CONCLUSION

The Dauphin and Harleian maps are of the Northern Territory from Joseph Bonaparte Gulf in the west to Groote Eylandt in the east.

It is not surprising that such maps should appear in the sixteenth century, the waters between Australia and the Indonesian Islands have for centuries seen mariners of various ethnicities and it was inevitable a reliable map would emerge possibly polished to final form by the Portuguese before coming into the hands of the Dieppe map-makers.

In summary the Dauphin and Harleian maps show that the Portuguese visited the northwest coast of Australia in the sixteenth century and Willem Janzoon was not the first European to set foot on Australian soil.

The main questions which remain are why the maps locate their subject so far from its actual position and what are the additional place names on the Harleian which presumably are of villages of the time on the north coast of Java.

We probably will never know but in the meanwhile it is important to have a clear understanding of what they represent and I say I have provided that.