Uncover the surprising history of trade and friendship between northern Australia and Asia before European settlement.
For centuries, seafarers from Asia journeyed across an ancient ocean highway to northern Australia. Macassan trepang traders sailed from what is now Indonesia in search of sea cucumbers-known as trepang. These voyages forged early links between Asia and Australia, shaping trade, culture, and friendship with Australia's First Nations peoples.
This engaging and accessible book explores questions such as: Did the Chinese visit Australia long ago? and Why was trepang so highly prized?
It takes readers on the journey of the Macassans, reveals how rock art records their visits, and explains why this centuries-long exchange eventually came to an end. The story concludes with The Trepang Legacy, showing how these encounters left lasting marks on language, culture, and memory.
Written for curious minds and students, Australia and China Before Captain Cook provides a clear and compelling introduction to Australia's earliest international connections. It highlights how trade and cultural exchange shaped history long before Captain Cook's arrival, giving readers a richer understanding of Australia's place in Asia and the world.
Perfect for classrooms, libraries, and anyone interested in Australia's hidden past, this first book in the Chinese Australians series brings to life a little-known chapter of history that continues to resonate today.
Marji Hill runs her art career alongside her career as an author. She is a highly respected international author as well as a seasoned business executive, researcher and coach.Marji is passionate about promoting understanding between Australia's First Nationspeople and other Australians. The spirit of reconciliation was fostered in all her writings ever since she was a Research Fellow in Education at the AustralianInstitute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies ( in Canberra.From 2008 to 2011, Marji was Deputy Chairperson of the Mosman Branch of Reconciliation Australia in Sydney. Following her Research Fellowship at AIATSIS in 1976 Marji, together with her late partner, Alex Barlow, produced more than seventy (80) books on all aspects of the First Nations people including the critical, annotated bibliography Black Australia.In 1989 she was the Project Coordinator and one of the researchers and writers of Australian Aboriginal Culture the official Australian Government publication on First Nations people.In 1988 Six Australian Battlefields was published by Angus and Robertson. A decade later it was re-published by Allen & Unwin as a paperback edition. Her nine-volume encyclopaedia, Macmillan Encyclopaedia of Australia's Aboriginal Peoples was published in 2000 and in 2009 she published The Apology: Saying Sorry To The Stolen Generations.Marji's more recent publications extend to self-improvementand self-help with books like Staying Young Growing Old and Inspired by Country a self-help book about painting with gouache.
