Exploration Archives

Hidden women of history: Maria Sibylla Merian, 17th-century entomologist and scientific adventurer

by History Guild | Mar 8, 2023 | Social and Cultural History | 0

Reading time: 8 minutes
Most school kids can describe in detail the life cycle of butterflies: eggs hatch into caterpillars, caterpillars turn into cocoons and cocoons hatch. This seemingly basic bit of biology was once hotly debated. It was a pioneering naturalist, Maria Sibylla Merian, whose meticulous observations conclusively linked caterpillars to butterflies, laying the groundwork for the fields of entomology, animal behaviour and ecology.

Archaeology is unravelling new stories about Indigenous seagoing trade on Australia’s doorstep

by History Guild | Oct 3, 2022 | Political and Economic History | 0

Reading time: 6 minutes
It has long been assumed that Indigenous Australia was isolated until Europeans arrived in 1788, except for trade with parts of present day Indonesia beginning at least 300 years ago. But our recent archaeological research hints of at least an extra 2,100 years of connections across the Coral Sea with Papua New Guinea.

RESTORING ONE OF THE WORLD’S RAREST MAPS

by History Guild | Aug 24, 2022 | Political and Economic History | 0

Reading time: 4 minutes
In 1663, Europeans called Australia ‘New Holland’, New Zealand was considered one land mass and Tasmania had only been sighted by Abel Tasman – it would be another hundred years before Europeans would set foot there.

From ‘Australia’s Titanic’ to deadly mutineers: 4 infamous shipwrecks found on the Great Barrier Reef

by History Guild | Aug 3, 2022 | Social and Cultural History | 0

Reading time: 6 minutes
The Great Barrier Reef is incredible, with turquoise water, stunning reefs and white sandy cays. Yet its name infers something quite different – a barrier: treacherous, dynamic and dangerous to navigate.
For millennia, people navigated and traded across the northern coast of Australia and the Coral Sea.
When early European seafarers came face-to-face with the world’s largest coral reef system, it was not the beauty they saw, but a nearly unnavigable structure that could easily sink their ships.

Has Captain Cook’s ship Endeavour been found? Debate rages, but here’s what’s usually involved in identifying a shipwreck

by History Guild | Jul 28, 2022 | Social and Cultural History | 0

Reading time: 6 minutes
The Australian National Maritime Museum has announced a shipwreck found in Newport Harbour, off Rhode Island in the United States, has been confirmed as Captain Cook’s ship, HMB Endeavour.

The wreck of Endurance is a bridge to a bygone age, and a reminder of Antarctica’s uncertain future

by History Guild | Apr 15, 2022 | Social and Cultural History | 0

Reading time: 6 minutes
week broadcast around the world. Found by the Endurance 22 Expedition using a state-of-the-art autonomous underwater vehicle, we now have images almost as iconic as those taken of the stricken ship by Australian photographer and expedition member Frank Hurley in 1915.

A Voyage Towards the South Pole and Round the World – Audiobook

by History Guild | Jan 26, 2022 | Audiobooks | 0

On his first journey Cook mapped the east coast of Australia, on his second the British Admiralty sent him into the vast Southern Ocean. Equipped with one of the first accurate chronometers, Cook pushed his small vessel not merely into the Roaring Forties or the Furious Fifties but become the first explorer to penetrate the Antarctic Circle, reaching an incredible Latitude 71 degrees South, just failing to discover Antarctica.

Gregor MacGregor: History’s Greatest Conman

by History Guild | Aug 21, 2021 | Political and Economic History, Social and Cultural History | 0

Reading time: 8 minutes
In 1821, Gregor MacGregor, a seemingly ordinary man deceived banks, investors, the general public, and even European governments. He is ranked as one of the biggest conmen in history, perhaps the biggest conman the world has ever seen.