Australia and the Enlightenment

According to Manning Clark, why had European explorers ignored the potential of the Australian continent before the first voyage of Captain James Cook to the pacific (1768-71)?

Manning Clark explores the social context of the exploration and colonisation of Australia, in particular as to why this ‘great southern land’ was left as a figment of the west’s imagination for such a long period of time. Clark describes this as being “odd” especially since “after the levels of the ocean rose, there was no geographical barrier to such an invasion.” He describes the fact that even the most ‘primitive’ of people with limited craft could have crossed over the straits from New Guinea or the Indonesian archipelago to the north coast of Australia. However, the ‘great southern continent’ was instead left practically untouched until the Voyage of Captain James Cook. Clark talks about an imaginary line that was drawn on the map between Timor and Macassar that basically marked the point where civilisation ended, and in its place, ‘barbarism’ began. Perhaps this assumption of something scary, unknown and ‘uncivilised’ plus the lack of need, both contributed to the lack of exploration of the area. However, over the course of the centuries, search for trade and goods mixed with a need to spread the word of god resulted in travel past the ‘inhabitable.’ The Dutch were the first to write actual accounts of ‘Australia’, however not giving the great south continent a good reputation. Willem Jansz recorded that “there was no good to be done there”, giving terrible accounts of the landscape. William Dampier emphasised this negative reputation of the landscape, animals and the native peoples, describing them as “the miserablest people in the world.” Between such accounts, it’s clear that Australia was not seen to be a desirable land, however, Dampier did express some hope for the continent in terms of trade within his books he released once back in Britain. All of the above aspects resulted in Australia being basically untouched for many centuries, until factors including ‘the enlightenment’ meant that Australia was given a second chance. Clark discusses the enlightenment as being a time in which the meaning of life was questioned and where Christianity and Religion in general had less and less power over people. Ways of thinking shifted towards science and exploration of the world around, but also the human condition, resulting in a higher civilization. This ‘higher Civilisation’ had no time for the superstitions of Catholicism and relished a lot more in trade and commerce, with individual profit providing much incentive. This new found interest in commerce mixed with a new ‘curiosity’ of the enlightenment meant that interest in the south seas were sparked again, in hope that the Dutch recounts were incorrect. In addition to this, technology was greatly improved within Europe, with superior shipbuilding, navigation and better general nautical knowledge. All these factors contributed to a sparked interest in exploration of the southern land, resulting in Captain Cook’s voyage between 1768-71.

 Botany Bay http://australianexplorers.tripod.com/maps.htm

This Map was first charted by Captain Cook in his exploration of the east coast of Australia.