Ancient discovery set to rewrite Australian history

[the_bob_delusion]

http://www.theage.com.au/national/ancient-discovery-set-to-rewrite-australian-history-20130519-2juck...

...........five coins were found in the Northern Territory in 1944 that have proven to be 1000 years old, opening up the possibility that seafarers from distant countries might have landed in Australia much earlier than what is currently believed
.

The coins raise many important questions: How did 1000-year-old coins end up on a remote beach on an island off the northern coast of Australia?

Did explorers from distant lands arrive on Australian shores way before James Cook claimed it for the British throne in 1770?

We do know already that Captain Cook wasn’t the first white seafarer to step on Australia’s shores.

In 1606 a Dutch explorer named Willem Janszoon reached the Cape York peninsula in Queensland, closely followed a few years late by another Dutch seafarer Dirk Hartog.

I was taught in school that James Cook was the first to discover Australia. Then I read about the dutch now this. It's kinda an eye opener when new evidence changes your world view. 

What have you found out now that were different to what you were taught in school?

[nevynreally]

There were litterbugs in this country prior to 1944.

Assuming they ended up here within a few years of being created is just junk science.

[the_hawk*]

From my memory Cook was the first to circumnavigate New found land, its stretching the memory bank back to my school days so I maybe wrong

[the_bob_delusion]

can't say I was actually paying attention in history classes. THought it did sounded weird if Cook discovered Aus when Aborigines were here 10000 yrs ago?:|

[the_hawk*]

Bob I think you will find back in the day it was a case of who had the biggest or best army took over the country.

If it hadn't of been the English it would have been the Dutch or the French

[joz*garage]

could be pirates hidden treasure, the coins happen to be 1000 years old, dont mean it was placed on the beach a 1000 years ago. Got a link bob?

[the_bob_delusion]

could be pirates hidden treasure, the coins happen to be 1000 years old, dont mean it was placed on the beach a 1000 years ago. Got a link bob?

I think the theory is it's such an isolated place that no one would go there just to place the coins there and it's more likely it was dropped when an explorer came by. 

[joz*garage]

just re-read the OP. Or the remains of part of a treasure that was put there well after 1000 years ago?

[just_me_karen]

Macassans were coming here for more than a thousand years, trading with northern Aboriginal people. There are wells, building relics, tamarind trees and remains of trepang processing things..and a massive picture made of stones that depicts their boats. Aboriginal people still do flag dances that celebrated their annual arrival. They were banned in WWII.

They'd come here with the trade winds and sometimes take Aboriginal people back with them. In the bicentennial year a group of northern people went to Macassar and met up with some of their relatives who'd married over there. 

[cherry*135]

can't say I was actually paying attention in history classes. Thought it did sounded weird if Cook discovered Aus when Aborigines were here 10000 yrs ago?:|

Britain claimed Australia under the doctrine of Terra Nullius - 

"land belonging to no one"

As there were people living here the British shouldn't have taken over the country but since Captain Cook's arrival they acted as if they were settling an empty land.

which is used in international law to describe territory which has never been subject to the sovereignty of any state, or over which any prior sovereign has expressly or implicitly relinquished sovereignty.

Sovereignty over territory which is terra nullius may be acquired through occupation, though in some cases doing so would violate an international law or treaty.

There is some controversy as to the meaning of the term. For example, it is asserted that, rather than implying mere emptiness, terra nullius can be interpreted as an absence of civilized society. The English common law of the time allowed for the legal settlement of "uninhabited or barbarous country"

The concept of terra nullius became a major issue in Australian politics when in 1992, during an Aboriginal rights case known as Mabo, the High Court of Australia issued a judgment which was a direct overturning of terra nullius.