HOW DID A COCKATOO REACH 13TH CENTURY SICILY?

[spanishspy]

Images of a cockatoo in Frederick II of Sicily’s falconry book reveal how trade routes around Australia’s north were flourishing as far back as medieval times

[stevep]

Jun 25, 2018 19:47:28 GMT spanishspy said:

Images of a cockatoo in Frederick II of Sicily’s falconry book reveal how trade routes around Australia’s north were flourishing as far back as medieval times

  Very interesting.  I have read suggestions before that Chinese merchants and fishermen knew of the north coast of Australia and of course local people in what's now Indonesia must have been active but there seems to have been a distinct lack of actual lasting contact with Australia.  True the northern coastline is I believe pretty barren and the Great Barrier Reef may have made exploring the east coast difficult but you would have thought that someone would have traveled around more of the coastline and left some signs of trade at least.  Don't know if any aboriginal legends touch on anything like this prior to initial contacts with western Europe or if anyone else would have heard of anything?