preface
  1. 1Key Phrases
  2. 2Explorer Excerpts – 1500 to April, 1770
  3. 3Explorer Excerpts – 1 May, 1770 to 30 May, 1770
  4. 4Explorer Excerpts –1 June, 1770 to 30 June, 1770
  5. 5Explorer Excerpts – 1 July, 1770 to 31 July, 1770
  6. 6Explorer Excerpts – 1 August, 1770 to 21 January, 1788
  7. 7Explorer Excerpts – 23 January, 1788 to 1796
  8. 8Explorer Excerpts – 1797 to 11 March, 1801
  9. 9Explorer Excerpts – 13 March, 1801 to December, 1801
  10. 10Explorer Excerpts – January, 1802 to August, 1803
  11. 11Explorer Excerpts – September, 1803 to 4 February, 1817
  12. 12Explorer Excerpts – 8 February, 1817 to 8 May, 1817
  13. 13Explorer Excerpts – 9 May, 1817 to 22 June, 1817
  14. 14Explorer Excerpts – 23 June, 1817 to 26 July, 1817
  15. 15Explorer Excerpts – 27 July, 1817 to 23 August, 1817
  16. 16Explorer Excerpts – 24 August, 1817 to 29 December, 1817
  17. 17Explorer Excerpts – 16 January, 1818 to 25 February, 1818
  18. 18Explorer Excerpts – 26 February, 1818 to 31 March, 1818
  19. 19Explorer Excerpts – 1 April, 1818 to 28 April, 1818
  20. 20Explorer Excerpts – 1 May, 1818 to 17 June, 1818
  21. 21Explorer Excerpts – 18 June, 1818 to 20 August, 1818
  22. 22Explorer Excerpts – 23 August, 1818 to 15 October, 1818
  23. 23Explorer Excerpts – 18 October, 1818 to 10 May, 1819
  24. 24Explorer Excerpts – 12 May, 1819 to 24 July, 1819
  25. 25Explorer Excerpts – 25 July, 1819 to 26 October, 1819
  26. 26Explorer Excerpts – 1 November, 1819 to 25 August, 1820
  27. 27Explorer Excerpts – 3 September, 1820 to 30 May, 1821
  28. 28Explorer Excerpts – 5 June, 1821 to 27 December, 1821
  29. 29Explorer Excerpts – 2 January, 1822 to 25 April, 1822
  30. 30Explorer Excerpts – 22 May, 1823 to 11 November, 1836
  31. 31Explorer Excerpts – 1837 to 27 January, 1838
  32. 32Explorer Excerpts – February, 1838 to 17 November, 1838
  33. 33Explorer Excerpts – January, 1839 to 16 October, 1839
  34. 34Explorer Excerpts – 17 October, 1839 to 29 November, 1839
  35. 35Explorer Excerpts – 7 December, 1839 to 22 August, 1840
  36. 36Explorer Excerpts – 23 August, 1840 to 11 November, 1840
  37. 37Explorer Excerpts – 12 November, 1840 to 13 January, 1841
  38. 38Explorer Excerpts – 14 January, 1841 to 17 April, 1841
  39. 39Explorer Excerpts – 19 April, 1841 to 14 June, 1841
  40. 40Explorer Excerpts – 15 June, 1841 to 23 November, 1841
  41. 41Explorer Excerpts – 12 December, 1841 to 29 September, 1844
  42. 42Explorer Excerpts –October, 1844 to 7 December, 1844
  43. 43Explorer Excerpts – 8 December, 1844 to 26 January, 1845
  44. 44Explorer Excerpts – 27 January, 1845 to 14 March, 1845
  45. 45Explorer Excerpts – 15 March, 1845 to 31 May, 1845
  46. 46Explorer Excerpts – 1 June, 1845 to 20 July, 1845
  47. 47Explorer Excerpts – 22 July, 1845 to 5 September, 1845
  48. 48Explorer Excerpts – 7 September, 1845 to 20 October, 1845
  49. 49Explorer Excerpts – 21 October, 1845 to 25 November, 1845
  50. 50Explorer Excerpts – 26 November, 1845 to 31 July, 1846
  51. 51Explorer Excerpts – 1 August, 1846 to 22 September, 1846
  52. 52Explorer Excerpts – 23 September, 1846 to 19 May, 1848
  53. 53Explorer Excerpts – 21 May, 1848 to 7 August, 1848
  54. 54Explorer Excerpts – 8 August, 1848 to 30 September, 1848
  55. 55Explorer Excerpts – 1 October, 1848 to 10 November, 1848
  56. 56Explorer Excerpts – 11 November, 1848 to 24 December, 1848
  57. 57Explorer Excerpts – 25 December, 1848 to 31 July, 1855
  58. 58Explorer Excerpts – 12 August, 1855 to 11 December, 1855
  59. 59Explorer Excerpts – 12 December, 1855 to 9 March, 1856
  60. 60Explorer Excerpts – 10 March, 1856 to 29 June, 1858
  61. 61Explorer Excerpts – 1 July, 1858 to 31 May, 1859
  62. 62Explorer Excerpts – 3 June, 1859 to 27 December, 1859
  63. 63Explorer Excerpts – 2 January, 1860 to 14 May, 1860
  64. 64Explorer Excerpts – 15 May, 1860 to 18 August, 1860
  65. 65Explorer Excerpts – 19 August, 1860 to 15 December, 1860
  66. 66Explorer Excerpts – 15 December, 1860 to 9 January, 1861
  67. 67Explorer Excerpts – 10 January, 1861 to 30 April, 1861
  68. 68Explorer Excerpts – 1 May, 1861 to 12 June, 1861
  69. 69Explorer Excerpts – 13 June, 1861 to 27 August, 1861
  70. 70Explorer Excerpts – 28 August, 1861 to 30 September, 1861
  71. 71Explorer Excerpts – 1 October, 1861 to 31 May, 1862
  72. 72Explorer Excerpts – 1 June, 1862 to 30 August, 1862
  73. 73Explorer Excerpts – 1 September, 1862 to December, 1864
  74. 74Explorer Excerpts – 22 August, 1872 to 30 August, 1873
  75. 75Explorer Excerpts – 4 September, 1873 to 7 December, 1873
  76. 76Explorer Excerpts – 8 December, 1873 to 29 January, 1874
  77. 77Explorer Excerpts – 1 February, 1874 to 23 March, 1875
  78. 78Explorer Excerpts – 24 March, 1875 to 18 October, 1875
  79. 79Explorer Excerpts – 27 October, 1875 to 1889
  80. 80Explorer Excerpts – 1889 to June, 1896
  81. 81Explorer Excerpts – June, 1896 to 16 September, 1896
  82. 82Explorer Excerpts – 27 September, 1896 to 1897

Australian Explorer Excerpts Collection

How to use this collection:

These explorer excerpts, in chronological order, are mainly taken from the journals of Australian explorers, though there are also some historical comments by people like Ernest Favenc, himself an explorer, but also the author of a history of exploration. We have spent considerable time providing key phrases for each explorer excerpt to make searching easier.

These excerpts have been compiled by Peter Macinnis, teacher, historian and science writer.

If a key phrase interests you, you will be able to search for all similar entries. If you are looking, for example, for information on Spanish explorers, you would then search on this key phrase and all such entries would be found. Key phrases allow you to thoroughly investigate themes.

Note that many of the early explorers were poor at spelling, or used different words: allegators, alligators and crocodiles are all the same, but as "crocodiles" is a key phrase, you will find all the instances by searching on "crocodiles".

Note also that a number of the excerpts have been divided into manageable "bites": this is indicated by a number in square brackets after the date.

As most of the text comes from original source documents, we have not made any spelling or grammatical changes to preserve the authenticity of the information.

The entries are in date order rather than explorer order, and almost 5,000 different entries are included.

Click on the first link to see the list of key phrases. Alternatively, click on any date link to see explorer comments at that time.

Book Chapters

Associated Books

The following are books that hold information relevant to the book you are about to read.