If you watch long enough, you can see them twinkle.

Successive waves of sailors and settlers have navigated to our shores over thousands of years.

Australia has been 'discovered' many times, some of them recorded, some not.

This exhibition takes us from early contacts with Asia, like the Makassan trepang trade in northern Australia, through to the European era of Dutch, French and British explorers.

Follow the European story through historical maps and charts, instruments and paintings.

In this exhibition you'll also find one of the museum's oldest objects.

The Blaeu celestial globe dates from 1602 and was the first globe to show constellations of the Southern Hemisphere.

Exhibits include:

    * A piece from Captain Cook's ship HMS Resolution
    * A larger-than-life painting of the French in Tahiti
    * Artefacts recovered from Dutch shipwrecks
    * The 1602 Blaeu celestial globe