Backbencher

I thought that I had submitted this already but I was wrong. Lecture 3 is titled Discovery: Terra Incognita & Aotearoa. This section started out with the Vegemite Challenge. I personally didn't try any Vegemite or Marmite, but I did try the Tim Tams which were excellent. Dr. Isern sang Waltzing Matilda, Australia's national anthem, to us identifying different words as he went along. We discussed Beaglehole's definition of what makes a great explorer: Seamanship, Leadership, and Knowledge, all of which James Cook had. Magellan's interest in the spice trade helped him complete the circumnavigation of the world. It was this trip that brought about the concept that the Pacific was very vast and widely unexplored. It was the Dutch in 1581 and Dirk Hartog in 1616 who actually discovered Australia's west coast. Abel Tasman struck Van Dieman's Land in 1642. Dampier came across the west coast and struck Shark's Bay. Dalrymple published "fictional" books about this part of the world. James Cook led great voyages in the 1760s and 1770s and explored NZ and OZ. Jeffrey Blainey wrote The Tyranny of Distance discussing how distance shaped OZ's history and development. In modern times John Williamson asserts that he became native to Australia, and sang songs of Australia. Albert Namatjira also gives himself a sense of national identity by painting scenes of the outback such as gum trees. The thing that was most interesting about his paintings was that they were all from memory.

My only question for this lecture has to deal with how they navigated the dangerous oceans back in a time with no GPS, radar, and electronics. I guess I'm not too knowledgeable about the tools they used back then, but personally I think it would have been difficult and scary to travel days and days on the wide open ocean without the tools we have today.