After several voyages from Holland to the Dutch East Indies (the islands mostly now known as Indonesia) he was put in command of the Duyfken (meaning "little Dove") in 1603.

In 1606 the the little ship set off to search for "south and east lands" beyond the furthest reaches of their known world. Leaving from Banda (Indonesia), Duyfken reached the Cape York Peninsula and charted 300km of the coast. This is the first historically recorded voyage to Australia. For the first time, all the inhabited continents of the world were discovered to the European science of geography.

Reaching eastward to the western side of what is now Torres Strait (separating Australia from New Guinea), the Duyfken turned south and sailed along the western side of Australia's Cape York Peninsula. Finding little of interest and finding no watering places along this coast, the ship turned toward home, calling the cape where the ship turned northward Keer-Weer, or Turn Again. The Duyfken returned to Bantam in 1606, two months before Torres sailed through and proved the Strait bearing his name.