This booklet is currently in draft: It will eventually form part of Version 1.0 of The North.
The transition from Mapping The NorthAdding Detail to comes with a bare outline covering most of Australia's coastline.
The ninety-odd years between Cook's track along the east coast and the first settlers' arrival in The North saw plenty of activity around the South Pacific.
The first decade saw James Cook's second and third voyages remove any remaining questions about a temperate Terra Australis Incognita. Any southern continent could only lie below the Antarctic Circle.
At the same time, Cook's passages through Polynesia added many new locations for European adventurers to investigate.
That process continued through the 1780s as Britain decided to establish a penal colony at Botany Bay.
That decision never involved a mere dumping ground for convicts.
At the very least, Botany Bay would become a self-supporting location where passing vessels could rest, refresh and resupply on their way into or across the South Pacific. Shipping bound for China would be safe from interference from France or the Netherlands at the Malacca and Sunda Straits.
From there, British activity around the Australian coast focussed on maintaining that security and seeking the river system that would deliver access to the continent's interior.
Tucked behind the Barrier Reef, The North did not figure in those calculations. Once Matthew Flinders found a passage through the Reef, the focus in Northern waters switched to Torres Strait.
By 1820, changing circumstances prompted a closer examination of Queensland's southeastern coast. John Oxley's investigation of Port Curtis and Moreton Bay prompted the penal settlement at Moreton Bay. Allan Cunningham's brought graziers onto the Darling Downs.
Still, as the blank spaces on maps of the continent's southeast corner slowly disappeared, Ludwig Leichhardt's expedition to Port Essington delivered tempting pastoral prospects in the Upper Burdekin. Edmund Kennedy's journey from Rockingham Bay to the tip of Cape York produced less. Still, it provided a degree of pathos to match the sorry saga of Burke and Wills.
Meanwhile, the rest of The North remained as a slightly more detailed outline.