History of The Northern Territory - Makassan Trade

Makassan Trade

Traders from Makassar (now Ujung Pandang) began journeying to the north of Australia in search of trepang, which was prized for its culinary and medicinal values in Chinese markets. The voyages dated from at least 1720, although there are reports of visits perhaps 300 years prior to that, and extended from the Kimberleys in the west, to the east of Gulf of Carpentaria. The Makassans had extensive contact with the indigenous tribes of the Northern Territory, trading cloth, knives, alcohol, and tobacco for the right to fish in Territory waters and use aboriginal labour.