Willem Janszoon
Dutch navigator in the service of the VOC (Dutch East India Company) and the first European to make landfall on the Australian continent. In early 1606, commanding the Duyfken ('Little Dove'), Janszoon sailed south from the Banda Sea, crossed the Torres Strait, and charted roughly 320 km of the western coast of Cape York Peninsula in Queensland. He encountered and clashed with Aboriginal Australians, suffering several casualties. Janszoon did not realise he had reached a new continent — he believed it was connected to New Guinea — but his voyage pre-dated James Cook's Australian landing by 164 years.
- Lived: 1570 CE – 1628 CE
- Nationality: dutch
- Roles: explorer, captain, VOC commander
