The Archive

In 1859 the Dutch historian, L.C.D. van Dijk published a book on the voyages of discovery made by Jan Carstenszoon in 1623 and Jean Etienne Gonzal in 1756 to the Gulf of Carpentaria. The book contains a commentary of the Read more

The history of charting Australia’s coastline is well documented from most perspectives,but not from a toponymic standpoint. Between 1606 and 1803, some nine hundredEuropean placenames were bestowed along the Australian coast. Authors Jan Tent and Helen Slatyer report here on Read more

Some of the first Europeans to venture into the southern Pacific Ocean were the Dutch during the 17th and early 18th centuries. The linguistic legacy of these expeditions can be found in a small number of Dutch words adopted into Read more

The year 2006 marked the quatercentenary of the first known European charting of any part of the Australian coastline, when the Dutch mariner Willem Janszoon explored 300 kms of the north-west coast of Cape York Peninsula. He bestowed seven placenames, Read more

The Polynesian islands share in common the fact that the first European language they came into contact with was the English brought first by Captain Cook, spread by whalers and traders and later consolidated by missionaries. The purpose of the Read more

On some early maps of Australia the name Dinnings Land or Terres de Dinning appears near the Swan River. Who or what was Dinning? This article explores this question, and argues it is a case of mistaken interpretation or erroneous Read more