William Dampier

William Dampier (1651–1715) got to New Holland twice, both times on the west and north-west coasts — never into Port Jackson. In 1688 he was aboard the buccaneer Cygnet, spending roughly three months near King Sound. His book A New Voyage Round the World (1697) made him the Admiralty’s South Seas expert.

In January 1699 he sailed as captain of HMS Roebuck, anchored at the inlet he named Shark Bay on 6 August 1699, coasted north-east looking for water, and left the coast near Roebuck Bay on 5 September for Timor. The ship was too rotten to push on to the unknown east coast — the honour Cook later took. Roebuck foundered at Ascension on the way home. Dampier’s journals are sharp on winds, currents, plants and people; his verdict on the west coast was blunt and unkind. Read him as an early English witness to Australia, not as a Founding Father of Sydney.

Australian Discovery By Land

This page is a contents list for inland exploration as the colonial archive told it — from the 1813 Blue Mountains crossing out to Stuart’s south–north runs and the Burke and Wills disaster. “Discovery by land” is a settler filing word. The routes crossed Wiradjuri and many other Peoples’ Country that was already known, named and lived in; the journals are how the colony wrote itself into the map.

Start with Blaxland, Wentworth and Lawson if you want the Sydney-side door through the mountains — their joint expedition left on 11 May 1813; the fuller note is on Blaxland, Wentworth & Lawson. Then the list runs the usual spine: Evans and Macquarie beyond the ranges, Oxley on the Lachlan and Macquarie, Hume and Hovell toward Port Phillip, Sturt on the Darling and Murray, Mitchell’s Australia Felix, Eyre’s desperate coast ride, Burke and Wills, Stuart. Treat each numbered line as a doorway, not a finished biography.

Where this blog later grows a dedicated essay, cross-link it. Where it hasn’t yet, leave the year soft and the spelling clean — Wiradjuri, not “Weradjiri”; Blaxland, not “Bblaxland.” The blood-on-the-wattle feeling in the old draft can stay as honest mood; don’t fake a body count you can’t source.

LIST OF PRINCIPAL DATES 

1 - Blaxland's Story Of The Crossing Of The Blue Mountains 

**** it wasn't until 1813 that Bblaxland Wentworth And Lawson Finally Got Through A Small Passage at The Top Of The Blue Mountains, which Had Been Known And Used By The Local Tribes To Crossover Into Other Tribe Territory. 

**€**. This was the Land Of The WERADJIRI PEOPLE. 

The Eora and Cadigal Tribes Of The Sydney basin Region Had Pretty MuchBeen   destroyed By 1813. 

The Smallpox killed Thousands Of Matives In One Go, And White Men Woth Guns Had Taken Care Of The Rest. 

So THERE WAS TRULY BLOOD ON THE WATTLE. 

2 - Evan's Journal Of His Journey To TheBathurst  Plains.

3 - Governor Macquarie's Report On The Country Beyond The Mountains 

4 - Evan's Discovery Of The Lachlan 

5 - Oxley's Exploration Of The Lachlan. 

6 - Oxley's Exploration Of The Macquarie 

7 - Evan's Discovery Of The Castlereagh 

8 - Allan Cunningham's Explorations 

9 - Hume And Hovell's Journey To Port Phillip 

10 - Lockyer's Exploration Of The Brisbane River 

11 - Sturts Discovery Of The Darling 

12 - Sturt's Discovery Of The Murray 

13 - Mitchell's Exploration Of Australia Felix 

14 - Sturt's Journey Into Central Australia 

15 - Eyre's Journey From Fowler's Bay To Albany 

16 - The Burke And Wills Expedition 

17 - Stuart's Journey To The Centre Of Australia 

18 - Stuarts Journey Across Australia