17 Annex 17 – Evidence of Chinese Fleets visit to Australia – East Coast and Northern Territories Coastline

· Zheng He’s Charts (please refer to Annex 10)

“We can also see from the chart [Wu Pei Chih] the two routes along which Zheng

He’s Fleets returned to China, (1) via southwest Australia where they sailed

northward (Hong Bao’s Fleet) (2) one from the east: west of the Tiger Tail reef”

(Great Barrier Reef – Zhou Man’s route) – Professor Zhiqiang Zhang – Beijing, 28

August 2003.

· Australia appears on European maps of the Dieppe school published centuries before

Europeans reached Australia, viz. Desliens, Vallard (showing horses), Desceliers,

Jean Rotz (1540s).   These show West, North, East and South Australia

(to Warrnambool). Someone charted Australia before Europeans did so. Captain Cook

may have had a Chinese map (William Li).

· Australia appears on Jesuit maps drawn when in China and based on Chinese Maps,

viz. Father Ricci 1589 (Now in the Royal Geographic Society, London)

· Taiwan porcelain map (1447) showing East coast to Tasmania.

· Zheng He’s passage chart shows Barrier Reef (Martin Tai)

· Melchior Thevenot in Relations 1663 – Chinese aware of Australia – (M Righton).

· Hessel Gerritsz chart (1618) shows Australia (purchased Seville) – (M Righton).

· Australia shown on Wu Pei Chih (Sun Shuyun and Zhiqiang Zhang) (1422)

· Ma Huan ( Rosace = Australia = Darwin = Marani) (Martin Tai evidence)

· Old Chinese map of Australia disappeared from public viewing in National Palace

Museum in Taiwan. Liuqioqing

2. Chinese Records and Claims

· Chinese Premier Hu Jintao’s speech to Austrailian Parliament 24 October 2003:

“Back in the 1420’s, the Expeditionary Fleets of China’s Ming Dynasty reached

Australian shores. For centuries, the Chinese sailed across vast seas and settled

down in what they called “Southern Land”, or todays Australia. They brought

Chinese culture to this land and lived harmoniously with the local people,

contributing their proud share to Australians economy, society and its thriving

pluralistic culture.”

3. Accounts of contemporary European historians and explorers

Further research needed

4. Accounts of Local People

· Fraser Island – “small boats leave big ship”

· Gympie – “culture heroes sail into Gympie harbour and take away rocks”

· Dhamuri people – “foreigners land to build pyramids”.

South Australia

· Warrnambool – Yanguy tribe – Yellow people from shipwreck settle amongst them

and create eel farms.

· Aboriginals in far west of central Queensland still tell of how many “dreamtimes”

ago, strange yellow men came from the south looking for their homeland in the north.

They were sick with little food. They were cared for and never seen again when they

left for the north. (Brett Green)

· Cape York/Gympie (John Green’s evidence 1862)

· Arnhem Land – “Honey coloured people settle amongst us”, “Women in pantaloons,

men in long robes”

· Plank fastener of a wooden ship found on Lady Elliot Island, which is on the

lower end of the Great Barrier Reef off Queensland. It measures 125mm by 16 mm

and is either Brass or Bronze with a hammer-head. It has been mould poured and a

fastener of this nature indicates a large wooden vessel – Trevior R. Boyd

· ’Bajuni’ – boat people in Australia (Arnhem Land) in Chinese (Hokkien) joon = boat.

· Jack Loney, a prolific writer on wrecks around the Victorian Coast of Australia

writes of the tradition among the local Yangery tribe of “yellow men” having once

come among them, but when or where they came from no one could say. In later books

this has been changed to white skinned aboriginals with different features to the

local aboriginal population. More information on the traditions of the Yangery

tribe would be greatly appreciated. (Steve Black)

· A journalist tells us how in the early 1970s he was camped at Ngukurr, in

south-western Arnhem Land, Australia, researching Aboriginal ceremonial matters,

mythology, and customs. Often as he wandered on horseback with the Aborigines,

he noticed circular holes in the ground, surrounded by rubble. When asked about

their origin, he was told the holes were dug “long, long time back” at some

unknown period when the first ‘mununga’ (devils) invaded their country. They were

described as strangely-dressed men with slanted eyes who wandered all over the

countryside digging holes, then moving on. The word ‘mununga,’ is now used to

describe all non-Aboriginals. Many falsely believe it means ‘white man,’ but the

old people always insisted it meant a ‘devil-devil.’ In this same period the writer

was shown a place between Urapunga and Nugurr known to Europeans as “Hell’s Gate.”

It is a passage through a steep, rocky gorge. It was here, the Aborigines said,

that their forefathers attacked the ‘mununga’ with spears and killed some of them.

The strangers, they said, always travelled with loaded two-wheeled carts, pulled

by strange animals – Bryan Clark

6. Shipwrecks/ Chinese anchors and fishing gear

· South Coast – Warrnambool: Mahogany ships (1980 Symposium and Avis Quarrey’s

evidence)

· King Island (Bass Strait); Tasmania (Storm Bay).

· East Coast Byron Bay – remains 40 ft rudder. Wollongong (dated 1410).

· Wrecks of Indian Head (Bill Ward). Between Sydney and Wollongong on top of cliffs

(to come).

· Arnhem Land and Gulf of Carpentaria, anchors, fish hooks.

· Slipway – Trepang Bay, 131°55’ 30” E. 11°10’ 30”S – (David Crooks)

· Eel ponds near Warrnambool – (Dr. Heather Builth)

·Mahogany Ship, Warrnambool – Update

60-odd pieces of wood excavated 11 metres beneath a dune west of Warrnambool last

October. The timber analyst’s final conclusion is only that it is of the species

olea – a member of the olive family, which includes about 50 varieties in a wide

range of countries. This does not eliminate olea europaea, the classic

olive-bearing tree of the Mediterranean and Middle East, meaning that the samples

unearthed still might have come from a Portuguese Mahogany Ship. By the same token

it signifies that the wood could well have originated in East Africa or the

Sino-Himalayan region (where relatives of europaea grow) and could just as likely

been part of the supply vessel, that was sent eastwards along Australia’s southern

coastline by Hong Bao.

7. Chinese Porcelain and Ceramics

· Bradshaw, Elcho Island, Yirrkalla, Winchelsea Island, Cape York, Gympie, Tasmania.

· Chinese wine cooler, Fraser Island – (Brett Green).

· Blue and white shards in tsunami dumps on NSW coast – (Professor Ted Bryant)

· Palmer River goldfields- North Queensland – Chinese coins – (T Abramson)

· Large Chinese Blue and white jar unearthed in the Northern territory dated to

the early 15th Century and presently in the British Museum, London (Julian Byzantine)

8. Pre-Columbian Chinese Jade found in the wake of the Chinese Fleet

· Queensland – Buddah.

· Gympie (Brett Green) – orange-coloured jade carvings of bear/monkey/belt buckle.

Necklace of jade on silk cord.                                                                                                                                                                            · Chinese relics in a similar style to Liao Dynasty (and therefore Mongol type) found in Australia. Chinese rank jades on elaborate necklaces of stone beads. The blue beads could be turquoise from Central Asia. See the book ” Liao Chenguogongzhu Mu” or “Tomb of the Princess of State Chen” by Inner Mongolian Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, 1993 Cultural Relics Publishing house, Beijing ISBN 7-5010-0679-2/K 278 (Evan Alastair Morris)

9. Artefacts, gems, votive offerings, coins and funerary urns

· Incense Urn in the form of a ship’s anchor standing upright, topped by a bird with

wings out stretched around which a slender dragon is entwined – Warrnambool Australia (Patrick Connelly)

Two Chinese “teapots”, possibly wine coolers. Both can viewed at the following link:

https://www.gavinmenzies.net/gallery.asp?Section=Metal%

10. Stone: buildings, observation platforms and carved markers

· Observation platforms West of Blue Mountains: Penrith, Gympie, Atherton, and

Central NSW coast; a pyramid was known to exist near Gosford/Wyong, approx. 100km

north of Sydney. It was apparently closed off about 10 years ago by MacQuarie

University for excavations.

· Stone Cairns: Blaxlands Flat, Nymboida NSW – (A D Fletcher) and at Copmanhurst st

( E N R Fletcher).

· Stone buildings – Tin Can Bay, Gympie

· Stone Fort at Wolvi – (First settlers description Fred Dwyer/ Evan Depper)

· Stone Grinding Wheel, Wolvi

· Jetty, North Queensland Coast, 400m x 50m x 5m (depth) – Queensland Courier Mail,

11 Feb 2004 – (Sherenne Powell)

· Old tower found to the west of Townsville built of local stone and cemented together

with antnest material, the nearby creek is named aptly ‘stonehouse creek’. It is

said to predate the arrival of Cpt. Cook by 100 years. Disused mining sites close

to can be found. (Rob Talbot)

· A 50 kg obelisk shaped block dug up during excavation for foundations in low-lying

swampy area near Gympie. The stone is decorated with an inscription of a symbolic

sun and two bowing snakes facing away from each other. Archaeologist Bob McQueen

was quoted as emphasising that the inscriptions had not been carved by Australian

aborigines. The Hawaiians consider this symbol to be holy and according to the

Hopi Indians the sunstone was a symbol that could bring peace and wisdom to the world.

· Could the string of ‘Chinaman’s Wells’ along the Coorong, through the Limestone

Coast Region of South Australia to the Goldfields in Victoria have been constructed

by Chinese mariners shipwrecked off the coast of Victoria in the early 1420’s seeking

fresh water? (James H Davidson)

· We have received reports of a stone carved to look like a Chinese junk, found in

Salt Pan Creek about two kilometres from where it leaves the Georges River. It is

47 cm long. 28 cm high at the bow &16cm wide. We are awaiting photographs – Frank

Artlett.

11. Mining Operations found by the Europeans when they reached the New World

· Gympie – gold (Brett Green); antimony (Brett Green)

· Arnhem Land – lead, uranium

· Metalwork

Gympie/Fraser Island – bronze Chinese wine cooler (Brett Green).

12. Advanced Technologies found by first Europeans on their arrival

· Eel production near Warrnambool – Heather Builth

13. Plants found indigenous to another continent

· From China: Lotus and papyrus

· From China: Eclipta prostrata (false daisy) – Mark Parison

· From S America – 74 plant species.

· One part of the bay at Port Stevens, Australia is named Lemon Tree Passage due to

lemon trees being discovered by the first settlers in the area. This is just north

of Newcastle where the treasure fleet had stopped for mineral exploration.

(Gary Gaffney) Another reader (Katherine Bradley) has written in to inform us that

there is a native plant called a Cheesebush which is similar to a lemon tree.

Could the visitors have mistaken the cheesbush for lemon trees? Any further

information would be greatfully received.

14. Animals found indigenous to another continent

· Brumby horses of Fraser Island (originally from Tajikistan?)

· Asiatic Pigs on Kangaroo Island (Antonia Bowen-Jones)

· Tlightless Teal – Campbell Island and Auckland Island

· Chinese Pheasants – Rottnest Island

· Tasmamian Hen – Tasmania – (Wayne Robson)

·Australian Wood Rat – These curious rats are confined solely to Bahia Honda Key, FL,

and are now a protected species because of their small numbers and isolated location.

Maybe the Australian wood rats were on a Chinese Junk that sank or was marooned on the

Key. Maybe they were pets of the crew or kept as gifts or for the zoo in China. Can

anyone help us to find out more about these strange creatures? (W. Todd Robertson)

· Wild dingoes in on Fraser Island, the purest bred in Australia arrived 500 years ago

by a Chinese shipwreck (Walter Brennan)

· Feral pigs – A lot of research has been done into feral pig populations in

Australia recently. Most particularly this relates to the different sub species

present, and specific parasites carried by these pigs. It is interesting to note

that there is strong speculation that many of these species are believed to be derived

from Chinese or ‘Asian’ pigs, and are definitely not descended from European pigs.

Many of these colonies are now believed to have been established well prior to

European settlement. Research is ongoing. Equally interesting is research on

parasites recovered from non-European pigs in the Cape Tribulation area of

Queensland which are not otherwise present in Australia – Joel Murray

A reader, commenting on the works of Heironymous Bosch, says how in his “Garden

of Earthly Delights” (c. 1504) he depicts platypus and kangaroos, years before

the first Europeans “discovered” Australia. Furthermore there is what appears

to be an Australian magpie (gymnorhena tibicens) in the painting as well

15. Art

· Painting of a large Junk, Princess Charlotte Bay, North Queensland – (Paul Lewis)

· Paintings of men in ships, near Laura, Cape York, Qld– (Frances Osterfelt)

· Arnhem Land – Paintings of Chinese cavalry, 1540’s (Vallard)

· Painting of man being thrown from horse (Glenelg River)

· Drawings of trees, fauna and flora (Rotz), which are found in Arnhem Land

(together with written descriptions).

· Glenelty River – drawings of foreign sailors

· Cave paintings of junks, Flinders Island (Ian Bennetts)

· Supposed Aboriginal rock carvings in Berowra Waters, approx. 50 km north

of Sydney. The carvings are on a vertical slab (Aboriginals carved on

horizontal slabs), they consist of swirls & circles (unlike their paintings

Aboriginals almost always carved ‘scenes’, i.e. figures, animals, tools, etc )

& they are at the end of the ship navigable area of the inlet from the

sea, near the water, again rare for Aboriginal carvings. (Will Coles)

· Flinders Island off Cape York in Princess Charlotte Bay – Cave paintings

of Chinese junks.

· An old statue has been found near the Gympie Pyramid site which is

currently under archaeological investigation. The archaeologist in charge

believes it to be 600-700 years old and related to early Sino-Tibetan cultures.

It is to undergo scientific testing in the near future to establish more

accurate facts and origins – Brett Green

16. Chinese customs, games, clothes and legends

Further research needed

17. Armour, metal weapons, cannons and implements found

· Fraser Island is a sandbar, which is constantly moving.

This may explain how the cannons are on the Island now (Walter Brennan)

· Queensland – Fraser Island (J Green account in 1862) 1919 and 1972 photos

of cannon see gallery (compare with Nanjing photos).

· North Stradbroke Island, 18-mile swamp (270 30’ S, 1530 27’ E approx. position)

18. Diseases

Further research needed

19. DNA

Further research needed

20. Meteorological events and weather

Further research needed

21. Stars and Navigation

Further research needed

We await news about the carbon dating of a sample of this unearthed wood

that was sent to China. An alternative analysis may be done in Australia.

(Pat Connelly – Chair of Mahogany Ship Committee, Warrnambool)

Furthermore, we have been informed recently by a man living east of

Warrnambool that in late 2003 he found on a local beach a beam of wood

with odd markings. He said he sent a piece of it to Jugo Ilic, the

renowned timber analyst in Melbourne. Jugo Ilic sent it on to Canada

for further examination and the verdict was a timber called fortunes

China bells, from a tree, presumably native to China, which is now a

protected species because it is so rare.

We have also been told of a family legend which describes Alexander

Henry Smith (1852-1935) walking along the river near the beach, as a

child, where the “mahogany ship” was situated. He tripped over a metal stake

in the river-bank which was attached to a rope. He started hauling on the rope

and a box or trunk emerged from the water, only to slide back into the river

when the rope broke. Could the trunk have contained something of value

salvaged from the “mahogany ship”? – Merilyn Pedrick

Does anyone have any further details about a supposed Chinese junk

found buried in Stockton, a suburb of the east coast city of Newcastle,

Australia? Apparently it was uncovered during construction work several

years ago but was since covered up again during the middle of last

century – Grant Morgan