The European exploration of Australia encompasses several waves of seafarers and land explorers.

Although Australia is often said to have been discovered by Royal Navy Lt. (later Captain) James Cook in 1770, he is merely one of a number of European explorers to have sighted and landed on the continent prior to English settlement, and he does so 164 years after the first such documented encounter.

Nor does the exploration of Australia end with Cook; explorers by land and sea continue to survey the continent for many years after settlement.