The geography of Western Australia has been of interest ever since the 17th century when the state was first visited by Dutch East India Company (VOC) explorers, traveling the shorter "Roaring Forties" route from Cape Town to Batavia (Jakarta) in what was then the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia). Lacking the ability to accurately measure longitude, it was easy to overestimate the distance required to be traveled with the consequence that arrival upon the western shores of Western Australia became a more frequent occurrence.