By NOEL MURPHY
IT’S one of Geelong’s most persistent legends and, like most legends, might be based to some degree in fact.
But whether the Portuguese really discovered Australia in 1522, wintering in Geelong’s Corio Bay during the long journey, remains debatable.
Newtown’s Barry Abley, author of Terra Meridional, a fictional account of Portuguese navigator Cristovao de Mendonca’s arrival in Australia 150 years before captain Cook, is retelling the story at Geelong’s National Wool Museum next week as part of its Rumour Has It exhibition Twilight Muster talks.
The Mendonca story is linked to now-missing keys found buried deep at Geelong’s present-day Eastern Park in the 1840s.
Mr Abley said the keys’ parts and the depth at which they were found suggested they might have been hundreds of years of old.
“Given the fact the Portuguese were in Timor, it would be ridiculous not to think Portuguese didn’t explore the west coast of Australia at least,” he said.
Mr Abley believed the Portuguese might have crossed a 1494 “demarcation” line, dividing the then-undiscovered world between Portugal and Spain, to discover Australia’s east coast.
Australia’s east would have been in Spain’s territory, explaining why the Portugues might have kept their discovery “secret”.
“If they crossed into Spanish territory they wouldn’t be trying to make a big fuss of it or drawing clear maps of it,” Mr Abley said.
He will present Magellan or Magalhaes: Deception and Disloyalty at the National Wool Museum as part of a They left Nothing but Footprints symposium from 6.30pm to 9.30pm next Thursday, with bookings available on 5272 4701
