The Chinese - 1st non-indigenous Aussie visitors?

[roland]

An interesting subject for history lovers - The National Library has an article titled "Who Got to Australia First"

http://www.nla.gov.au/pub/gateways/issues/83/story01.html

A well-known archaeologist, Professor Wei Juxian, published a book titled Zhongguo ren fa xian Aozhou [The Chinese discovery of Australia] in 1960. Re-interpreting ancient Chinese classics and mythological texts, he proposed that ‘the Chinese people went back and forth to Australia from time to time from 592 B.C. to 1432 A.D.’ (English abstract, Zhongguo ren fa xian Aozhou).

from http://www.murumittigar.com.au/old/history/index.html

1401
Chinese sailors visit near Darwin, evidence of 15th Century Ming statuette found

I knew that the Dutch were here well before the Poms, but seems like we were close to being a Chinese colony at one stage.

The NLA website and URL listed above has some interesting links for further exploration.