History of Hobart - European Exploration

European Exploration

The Dutch crew of Abel Janszoon Tasman aboard Heemskirk and Zeehaen was the first group of Europeans to sight Tasmania. Leaving the Dutch colony of Batavia in Java (now Jakarta, Indonesia) in August 1642, they charted the Tasmanian coastline in November 1642 (though they did not determine that it was an island), and named it Van Diemen's Land, in honour of the Dutch governor of the Dutch East Indies, Anthony van Diemen. Although the ship did not contact the indigenous Tasmanians at this time, the sighting of the Dutch ships may have led to the creation of myths about spirits riding on great seabirds amongst the Tasmanians.

The next visit to the River Derwent was by the Frenchman Marion du Fresne who arrived in 1773 with the ships Mascarin and Castries. As French and British rivalries grew towards the end of the 18th century, both nations sent regular scientific missions to the region.

The English explorers Tobias Furneaux, aboard Adventure in 1773, and James Cook, aboard Resolution in 1777, both described the shores of the Derwent as a suitable location for resupplying and watering their ships.

One of Cook's Resolution crew in 1777, William Bligh, returned to the Derwent River for a second time in command of the Bounty on his fateful journey to Tahiti in 1788 that ended in mutiny by his crew. John Cox, aboard Mercury in 1789, closely followed Bligh. In the 1790s, the French and English continued to explore the area and chart parts of Tasmania's coast. William Bligh returned to the Derwent River in 1792, this time with the ships Providence and Assistant, again en route to Tahiti. He had been ordered to complete his previous mission of obtaining breadfruit from Tahiti for the West Indian plantations, and remembered the Derwent's favourable position to stop en route.

The following year, French explorers Bruni d'Entrecasteaux and Jean-Michel Huon de Kermadec, who were in command of Recherche and the Espérance sailed into the river and charted it more extensively in the course of their search for Jean-François de Galaup, comte de La Pérouse. He named the river 'Riviere du Nord'. During the stopover, his expedition also established a vegetable garden at Recherche Bay for use by future expeditions.

A few months later, the English captain, Sir John Hayes also sought shelter for his ships Duke of Clarence and Duchess of Bengal there. It was during this visit that Hayes named the river as the 'Derwent River', in honour of the River Derwent in Cumbria.

The next visit to the Derwent River came from George Bass and Matthew Flinders in 1798 and 1799, when they circumnavigated Tasmania aboard the Norfolk, being the first Europeans to prove that Tasmania was an island. British interest in the island then waned for the next four years.