The Javanese presence in Australia has been reported by Southeast Asian and European people over several centuries. The most renowned record is from the itinerary of Chiaymasiouro, king of Demak, and Declaraçam de Malaca e India Meridional com o Cathay by Manuel Godinho de Eredia. Chiaymasiouro describes a land called Luca Antara southeast of Java, which Eredia coined with the term India Meridional (Meridional India - Southern/South India).Mills (April 1930). pp. 61–62. According to Chiaymasiouro's accounts from 1601, a subgroup of Javanese people had already settled in those lands, but when Eredia's servant went to Luca Antara in 1610, the land had seemingly been abandoned.
History
Pre-1500
Reference to Australia and native Australian people has been recorded in 10th century Java. According to Waharu IV inscription (dated 931) and the Garaman inscription (1053),Nastiti (2003), in Ani Triastanti, 2007, p. 39.Nastiti (2003), in Ani Triastanti, 2007, p. 34. the Mataram kingdom and Airlangga's era Kahuripan Kingdom (1000–1049) of Java experienced a long prosperity so that it needed a lot of manpower, especially to bring crops, packings, and send them to ports. Black labor was imported from Jenggi (Zanzibar), Pujut (Sarawak), and Bondan (Papua).Nugroho (2011). p. 39.Nugroho (2011). p. 73. According to Naerssen, they arrived in Java by trading (bought by merchants) or being taken prisoner during a war and then made slaves.Kartikaningsih (1992). p. 42, in Ani Triastanti (2007), p. 34.
1500–1600
Ludovico di Varthema (1470–1517), in his book Itinerario de Ludouico de Varthema Bolognese, stated that the Southern Javanese people sailed to "far Southern lands" up to the point they arrived at an island where a day only lasted four hours long and was "colder than in any part of the world". Modern studies have determined that such an island would have been located at least The original transcription is "The point where the shortest day would only last four hours would be 15° south of the southern point of Van Diemen's Land". south of the southernmost point of Tasmania.Jones (1863). pp. 248–251.
Around the second quarter of 16th century, several European maps included a continent called Jave la Grande (or La Grande Jave). In La Cosmographie, Alfonse defined La Grande Jave as an extension of the giant Antarctic continent, or Terra Australis: "This Java touches the Strait of Magellan in the west, and in the east Terra Australis ... I estimate that the coast of the Ocean Sea called the Austral coast extends eastwards to Java, to the western coast of the said Java"."Cest Jave tient en occident au destroict de Magaillan, et en orient à la terre Australle ... J'estime que cest coste de la mer Occéane qu'est dicte coste Australle se va rendre en Oriant, à la Jave, du cousté d'occident de ladicte Jave". Georges Musset (ed.), Recueil de Voyages et de Documents pour servir à l'Histoire de la Géographie, XX, La Cosmographie, Paris, 1904, f.150v, p399. and f.159r, p.427. See also the entry on Alfonse in Dictionnaire de Biographie française, Paris, 1933, p. 1491. Apparently in deference to Marco Polo's claim that Java Major was the largest island in the world, Alfonse gave the name Jave Mynore to the island of Java and the name La Grand Jave to the continental land to the south. Marco Polo's Java Minor, he called Samatrez (Sumatra). In La Cosmographie (1544), Alfonse said:La Grand Jave is a land that goes as far as under the Antarctic Pole and from the Terre Australle in the west to the land of the Strait of Magellan on the eastern side. Some say that it is islands but from what I have seen of it, it is terre ferme [a continent] ... That called Jave Mynore is an island, but la Grand Jave is terre ferme."Cest Jave est un terre qui va jusques dessoubz le polle antarctique et en occident tient à la terre Australle, et du cousté d'oriant à la terre du destroict de Magaillant. Aulcuns dient que ce sont isles. Et quant est de ce que j'en ay veu, c'est terre firme ... Celle que l'on appelle Jave Mynore est une isle. Mais la Grand Jave est terre ferme'. Jean Alfonse, La Cosmographie, 1544, f.147r, in Georges Musset (ed.), Recueil de Voyages et de Documents pour servir à l'Histoire de la Géographie, XX, Paris, 1904, pp. 388–389; also quoted in Pierre Margry, Les Navigations Françaises et la Révolution Maritime du XIVe au XVIe Siécle, Paris, Librairie Tross, 1867, pp. 316–317; cited in James R. McClymont, "A Preliminary Critique of the Terra Australis Legend", Papers and Proceedings of the Royal Society of Tasmania for 1889, Hobart, 1890, pp. 43–52, n.b. p. 50; and idem, Essays on Historical Geography, London, Quaritch, 1921, pp. 16–18.
Post-1600
Luca Antara Declaraçam de Malaca e India Meridional com o Cathay by Manuel Godinho de Eredia (1613), described what he called "Meridional India". In his book he relates about the voyage of Chiaymasiouro (or Chiay Masiuro), king of Damuth (Demak) in Java, to a Southern land called Luca Antara (or Lucaantara).Luca antara: i.e. Nusa antara, the southern land which Eredia claims to have discovered.
The name Nusa antara occurs in the Pararaton, a Javanese historical work of about the 16th century.
Blagden adopts Brandes' explanation that the expression Nusantara refers to the Archipelago in general. (JRASSB . No. 53. (1909). p. 144).
Crawfurd says that the expression Nusa antara denoted Madura. Janssen thinks that Eredia's Luca antara was Australia or one of the islands off the north Australian coast: Hamy considers it to be Sumba. (Janssen. Malaca, Vlnde Meridionale ei le Cathay. (1882). pp. xi, xii). Major thinks it was Madura.According to Ferrand, the word nusa is only used in Java, Madura, and Madagascar (nusi); elsewhere, island is generally represented by the name pulaw, pulo, or some dialectical variant thereof. (Journal Asiatique. Tome XX. (1920). p. 190). Nusa may be connected, through Sanskrit, with the Greek νῆσος (nesos). It would appear that the human tongue has a tendency to corrupt an "N" into an "L" thus "Nakhon" has become "Lakhon" (Ligor) and the Malay word nuri has become lory. Linschoten's map of the Eastern Seas contains the forms Lusa (Luca) and Nusa. A brief description of this country is given in a letter written by Chiaymasiouro to the King of Pahang and in a certificate made by Pedro de Carvalhaes at Malacca on 4 October 1601.Mills (April 1930). p. 3.
In part 1 "Concerning the Meridional India" Eredia mentioned that the Meridional India consist of the mainland called Lucach, which has a peninsula named Beach, and a country called Lucaantara (or Luca Antara). In the east of Lucaantara is two small island Agania and Necuran, and a larger island called Java Minor. To the west is Angaman Minor or Luca Tambini (island of women), and Angaman Major or Lucapiatto.Luca Tambini: Nusa (island) + Bini (female, women). Lucapiatto: Nusa (island) + Piatu (desolate). The lontares (lontar leaf texts) and annals of Java mention Meridional India and its commerce and trade.
In Report of Meridional India (1610) Eredia mentioned that in ancient times merchants carried on extensive intercourse and trade from Luca Antara with Java. This trade and commerce was destroyed for a period of 331 years; it ceased on account of wars and conflicts between the states. They were not able to communicate with each other until the year 1600 (this would mean that the communication was stopped in 1269). In that year, a boat from Lucaantara carried out of its course by a storm and landed in the port of Balambuam (Blambangan) in Java, where the occupants were well received.Mills (April 1930). p. 61.
The strangers from Lucaantara resembled the Javanese of Banten; but speak different language, which made Eredia believe that they were another type of Javanese. This incident excited Chiaymasiouro, which consequently embarked on a kelulus from Blambangan which has been equipped with oar and sail, to the south. After 12 days, he arrived at the port of Lucaantara, a peninsula or island 600 Spanish leagues in circumference., if a Spanish league is taken as . There he was received by the syahbandar (the king of the land was upriver in the interior, 8 days away),Mills (April 1930). p. 63. and stayed for several days.Mills (April 1930). p. 62.
According to the itinerary of Chiaymasiouro, Lucaantara should be the general name for the peninsula, which has a distance of about 140 Spanish leagues , if a Spanish league is taken as . from Blambangan. The account of Chiaymasiouro is as follows:Having equipped myself for travel and supplied myself with necessary requirements, I embarked with some companions in a kelulus or vessel provided with oars, and set out from the port of Blambangan towards the south. After a voyage lasting 12 days, I reached the port of Lucaantara; there I disembarked and was received by the syahbandar with demonstrations of pleasure. Being fatigued with the voyage, I was unable to see the King of Lucaantara, who was staying up-river in the Hinterland, eight days' journey away.
The King was advised of my arrival and presented me with some handfulls of gold coins resembling in appearance the gold "Venetian" of Venice.The Venetian Zecchino, cecchino, or sequin, a gold coin present on the shore of India, and which still frequently turns up in treasure-trove, and in hoards. In the early part of the 15th century Niccolo de Conti mentions that in some parts of India, Venetian ducats, i.e. sequins, were present (Yule and Burnell. Hobson-Jobson. (1903). p. 193). I was hospitably entertained as long as I remained in the country, and enjoyed the splendid freshness of the climate. I saw a considerable amount of gold, cloves, mace, white sandalwood, and other spices, as well as large quantities of foodstuffs of every kind which are produced in this country.
The island of Lucaantara is as large as Java,As large as Java island. If the accuracy of Chiaymasiouro be assumed, this disposes of the theory that he really visited some island of the Indonesian archipelago; Timor, the largest of them, is 1/4 the size of java; the islands off the north-west coast of Australia are comparatively insignificant in size. in which Blambangan is situated. The people are Javanese, as in our own Java, though their language is somewhat different. They wear their hair hanging as far as the shoulder, while the head is girt with a fillet of hammered gold. The keris is ornamented with precious stones, like the keris with the curved scabbard in Bali.
Speaking generally, the Javanese people of Lucaantara spend their whole time in sports and pastimes: they are especially addicted to cock-fighting. When it was time to start on our voyage, I requested the syahbandar to inform the King that the monsoon was now favourable for my return to my own country. Provided with a stock of necessaries, I set out from Lucaantara, and after a few days' voyage arrived at the port of Blambangan, to the great astonishment of the whole of Java.
— Letter of Chiaymasiouro, the king of Damuth, to the king of Pahang