1522–1524

Possible voyage by Cristóvão de Mendonça along the east coast of Australia departing from Malacca in January 1522. He is thought to have sailed east, passing Timor and running along the top of the Northern Territory, heading into the Gulf and reaching Mornington Island. From there,  he may have run up the west coast of Cape York, through Torres Strait and onto the eastern coast. The suggestion from Peter Trickett is that Mendonça was sailed along the outer reef as far as Princess Charlotte Bay, where two gaps in the reef, each around three kilometres wide would have allowed him to turn in towards the coast. Trickett suggests a pause in the voyage at Princess Charlotte Bay while the ships took on fresh water.

There are various hypotheses as to how far Mendonça managed to get along the eastern coast, with McIntyre claiming he went as far south as Port Fairy in Victoria; Lawrence FitzGerald’s Java la Grande: the Portuguese discovery of Australia opts for Tasmania; Peter Trickett’s  Beyond Capricorn suggests South Australia ‘s Spencer Gulf in, and the North Island of New Zealand, but the main point is that assuming Mendonça sailed along the east coast of Australia, regardless of where he ended up he must have passed through waters under consideration here.













© Ian Hughes 2013