From Dreamtime to the Dutchmen

In the beginning, there was the Dreamtime — at least according to the Aborigines of Australia. Between then and now, perhaps, the supercontinent referred to as Pangaea split into two huge continents called Laurasia and Gondwanaland. Over millions of years, continental drift carried the landmasses apart. Gondwanaland divided into South America, Africa, India, Australia and New Guinea, and Antarctica. Giant marsupials evolved to roam the continent of Australia: Among them were a plant-eating animal that looked like a wombat the size of a rhinoceros; a giant squashed-face kangaroo standing 3m (10 ft.) high; and a flightless bird the same size as an emu, but four times heavier. The last of these giant marsupials is thought to have died out 40,000 years ago, possibly helped toward extinction by Aborigines.
The existence of Australia had been in the minds of Europeans since the Greek astronomer Ptolemy drew a map of the world in about A.D. 150 there to balance out the land in the Northern Hemisphere. He called it Terra Australia Incognita — the unknown southland. Evidence suggests that Portuguese ships reached Australia as early as 1536 and even charted part of its coastline. In 1606, William Jansz was sent by the Dutch East India Company to open up a new route to the Spice Islands, and to find New Guinea, which was supposed to be rich in gold. Between 1616 and 1640, many more Dutch ships made contact with Australia as they hugged the west coast of “New Holland.” In 1642, the Dutch East India Company, through the governor general of the Indies, Anthony Van Diemen, sent Abel Tasman to find and map the southland. Over two voyages, he charted the northern Australian coastline and discovered Tasmania, which he named Van Diemen’s Land.