European maritime exploration of Australia
The maritime European exploration of Australia consisted of several waves of European seafarers who sailed the edges of the Australian continent. Dutch navigators were the first Europeans known to have explored and mapped the Australian coastline. The first documented encounter was that of Dutch navigator Willem Janszoon, in 1606. Dutch seafarers also visited the west and north coasts of the continent, as did French explorers.
Danckert Danckerts's copperplate engraving of Jacob Vennekool's sketch of the 1648 Amsterdam Burgerzaal floor mosaic in Jacob van Campen's 1661 Afbeelding van 't Stadt Huys van Amsterdam.
Terra Australis was a hypothetical continent first posited in antiquity and which appeared on maps between the 15th and 18th centuries. Its existence was not based on any survey or direct observation, but rather on the idea that continental land in the Northern Hemisphere should be balanced by land in the Southern Hemisphere. This theory of balancing land has been documented as early as the 5th century on maps by Macrobius, who uses the term Australis on his maps.
Western hemisphere of the Johannes Schöner globe from 1520.
Guillaume Le Testu's 1556 Cosmographie Universel, 4me projection, where the northward extending promontory of the Terre australle is called Grande Jaue.