Early mapping

Captain François Thijssen, of the Dutch ship ‘Gulden Zeepaert’ (Golden Seahorse) and Peter Nuyts, a Dutch East Indies (VOC) merchant and Councillor of the Indies, charted 1800 km of coastline between Cape Leeuwin and Nuyts Archipelago. They named the area ‘Nuyts Land’. Until now, no-one had any knowledge of the south coast. The newly discovered coast is shown by Hessel Gerritsz as contiguous to the section discovered by the Leeuwin, the most easterly point of which was at Point D’Entrecasteaux or Point Nuyts between longitude 116° and 1178 E. The accurate representation of the Recherche Archipelago, the Great Australian Bight and the Nuyts Archipelago indicate the ship must have sailed within sight of the coast.