia").

In April 1839 landed in Sydney Pavel Edmund Strzelecki, a Polish immigrant (from the then Prussian part of Poland), a geographer and geologist by education (he graduated from Oxford University). Belonging to an impoverished count's family, he raised funds for travel by selling natural history and ethnographic collections to Western European museums. For six months he wandered through the Australian Alps, took pictures in the summer, reaching the upper Murray, which he later traced to the source, discovered a high mountain (February 15, 1840) and climbed it. “The majestic peak,” Strzelecki wrote to his homeland, “which no one had climbed before me, with its eternal snows and silence, I used to perpetuate on this mainland in the memory of future generations a dear name revered by every Pole - every friend of freedom .. In a foreign land, in a foreign land ... I called it Mount Kosciuszko.

Australian geographers assigned this name to the highest point of the mainland (2228 m), although in the 80s. and it was finally proved that Strzelecki climbed not on it, but on the neighboring peak of the Snowy Mountains, 9 m lower (Townsend, 2219 m). Named after the geographer Thomas Townsend, who explored the Australian Alps in 1846-1850.

Having crossed the southwestern spurs of the Australian Alps, Strzelecki went to the Western Port Bay, making his way through thickets and groves of eucalyptus and acacias of the southeastern seaside strip (Gipsland), the agricultural potential of which he highly appreciated.

In 1842, Strzelecki moved to Tasmania and was the first geologist to study the island. In 1845, his "Physical Description of New South Wales and Van Dieman's Land" was published in London. In the south of the Great Artesian Basin, north of the Flinders Ridge, there is a creek (drying river) channel about 250 km long, which Australian geographers called Strzelecki Creek - a tribute to their respect and appreciation to one of Australia's largest explorers. In 1954 and 1957, detailed biographies of P. E. Strzelecki were published in London and Warsaw.

At the beginning of 1846, while exploring the upper Darling basin, T. Mitchell discovered approximately at 28 ° S. sh. R. Balonne (in the upper reaches - Condamaine), and to the west of it - Warrego and proved that both rivers flow from the north into Darling. He traced Warrego to the source, and with this basically completed the discovery river system Murray - Darling. The length of Murray is 2570 km, that of Darling is 2740 km. The total area of ​​the Murray-Darling basin is 1160 thousand km².

1829 in the southwest of Australia, two cities were founded: at the mouth of the river. Swan (Swan) - Perth, near King George Bay - Albany. From there, in order to expand the territory of the colony, campaigns were made inland, while not very distant. First of all, the Darling Range was discovered east of Perth, and the Stirling Range, named after the founder of the colony, was discovered north of Albany. James Sterling. In the summer of 1830/31 an officer Thomas Bannister went from Perth to Albany and found that this country (the southwestern corner of Australia) is suitable for colonization.

At the beginning of 1839 an officer George Gray started research west coast Australia: he landed on an island in Shark Bay and at 25 ° S. sh. opened the mouth of the river. Gascoigne. Soon, during a storm, the party lost most of its provisions. Gray went south by sea in three boats, but beyond the 28th parallel he was wrecked in a bay where a relatively large river (Murchison) flowed. The rest of the journey to Perth - about 500 km - had to be walked along the coast, which made a more favorable impression on Gray than on his sailor predecessors, but this was not confirmed by further research.

In 1836, the city of Adelaide, the center of South Australia, arose on the shores of St. Vincent Bay. It became the starting point for expeditions, the purpose of which was mainly in search of pastures. In May 1839 a sheep breeder Edward John Eyre, exploring the coastal strip near Spencer Bay, discovered the almost meridional Flinders ridge with heights up to 1189 m, to the west of it - salt Lake Torrens (up to 5.7 thousand km²). In July of the same year, while exploring the Eyre Peninsula near Spencer Bay, a sheep breeder discovered the low Goler Ridge in its northern part.

At the end of July 1840, passing north from Spencer Bay, Eyre found that Lake Torrens had turned into a salt marsh. Farther north, he discovered another salt lake, which he considered an extension of Torrens. From one of the peaks of the ridge, Flinders Air saw to the east a large salt marsh, which he also took to be part of the huge "horseshoe-shaped" Torrens. In 1843, E. Frome proved the fallacy of this assumption: after walking along the eastern slope of the ridge, he became convinced that the salt lake Frome (2–3 thousand km²) was an isolated basin. Later (in 1858-1860) it was established that this is a separate body of water, called Lake Eyre (up to 15 thousand km²). Returning to the sea, Air with a small detachment went along the shore to the west, receiving from another detachment sailing on a ship water and food supplies: on land in this desert strip it was impossible to get either food or water. Eyre stopped at 132°30" E and sent the ship to Spencer Bay for provisions and fresh water. The ship returned to him at the end of January 1841, but Eyre headed shore further west only a month later, reducing the number of satellites to five three of them died by July 27, when he arrived in King George's Bay (at 118 ° E.) During this four-month passage, Air and a young Australian Wylie passed over 2000 km, mostly through a completely waterless desert, along the plain, behind which the name Nullarbor (Latin - “Not a single tree”), in the English pronunciation Nullarbor, was fixed.

At the end of 1848 the topographer Augustus Gregory, passing from Perth directly to the north for about 500 km. discovered and explored the river basin. Murchison. He tried to advance from its middle course to the northwest, to Shark Bay, but retreated before the desert. In 1852 he tried again and this time reached Shark Bay.

40th years in the east of Australia, a relatively wide strip was explored - from the Southern Tropic to Gippsland, while to the west of the Darling basin, all inland areas remained "white spots". In the south, only the seaside strip and partly the region of large salt lakes were known, in the west, only the southwestern corner of the mainland and a narrow coastal strip to the river. Gascoigne included. Most of Western Australia, Central and Northern Australia were still "unknown lands".

In October 1844, a naturalist in the service of the government of New South Wales, a German Ludwig Leichhardt went at the head of the expedition from Brisbane across the river. Condamaine to the Gulf of Carpentaria. On this route, in November 1844 - February 1845, the expedition discovered the Dawson and Mackenzie Rivers with the latter's largest tributaries (Komet and Isaac) and their watersheds (Expedition and Peak Ranges). But Leichhardt did not trace Dawson and Mackenzie to their confluence and did not know that they constituted the r. Fitzroy (total length of Dawson - Fitzroy 960 km). Further north in March - April 1845, the expedition discovered and explored the second basin major river, flowing to the Pacific Ocean - Berdekin (560 km).

Having crossed the northern section of the Great Dividing Range, traced by him for at least 400 km, Leichhardt and his companions along the valleys of the Lind and Mitchell rivers descended to the Gulf of Carpentaria in early July. And in July - October, they bypassed the entire southern coastal strip of the bay, opening the lower reaches of a number of rivers, including the Gilbert and Roper. Leichhardt assigned the names of his English companions to these significant rivers - the naturalist John Gilbert And John Roper. He did not forget his youngest comrades: on detailed maps Northern Australia are shown, for example, r. Calvert and Murphy Mountains, in honor of the 19-year-old James Calvert and 15 year old John Murphy. He only offended himself: p. Likehart and Likeheart Ridge (as the English pronounce his surname) are named after him by other explorers of Australia. Following then to the northwest, the expedition crossed the Arnhemland peninsula and in mid-December 1845 reached Van Diemen Bay and the northern coast of the Koberg peninsula, to the military settlement of Port Essington. For fourteen and a half months, Leichhardt traveled more than 4 thousand km, mainly in unexplored areas. All returned to New South Wales by sea. Leichhardt became the first explorer of the huge regions of Australia, later called Queensland and the Northern Territory. The materials of his expedition were published in 1847.

In December 1847, Leichhardt left Brisbane at the head of a new expedition, intending to cross the Australian mainland in three years. He proceeded through the Darling Valley along the river. Bark, from where he sent the last news (received April 3, 1847). Then the entire expedition (9 people) went missing. It wasn't until four years later that the anxiety in Sydney began. A number of search parties were sent from 1852 to 1869, but no trace of the travelers could be found.

After the founding of the colony of South Australia, C. Sturt went to serve there. The primary task of the colony, which was inhabited only by free people, was the development of cattle breeding. Air found only deserts and semi-deserts, but he did not go far north into Central Australia, the nature of which was completely unknown. Judgments about it were expressed only on guesses, and there were all sorts of guesses. Sturt himself, studying the movements of birds in South Australia, drew the wrong conclusion that during the dry season they fly to the center of the mainland and that there, therefore, there are abundant sources of irrigation.

In August 1844, Sturt, leading a government expedition, set out from Adelaide in search of new pastures. On a special mission, he went first to the northeast, to the lower Darling, to Lake Menindee (32 ° 30 "S), from there he turned north, and at 30 ° S - to the north-west. On way in January 1845, he crossed not high mountains(the southern spur of the Gray Ridge), buried one of his companions, James Poole, in this “large stone desert”, and went out onto a plain intersected by the channels of the drying rivers - Strzelecki Creek and Barka (lower arms of the large Coopers Creek, about 1400 km long ). To the north of Lake Eyre, travelers reached almost the center of the mainland, to the Simpson Desert. On the eastern edge of the desert, on the middle reaches of the river. Mulligan (near 25° S), Sturt was forced to retreat due to lack of water. The expedition returned to Adelaide in early 1846. Sturt described this journey in the two-volume Tale of an Expedition to Central Australia (1849).

In September 1855, O. Gregory began work in the north-west of Australia with a study of the high-water and swift river in the rainy season. Victoria (570 km), which flows into southeastern part Joseph Bonaparte Bay, passed from its upper reaches to Sturt Creek and traced it to the northern edge of the Great Sandy Desert. The river flowed into a small salt lake - and the hope of opening a large reservoir in the center of the mainland evaporated. This route revealed the eastern limit of the Kimberley Plateau. Returning to the river Victoria, O. Gregory, moving mainly to the southeast, reached the Pacific Ocean at 24 ° S in 1856. sh. (against Father Curtis). He thus made the first crossing of the mainland in a southeasterly direction and established in general terms the relief of Northern Australia. True, he did not move more than 500 km from the coast of the sea.

In 1858, O. Gregory went in search of Leichhardt from Brisbane to the northeast to the point from which Leichhardt sent the last letter. Finding nothing, he descended the valley of Cooper's Creek and Strzelecki Creek to the Flinders Ridge and, following its eastern foot, came to Adelaide. So he crossed Australia for the second time, now in a southwestern direction, and in the Coopers Creek basin he moved almost 900 km from the sea, but still did not reach Central Australia.

In 1857–1861 Francis Gregory, brother of Augustus, made four trips to the northern part of Western Australia. He successively discovered there, between 20 and 28°S. sh., the rivers De Grey, Fortescue, Ashburton and the Hamersley mountain range extending south of Fortescue. Its length is 250 km; Mount Brus (1235 m) is the highest point in Western Australia. Based on the materials of his travels, F. Gregory compiled a schematic geological map of the territory to the west of 120 ° E. to the Indian Ocean, between 20 and 28 ° S. sh.

In 1879 Alexander Forrest, leading a large expedition, for the first time explored the dissected Kimberley Plateau (about 270 thousand km²) in the north-west of Australia, and discovered and traced the King Leopold Range (length 230 km, peak 937 m) in its southern part.

After the discovery of the richest gold placers in South-Eastern Australia and the founding of a separate colony of Victoria south of Murray (1851) in Melbourne, its new capital, a Geographical Society arose with large funds. The Society organized a large expedition in 1858 with the task of reconnoitring the most convenient dry route from Victoria to the northern edge of the mainland and finding a route for the trans-Australian telegraph. An Irishman was appointed head of the expedition Robert O'Hara Burke, from 1853 he served as a police inspector of the new colony. Burke had no special education, and, by the nature of his previous work, he was completely unprepared to lead a geographical expedition of this type. However, its initiators and some of Burke's companions are more to blame than he is for the tragic outcome of the enterprise. For some unknown reason, the Melbourne society suggested that he make a round-trip crossing of the mainland, instead of taking the expedition by sea to Melbourne from the northern coast. It should be noted that Burke was the first in Australia and quite expediently used not only horses, but also camels brought from Afghanistan to move through the desert.

On August 20, 1860, the expedition left Adelaide to the north. Along the way, Burke set up two food depots on the lower Darling (near Lake Menindee) and on Coopers Creek. Then he and the medic William John Wiele(as an astronomer) with two satellites crossed Central Australia, following mainly up the bed of the Diamantina creek, crossed the Selwyn ridge and along the river valley. Flinders descended to the Gulf of Carpentaria in early February 1861, completing the first meridional crossing of Australia.

Immediately, Burke, acting on instructions, moved back, fearing that he would not have enough food to reach the nearest base. People and animals were very emaciated. In mid-April, one of Burke's companions died. This misfortune delayed the detachment for a day, which cost the lives of two more. When the travelers reached the food base on Cooper Creek, it turned out that the day before they arrived, the head of the base had evacuated it, leaving "just in case" only a note and very little food. Later, he justified himself by saying that he had been waiting for Burke and his companions for a long time and decided that all four were dead.

When the travelers moved from the base, they had only two camels left - the rest of the animals had fallen earlier. The camels were shot, and three of them ate their meat for some time. The occasional Australians provided some assistance to the Europeans, but they themselves had very few supplies. A few weeks later, a completely exhausted Wills fell behind, and the next day Burke also died. The fourth participant in the campaign, almost dying of hunger John King picked up by the Australians in the lower reaches of Coopers Creek, where he was found by a rescue team sent from Melbourne Alfred Howitt. Wills' diary survives, the only reliable source of information about Burke's campaign north of second base.

The search parties, which came out from the east and north, traced the channels of Diamantina, Coopers Creek to their sources, as well as a number of rivers flowing into the southeastern part of the Gulf of Carpentaria. In 1861, he went from there to the southwest William Landsborough. He discovered the Barclay Plateau In 1877, Nathaniel Buchanan climbed the Barclay Plateau and discovered that it was covered with savannah with valuable fodder grasses. and passed southeast along its steep northern bluff and the Selwyn ridge to the Great Dividing Range, and then followed Thomson Creek to its mouth (the Coopers Creek system).

Since 1860, attempts to cross Australia began a colonist and explorer-Scot John McDwell Stuart(companion of Sturt in 1844–1845). The first was unsuccessful, but at the end of June it nevertheless reached 19°S. sh., opening the central McDonnell mountain range at the Southern Tropic, to the north of it - the Stewart Bluff ridge (“Stewart Ledge”), and behind it the small Davenport and Murchison ridges. Stewart tried again at the end of November 1860. It was again unsuccessful, although this time (end of May 1861) he reached Newcastle Creek, which flows into the salt lake of the Woods (at 17 ° 30 "S). Stewart was less than 300 km to the Gulf of Carpentaria, but not expecting to find supplies there (he had few of them left), he returned to Adelaide.

In December 1861, Stewart marched north for the third time, reached Lake Woods and found his way to the sea north of the river. Newcastle Creek through the scrub (scrub), which previously seemed impassable to him, - along Birdem Creek, a small southern tributary of the river. Roper. From Roper, he moved northwest to the river. Adelaide and along it went to Van Diemen Bay at the end of July 1862, having made the second meridional crossing of Australia. His route was soon used - with slight deviations in both directions - for laying the trans-Australian telegraph. With legitimate pride, Stuart wrote that he led his entire detachment safe and sound from sea to sea. Strongly, of course, exaggerating, he praised Northern Australia as "the most wonderful country that man has ever seen." His last expedition was also of great agricultural importance. She found that in some interior areas of Northern Australia there are vast areas that can be used by pastoralists.

The western interior of Australia remained completely unexplored. The "storm" of these deep regions began in 1869 from the west. renting officer John Forrest left Perth in mid-April at the head of a small well-armed cavalry detachment. Having traveled in general to the northeast for almost 2 thousand km (of which about a thousand in unexplored terrain) through the desert region of Central Australia with numerous salt lakes and isolated hills, Forrest reached almost 123 ° E in early July. at 29°S sh. From there he turned back. Of the salt lakes he discovered, three turned out to be relatively large - Barley, Salt Lakes and Monger.

Other explorers continued their "assault" from the line of the trans-Australian telegraph: they went from Adelaide to one of the stations in the center of the mainland, and then penetrated into the desert in a westerly direction. In the summer of 1872/73 Ernest Giles And William Goss, advancing on horseback along the parallel of 24 ° S. sh., discovered the George Giles Range (at 132 ° E), and to the south-west of it - the drying up salt lake Amadies. Giles tried to go further, but stopped in front of a sandy desert. In the summer of 1873/74 Giles, Goss and Alfred Gibson on horseback they went west from the telegraph office along the 26th parallel and discovered the Musgrave Range (about 200 km long) with a peak of 1440 m (at 131 ° 30 "E). From there they proceeded to the northwest and penetrated to 125 ° east, opening on the way the Peterman Range (length 180 km, peak 1219 m), and the Gibson sandy desert, where A. Gibson died looking for water.

In the middle of 1873 Peter Warburton, previously (in 1856) exploring Lake Torrens, passed from the ridge. McDonnell to the head of Sturt Creek (at 20° S), and from there turned west. Warburton crossed the Great Sandy Desert for the first time; he went to the headwaters of the river. De Grey. He then crossed the headwaters of a series of creeks and ended up at Nicol Bay (20°30"S).

D. Forrest remained true to "his" direction. In autumn (April) 1874, he climbed up the valley of the river. Murchison, finding it quite suitable for cattle breeding, turned east and walked through the semi-deserts between 25-26 ° S. sh. from one drying up source to another, through a chain of salt lakes: in winter (in August) he crossed the desert strip by chance at its narrowest point - between the Gibson and Great Victoria deserts - and reached Mt. Musgrave, and from him went down the valley of the river. Albergi to the telegraph line (at the end of September). Forrest often climbed the hills closest to the route line and surveyed the area to the north and south. According to his observations, in both directions, as far as the eye could see, stretched a flat, sometimes slightly undulating country with sandy hills overgrown with spinifex grass; sometimes it was just an ocean of spinifex. He came to the conclusion that the interior regions of Western Australia he had explored were completely unsuitable for European colonization.

In 1875, E. Giles, keeping approximately the 30th parallel, penetrated from the telegraph line to the west, into the Great Victoria Desert (the name is given to them), and crossed it; then passing through a chain of drying lakes, he at Lake Moore (117 ° 30 "E) turned southwest to the Indian Ocean at Perth. From there Giles in January 1876 headed north to the headwaters of Ashburton, and from 24 ° S moved to the center of the mainland and, keeping mainly to the 24th parallel, crossed the Gibson Desert from west to east, before which he retreated in 1874. His conclusions regarding the nature of the interior of Western Australia generally coincided with the opinion of John Forrest Giles covered more than 8,000 km on horseback between 1875 and 1876. He was the author of five books, including Geographic Travels in Australia (1875), Diary of a Forgotten Expedition (1880) and the two volume Australia, Twice Crossed ... "(1889).

Thus, from 1872 to 1876, a giant desert strip between 20–30°S was discovered and crossed by several routes. sh., Which is conventionally divided into three deserts: Great Sandy (in the north), Gibson (in the center), Greater Victoria (in the south). After that, only relatively small “white spots” remained unexplored in Inner Australia, which were eliminated in the 20th century.

Thanks to the efforts of many expeditions, three main myths were dispelled, which largely determined the course of the discovery and study of Australia. The opinion about the presence of a meridional strait, allegedly dividing the entire continent into two halves, was the first to be refuted. Then it was the turn of the legend of the giant river to disappear. And finally, it turned out that in the center of Australia there is no inland sea or lake. However, instead of this mythical reservoir, underground lakes and even a sea of ​​​​fresh water.

The study of the Australian artesian basins was started by a meteorologist Henry Russell, who studied the Darling basin from 1869. In 1878 Ralph Tate discovered artesian waters in the area of ​​Lake Eyre. Then Russell in August 1879 made an article. In it, he argued that the artesian basin in New South Wales extends west of the watershed mountains from the river. Lachlan north to the river. Dumerik, i.e. to the border with Queensland.

In 1895, geologist Edward Pitman dated underground aquifers to Triassic porous sandstones, common in the upland part of New South Wales in a strip up to 700 km wide. By 1914, Pitman had outlined the entire Bolshoi Artesian Basin and gave its characteristics in the book "The Great Australian Artesian Basin and the sources of its waters." The basin extends from the Gulf of Carpentaria to the south for 2000 km, its width is 700–1800 km, and the area is more than 1700 thousand km² (the second in the world after the West Siberian).

30s 19th century an English navy and hydrograph worked off the northeastern coast of Australia Francis Price Blackwood. In 1842 he returned to these waters as the captain of the Fly. For more than two years, Blackwood directed hydrographic work in the western reef-strewn strip of the Coral Sea, between the mainland and the Great Barrier Reef, explored this reef throughout its entire length, looking for the safest passages between its parts. He was the first to plot on an accurate map near the Southern Tropic the wide Capricorn Strait, the reefs fringing it, including the Capricorn Islands and the Swain Reefs, at 21 ° S. sh. - Cumberland Islands, between 16°40" and 9°20"S sh. - the outer (eastern) line of reefs for more than 900 km, to the southern coast of New Guinea. Expedition member geologist Joseph Beat Jukes compiled the first scientific description of the Great Barrier Reef (published in 1847).

At the beginning of 1845, having passed through the Northeast Passage into the Gulf of Papua, Blackwood first described this bay, and discovered the estuary of the large river. Fly, named after his ship. From there, Blackwood passed through the Torres Strait and the Arafura Sea to the North Australian Koberg Peninsula, delivered a team of two ships (70 people) from Port Essington to Singapore, wrecked in the Torres Strait, moved to Sydney and at the end of 1845 returned to England.

Among the hydrographers are the explorers of the Australian seas of the 40s. young sailor stands out Owen Stanley, an excellent draftsman who illustrated both his own and others' reports. In 1847–1849 patient with epilepsy. O. Stanley, commanding the old ship "Rattlesnake" ("Rattlesnake"), again worked in Australian waters mainly in the Torres Strait region. His most important achievement was a detailed inventory of the southeast coast of New Guinea and adjacent islands to the Louisiade archipelago: his maps (published in 1855) were used until 1955. Work in very difficult conditions - eternal anxiety on an "old vessel" in dangerous waters - so undermined by the poor health of O. Stanley that, having barely reached Sydney (1850), he died on board the ship at the age of 39. Later, the Owen-Stanley ridge was named after him, stretching for 250 km along the eastern coast of the Gulf of Papua (top 4035 m), traced by him along its entire length.

about the second half of the 19th century, when preparations were intensively made for the division of Oceania between the imperialists and the mass extermination of its indigenous inhabitants took place, the voice of the great Russian humanist sounded in their defense to the whole world. Nikolai Nikolaevich Miklukho-Maclay As a 19-year-old boy in 1866, as an assistant to the German zoologist Ernst Haeckel, he sailed to Madeira and the Canary Islands, and visited Morocco. In 1869 he visited the shores of the Red Sea and Asia Minor to study the lower marine animals. But he was drawn to unexplored areas not yet visited by Europeans.

And he chooses the northeast coast of New Guinea. At the request of the Russian Geographical Society in 1870, he was delivered there - around South America - on the screw corvette "Vityaz" under the command Pavel Nikolaevich Nazimov and landed in September 1871 on the coast of New Guinea to the east of Astrolabe Bay - later called the Miklouho-Maclay coast. Corvette officers discovered and described the Vityaz Strait between this coast and about. Long Island. Miklukho-Maclay lived on “his” shore until December 1872, studying the language, manners and customs of the Papuans, and won their love and trust with patience, restraint, truthfulness and cordial attitude. At the beginning of 1873, he was followed by the screw clipper Izumrud under the command of Mikhail Nikolayevich Kumani. The officers described the Emerald Strait, which separates about. Karkar from New Guinea.

On a Russian clipper ship, Miklukho-Maclay went to the Philippines, and from there he crossed to Java. In 1874 he sailed on a Dutch ship to Sulawesi, Timor and the Moluccas. From there, on a Malayan sailboat (“prau”), he crossed to the western coast of New Guinea, explored it, sailed again to the Moluccas and Sulawesi and returned to Java, where he lived until 1875. Then Miklouho-Maclay explored the interior of the Malay Peninsula. In 1876–1877 he again visited New Guinea, lived on "his" coast and collected valuable anthropological and ethnographic collections. On the basis of his observations, Miklouho-Maclay came to the conclusion about the species unity and kinship of human races, destroying the anti-scientific idea of ​​supposedly existing "lower" and "higher" races.

At the end of 1877, Miklukho-Maclay went on an English schooner to Singapore, where, due to a serious illness, he remained for more than six months. In 1878 he moved to Sydney. In 1879–1880 he sailed from there to New Caledonia and other islands of Melanesia, continuing anthropological research, and visited the southern coast of New Guinea. Returning to Australia, he launched a campaign against the slave trade, which was widespread in Melanesia. In 1881 he again visited the southern coast of New Guinea with a punitive expedition in an English corvette. Thanks to his intercession, the corvette commander refused to burn the Papuan village and massacre its inhabitants. In 1882, through the Suez Canal, Miklukho-Maclay returned to St. Petersburg, thus completing circumnavigation, started on the "Vityaz" in 1870

He did not live long in his homeland. In 1883 he went to Australia, then to Java. There Miklukho-Maclay accidentally caught the Russian corvette "Skobelev" (former "Vityaz"). His commander Vadim Vasilyevich Blagodev delivered the traveler to the shore of Miklouho-Maclay. Corvette officers described the northwestern part of Astrolabe Bay and discovered Alexei Bay and a number of small islands there, the largest of which Blagodev named Fr. Skobelev.

After spending some time among Papuan friends, Miklukho-Maclay returned to Australia, lived there until 1886, then moved with his family to St. Petersburg, but died a year later (1887). He left a great scientific and literary legacy. His most important works were published by the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (Collected Works. In 5 volumes, 1950–1954). He became one of the favorite heroes of the Soviet youth. Books about him are published and republished in the USSR.

Enue naturalist Luigi Maria Albbertis in 1876, at the head of a party of 11 people, he climbed on a steam boat provided to him by the authorities of New South Wales, along the river. Fly, the mouth of which was opened by Blackwood, 800 km from the sea. All along this river. The fly that crossed the vast lowland was navigable. In mid-June, in the north, Albertis saw a high mountain range (up to 3860 m) - the Victor-Emanuil ridge. He described his travels in the two-volume book "On New Guinea" (1880), from which it is clear that he spoke with the Papuans "from a position of strength" and not all of his shots were on game or in the sky.

In 1872–1874 the southeastern part of New Guinea was surveyed by an English naval sailor John Moresby on the Basilisk ship. To the west of the Louisiade archipelago, he discovered a group of small islands and the passage of Goshen between the D "Antrkasto Islands and the ledge of New Guinea. To the north of the Yuon Moresby Bay, he saw the high Saruwaged Mountains (top 4107 m); their northwestern continuation is the Finistere Range. In the Gulf of Papua, he found the most convenient harbor, named after his father, Admiral Port Moresby.

In November 1884, Eastern New Guinea was divided into two parts: the northern part was captured by the Germans; southern - the British, who declared it a protectorate and named Papua.

Otto Finsch, a German merchant-turned-zoologist, visited New Guinea, acting on behalf of the German New Guinea Company, which established a colony in the northeastern part of the island. In total, he made five voyages along the northern coast of New Guinea. In May 1885, Finsch discovered the river on a large green and lemon spot in the sea. Sepik, the largest water artery of the new colony (length 1300 km), and went up the river for about 50 km. In the lower reaches, it flowed through a swampy plain. In the distance to the south, Finsch saw a mountain range, named it after Bismarck. Finsch also explored a large archipelago in the New Guinea Sea, christened by the Germans the Bismarck Archipelago.

In 1887 geographer and astronomer Carl Schrader went up the river Sepik at 1100 km. In the south, he saw relatively high (up to 2880 m) mountains - the Central Range. The opening of a convenient road to the interior of the central part of New Guinea was another achievement of Schrader. In 1910, a German-Dutch border commission rose along this path to the upper reaches of the river near the 141st meridian. And two years later, the Germans conducted extensive studies of the river basin. Sepik, explored a number of its southern tributaries, and along one of them (the April River) penetrated into the central part of the Central Range. One of expedition members, entomologist Richard Turnwald, rose to the sources of the river. Sepik discovered the ridge named after him and thus established the western boundary of the Central Range.

Among the explorers of the new British protectorate stood out Captain Henry Charles Everill, who discovered in 1885 Strickland - the largest tributary of the river. Fly and the governor William McGregor- in 1889 - 1890. he traced the course of the river. Fly, almost 1000 km from the mouth, discovered and examined part of its upper tributary, the Palmer.

The Dutch, who captured the western part of Pova Guinea, were late in exploring its interior. Only in 1905 they examined the slow river. Digul is almost 550 km from the mouth. A year later, a military detachment with the participation of two naturalists conducted a study of a number of other rivers flowing through the central lowland, including the river. Lorentz, and examined the wide river. Eilanden. The detachment continued to study the river. Digul, now its two major tributaries, having completed familiarization with the central lowland. Both the southern group and the war parties operating from the northern coast of New Guinea were stopped by a powerful ridge with high peaks(mountains Maoke). They were first reached by Lieutenant F. Van der Ven: near 139°E he discovered several snowy peaks and met a group of pygmies.

The Dutch began to explore the northern coast of New Guinea in 1883, having familiarized themselves with downstream R. Mamberamo. They began a detailed study of its basin in 1909. At the end of that year, a military detachment under the command of Captain Fransen Herdersche, having overcome the two thresholds of the river, which made its way into the latitudinal mountains of Van Pec, in mid-February 1910, he discovered a "lake-plain" formed by the confluence of two components of the river. Mamberamo. Herdershe chose the western branch (R. Tariku) and along its valley he climbed into the mountains almost to the line of eternal snows. Malaria, which knocked down most of the porters, forced the Dutch to turn back.

In 1913–1914 a large party led by a captain I. Opperman, conducted a more detailed acquaintance with the river basin. Mamberamo, divided into two groups. One reached the head of the river. Tariku and examined its southern tributaries. Another surveyed the entire course of the river. Taritatu, the eastern component of Mamberamo, rose to the sources of its two main tributaries, including the river. Sobger. Thus, the Dutch discovered and explored the northern slopes of the Maoke Mountains for more than 500 km.

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Lesson

Geographical position, history of discovery, relief and minerals of Australia

Goals and objectives of the lesson:to acquaint with the physical and geographical position of Australia; introduce the history of the discovery and exploration of the mainland; form an idea of ​​the relief and minerals. Continue to develop the ability to work with cards.

Equipment: to art of the hemispheres and a physical map of Australia, a plan for describing the FGP of the mainland and its relief, the table "Information about Australia", the table "Discovery of Australia", portraits of researchers

During the classes

I. Organizational moment

II. Acquaintance with the physical and geographical position of the mainland

She is below us.
They obviously walk upside down
There's an inside-out year.
There the gardens bloom in October,
There is summer in January, not July,
There are rivers flowing without water
(They disappear somewhere in the desert).
There are traces of wingless birds in the thickets,
There cats get snakes for food,
Animals are born from eggs
And the dogs don't know how to bark.
The trees themselves climb out of the bark,
There the rabbits are worse than the flood,
Saves the south from the northern heat,
The capital has no population.
Australia is the opposite.
Its source is on the London quay:
Cleared the way for predators
Exiles and hard labor people.
Australia is the opposite.

(Galina Usova)

“... I swear to you that this region is the most curious in all the globe! Its origin, nature, plants, animals, climate... - all this surprised, surprises and will surprise all scientists of the world. Imagine, my friends, a continent that, being formed, rose from the waves of the sea not its own central part, and the edges, like some kind of giant hoof; the mainland, where, perhaps, in the middle there is a half-evaporated inland sea; where the rivers dry up more and more every day; where there is no moisture either in the air or in the soil; where trees annually lose not their leaves, but their bark; where the leaves are facing the sun not with their surface, but with an edge and do not give a shadow; where the forest is often unable to burn; where the stone slabs melt in the rain; where the forests are stunted, and the grasses are gigantic; where animals are unusual; where quadrupeds have beaks; where the kangaroo jumper has paws of different lengths; where the rams have pig heads,where foxes flutter from tree to tree; where are the black swans; where rats build their nests; where the birds amaze with the variety of their singing and their abilities: one imitates the chiming of the clock, the other - with the clicking of the whip of the mail coach, the third - with the grinder, the fourth beats the seconds like the pendulum of the clock; there is one who laughs in the morning when the sun rises, and one who cries in the evening when it sets. The most bizarre, most illogical country ever! The earth is paradoxical, refuting the laws of nature! The botanist Grimar had every reason to say about her like this: “Here it is, this Australia, some kind of parody of world laws, or, rather, a challenge thrown in the face of the rest of the world!” ... "(Jules Verne. "Children Captain Grant)

The teacher starts the lesson by telling interesting facts:

The word "australis" in translation into Russian means "southern".

Australia is the smallest continent on Earth. Its area is 6 times smaller than the largest continent of Eurasia.

There are no active volcanoes here.

Australia is the continent of relics. There are many plants and animals that are not found anywhere else.

Australia later than others was settled and mastered by Europeans. For a long time, the continent was cut off from the historical processes that took place in other parts of the world. For many thousands of years in Africa, Asia, Europe, America, mighty centers of civilization were born, and Australia still reigned stone Age. It is the most sparsely populated continent.

The entire mainland is occupied by one state - the Commonwealth of Australia.

Students independently make a description of the physical and geographical position of the mainland according to this plan.

Plan for describing the physical and geographical position of the mainland

1. The name of the mainland and its size. Determine the maximum length of the mainland in kilometers from north to south and from west to east.

From north to south: 39 -10 \u003d 29; 29 x 111 km (1 meridian arc - 111 km) = 3219 km

From west to east: 153-113 = 40; 40 x 107 km (1 along the parallel - 107 km) = 4280 km

2. The position of the mainland relative to the equator and the prime meridian.In relation to the equator - the mainland is entirely located in the southern hemisphere, in relation to prime meridian entirely in the Eastern Hemisphere.

3. Extreme points and their geographical coordinates.The extreme points of the mainland: in the north - Cape York, in the south - Cape South East Point, extreme western point- Cape Steep Point, eastern - Cape Byron.

4. Neighborhood with other continents.In the north it is separated from Eurasia by the islands of Southeast Asia, by the Indian Ocean in the west - from Africa, in the south Southern Ocean from Antarctica, in the east by the Pacific Ocean - from South America.

5. How and where the mainland is washed.The coastline of Australia as a whole is slightly indented. It has the most complex outlines on the northern coast. If we make a trip along the seas around Australia on the map, then, moving along the northern shores, from the Indian Ocean we will get into the Arafura Sea, and then into the Gulf of Carpentaria, deeply cut into the land. Further, the travel route runs along the Cape York Peninsula, with its outlines resembling a triangle, past the northern point the mainland of Cape York in the Torres Strait, which separates Australia from the island of New Guinea. Your course now lies southeast into the waters coral sea belonging to the Pacific Ocean. Accumulations of corals formed the Great Barrier Reef off the eastern shores of the mainland - a creation of nature that is unique in its beauty. It stretches along the coast for 2000 km from the Torres Strait to the Southern Tropic.

Leaving behind the Great Barrier Reef and the shallow Coral Sea, you move south along the waters of the warm East Australian Current. Behind was the extreme eastern point of the mainland - Cape Byron. The route continues in the waters of the Tasman Sea. The shores drop steeply to the water, and the depths increase faster than in the Coral Sea. Turning west, you will find yourself in the Bass Strait, which separates the only major island of Tasmania from Australia. Passing South East Point, the extreme southern point of the mainland, you enter the waters of the Great Australian Bight. The water in the bay is colder than near the eastern shores, as the branches of the cold current of the West Winds enter there. In the central part of the bay is the most deep place off the coast of Australia. Its depth is 5853 m. Coming out of the waters of the largest, but not deeply protruding into the mainland bay, you found yourself in the open Indian Ocean. Here is the extreme western point of the mainland - Cape Steep Point.

6. Conclusion about the geographical position of the mainland.Conclusion: FGP of the mainland affects many natural factors. This is one of the hottest continents, the driest. It receives 5 times less rainfall than Africa, 8 times less than South America. About half of the area is occupied by deserts and semi-deserts.

Filling in the previously drawn table "Information about the continents".

PHYSICAL MINUTE

III. History of the discovery of Australia

As the story progresses, the "Discovery of Australia" table is filled in. Even ancient geographers suggested the existence of an unknown southern land south of the equator. In the XVI century. cartographers depicted on maps and globes in the southern hemisphere a huge "Terra australis incognita" - "Unknown Southern Land". Discovered by Magellan Tierra del Fuego was considered one of the ledges of this unknown land,

In 1606 a Spaniard Luis Torres discovered the northernmost tip of the Australian Cape York Peninsula, and called the strait separating New Guinea from Cape York, named Torres. When Torres informed the Spanish authorities about his discovery, it was decided to keep this discovery secret, and for over 150 years no one knew about it. Almost at the same time as Torres, the Dutch navigator Willem Janszon also saw the northern coast of Australia, entering the Gulf of Carpentaria. In 1642 Abel Tasman discovered the western coast of an unknown large island, which was named Tasmania. Subsequently, A. Tasman went around Australia from the south and east and found that it was an independent mainland.

In 1770, on the ship "Endeavor" ("Attempt"), an English navigator James Cook sailed to east coast Australia and declared it an English possession. Soon a "penal colony" for criminals was organized here. Subsequently, free settlers appeared on the mainland. The capture of the mainland began, accompanied by the extermination of the indigenous population. A hundred years later, most of the natives were exterminated. The remaining indigenous people were driven to the interior desert territories of the mainland.

In the 19th century more than a dozen expeditions were equipped to explore the interior desert regions of the mainland. For the first time in 1860, an Englishman managed to cross Australia from south to north Robert Burke . The expedition went from the city of Adelaide to the Gulf of Carpentaria. The development of Australia was facilitated by the discovery of large gold deposits in the 19th century, as well as the availability of convenient pastures for cattle breeding on the mainland. Air John Edward, sheep breeder, in 1839-1840. in search of pastures he explored the coast of the Great Australian Bight.Look at the map - what did he discover?(Lakes Eyre and Torrens).Strzelecki Pavel Edmund, a Polish immigrant, a geographer and geologist by education. Discovered large deposits of gold and discovered the most high point Australia.Look at the map, what is the name of this mountain?(city of Kosciuszko, 2228 m.).

By the end of the XIX century. basically the study of the mainland was completed. During the same period, England declared Australia its colony. Currently, the Commonwealth of Australia is an independent state.

"Opening Australia"

IV. Relief and minerals

Working with a tectonic map(atlas, pp. 8-11)

Do you remember what ancient continent Australia broke away from?(Gondwana). By tectonic map determine what lies at the base of the mainland?(most of it is an ancient platform that is part of the Indo-Australian lithospheric plate). This is due to the predominance of the flat relief. In the Paleozoic, when mountain-building processes were actively going on on the Gondwana mainland, an area of ​​ancient folding formed along one of the faults. Later, in the Cenozoic era, the medium-altitude mountains of the Great Dividing Range formed here. Over the course of a long history of development, the Australian mainland experienced ups and downs. As a result of movements and the formation of faults, part of the land sank to the bottom of the Pacific Ocean, the islands of New Guinea and Tasmania separated.

Australia is the flattest continent. Most of it is a plain, the edges of which are elevated, especially significantly in the east. Mountains occupy only 5% of the mainland.

There are three main landforms on the territory of Australia: the Great Dividing Range, the Central Lowland with prevailing heights up to 100 m, and the Western Australian Plateau with average heights of 400-500 m.

Australia is the only continent on which earthquakes and volcanism are not observed, since the boundaries of the lithospheric plates are located far from the mainland.

The subsoil of Australia is rich in minerals. Ore minerals, such as ores of non-ferrous and ferrous metals, owe their origin to the metamorphic and igneous rocks of the platform basement. Their deposits are found in the western and northern parts of Australia. Deposits of hard and brown coal, oil and gas in southeastern Australia are associated with sedimentary rocks.

V. Summary of the lesson

Who first discovered Australia?

What reasons led to the rapid development of the mainland?

On the map of the mainland, find the geographical names associated with the names of explorers and travelers.

What continent was Australia formerly part of?

What lies at the base of the continent?

How many lithospheric plates are at the base of the continent, what are they called?

Where does the collision of lithospheric plates take place?

What landforms are found on the mainland?

How are they distributed across the continent?

Determine the patterns of distribution of minerals on the territory of the continent

Are there mountain glaciers in Australia? (In the Australian Alps - the highest part of the Great Dividing Range - snow remains in shaded gorges)

VI. Homework: Section 35