It's a little hazy as to when and by whom discovery was made of the Territory. It seems likely that it was the Dutch who first came upon the NT coastline. Certainly come 1642, Abel Tasman was voyaging along this coast. The early Dutch did not seem very impressed with the land they sighted, or at least they obviously felt there was little profit to be made from further exploration.

It was the British who organised a marine survey. And so it was that men like Flinders (1801 - 03), King (1818 - 23) and Wickham and Stokes (1837 - 43) all came to be sailing along this stretch of water. The reports made during these trips characterise the land as one of suffocating heat made worse by fever and flies. The British were keen to prevent the French from becoming interested and getting involved in the region. Hence the establishment of three military posts at Fort Dundas on Melville Island (1824 - 28), Fort Wellington at Raffles Bay (1827 - 29), and Port Essington (1838 - 49). As can be seen from the bracketed dates, these were not exactly viable entities and therefore led very short lives.

British interest in the area lost enthusiasm, although they were key players behind Leichhardt's 1845 trip from Queensland to Port Essington. Leichhardt and his party reached Port Essington after travelling overland from the Darling Downs with the journey having taken a total of just over one year. The British also instigated Gregory's journey from Victoria River to the Gulf of Carpentaria a decade later.

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