Talk:European exploration of Australia

Map swap, and "James Cook impacts"
Just undid this edit and wanted to explain why:

So, material removed on these bases. Happy to discuss if required, and obviously keen the hear the point of view of the IP that added these points, in the spirit of WP:BRD. -- Euryalus (talk) 04:59, 11 September 2020 (UTC)
 * Restored Thevenot map : The Thevenot map works better at the top of the page than an image of Cook, because a) it better reflects the chronology of European exploration, predating Cook's visit by more than a century; b) it is representative of a more comprehensive set of explorations than Cook actually undertook in his brief voyage along the east coast, and c) a map from the age of exploration is a more comprehensive depiction of European exploration than an image of any single explorer. Cook was instrumental in enabling the British to "discover" Australia but he did very little to directly explore the continent. Further, this article is the "European exploration" not British exploration. Obviously the English were the bulk of subsequent settlers and colonists, but that does not invalidate the exploration done by other nations such that we should deprioritise them in the lead..
 * Removed a piped link from "James Cook" to impacts such as land clearing and hoofed agriculture : Cook had no role in either of these things, and they cannot reasonably be described as "his" impacts. Certainly they were done by colonists who came after Cook, but to retrospectively attribute those colonists' actions to him is an example of the fallacy of post hoc ergo propter hoc, or "A happened before B, therefore A caused B."


 * I agree on both points. Unfortunately, Cook is currently the bête noire of Australian colonisation, even though he didn't stay here for anything more than the minimum time needed to repair his ship, and had nothing to do with the later decision to sent the First Fleet. HiLo48 (talk) 05:16, 11 September 2020 (UTC)

This should be added in as well
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-53436225 — Preceding unsigned comment added by 93.122.251.10 (talk) 18:08, 6 December 2021 (UTC)

Lead
Hello all

I removed an unsourced paragraph from the lead about the impact of colonisation on Indigenous Australians. The lead is supposed to be a summary of the content of the article Manual of Style/Lead section, not a place to add unsourced tangential material. This article is about the exploration of Australia. The impact of colonisation on Aboriginal Australians is covered in numerous other articles such as History of Australia and History of Indigenous Australians.

Happy to discuss Aemilius Adolphin (talk) 02:57, 5 July 2024 (UTC)