sourced story
from at least the mid-1700sPeer-reviewed · 2 sourcesWell documented

Makassan trepang fleets begin trading with the Yolngu on the Arnhem Land coast

A trade partnership with Indonesian seafarers, running well over a century before Cook

On the timeline · around from at least the mid-1700s · European Contact and Cook's ClaimEuropean Contact and Cook's ClaimPenal Colony to FederationMakassan trepang fleets begin trading with the Yolngu on the Arnhem Land coast17001725175017751800

Quick facts

Traders
Makassarese and Bugis seafarers from Makassar, South Sulawesi
Trading partners
Yolngu people, north-east Arnhem Land
Duration
at least 1750s to 1906-07
Goods traded
trepang for cloth, tobacco, rice, metal knives and axes

What happened

From at least the 1750s, and by some accounts earlier, Makassarese and Bugis seafarers from Makassar in South Sulawesi sailed south each monsoon season to the Arnhem Land coast to harvest trepang, or sea cucumber, which they boiled, dried, and carried home to sell into the Chinese trade. The Makasar exchanged cloth, tobacco, rice, metal knives, and axes with the Yolngu people of north-east Arnhem Land, who in turn supplied labour and local knowledge of the trepanging grounds; some Yolngu even sailed to Makassar itself. The Makasar never settled permanently in Arnhem Land, but the trade left Yolngu ceremony, art, and language marked with borrowed words, including rrupiya for money, and metal tools that reshaped everyday Yolngu material culture.

Why it matters

The trade shows northern Aboriginal peoples engaged in a genuine two-way commercial and cultural exchange with Asia generations before Cook charted the east coast, complicating any narrative that Australia was isolated from the wider world until British arrival. Colonial authorities ended the trade after Federation: the new Commonwealth government banned Makasar fishing fleets under the developing White Australia Policy, and the last prau sailed for Australian waters in 1907.

How we know

The trade's timing and mechanics are documented through Dutch East India Company and British colonial records, Makassarese oral and written histories, and archaeological finds of trepang-processing sites and imported goods along the Arnhem Land coast.

Sources

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