dirk hartog journey to australia

• Free general admission

Dirk Hartog lands off Western Australia

1616: Dutch navigator Dirk Hartog lands on the island off Western Australia that now bears his name

The Eendracht and the Hoorn leaving the port of Hoorn, Netherlands. Wikimedia Commons

On 25 October 1616 Dirk Hartog became the first European to set foot on the shores of Western Australia, and only the second to record encountering the Australian continent.

Landing on a rugged offshore island (now known as Dirk Hartog Island), he left a pewter plate describing his ship’s arrival and voyage.

English translation of the Dirk Hartog Plate, Cape Inscription, Western Australia, 1616:

1616. On the 25th October the ship Eendracht of Amsterdam arrived here. Upper merchant Gilles Miebais of Luick [Liege]; skipper Dirck Hatichs [Dirk Hartog] of Amsterdam. On the 27th October we sail for Bantum. Under merchant Jan Stins; upper steerman Pieter Doores of Bil [Brielle]. In the year 1616.

Dirk Hartog and the Dutch East India Company

Dirk Hartog was a successful Dutch private shipping merchant commissioned by the Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie (VOC or the Dutch East India Company) as a ship’s captain.

The VOC was established in 1602 to coordinate the activities of Dutch shipping companies in the East Indies (now Indonesia). The company was an official representative of the Dutch government and had the power to broker trade deals, administer ports, form its own armies and declare war with other countries over resources in the region.

The VOC became the dominant force between the Cape of Good Hope and the East Indies. It sent goods such as tea, coffee, spices, porcelain and precious metals from the East Indies and India to Europe until the company folded in 1799.

In 1606 another VOC captain, Willem Janszoon, had become the first European to map part of the Australian continent . Janszoon had sailed along the eastern coastline of the Gulf of Carpentaria and mapped the area as far as Cape Keerweer.

In 1616 Hartog was appointed captain of a newly built VOC ship, the Eendracht (‘Unity’). Departing on its maiden voyage from the Dutch port of Texel on 23 January, the ship was bound for the East Indies with a fleet of other VOC trading vessels.

Separated from the fleet by an Atlantic storm, the Eendracht reached the Cape of Good Hope alone. Hartog continued towards the East Indies using the ‘roaring forties’.

This route, pioneered in 1609 by Hendrik Brouwer (another VOC Captain), used the prevailing westerly winds between latitudes 40 and 50 degrees south to increase sailing speed, nearly halving the journey time from Holland to the East Indies.

Dirk Hartog plate. Photo: Frank Hurley. National Library of Australia obj-157586715

Dirk Hartog Island

In the 17th century there were no instruments to determine longitude, so deciding when to turn north towards the East Indies port of Batavia was an educated guess.

It often depended on sighting the Saint-Paul or Amsterdam islands, located about half way between the Cape of Good Hope and the west coast of Australia, but these were easily missed.

Because he did not accurately judge how far east the Eendracht had sailed, on 25 October 1616 Hartog found himself just off the western coast of Australia.

He soon landed on a rugged and uninhabited island (now called Dirk Hartog Island), and so became the first European to set foot on the shores of Western Australia, and only the second to officially record encountering the Australian continent.

Hartog stayed to explore the island for about three days. He and his crew found the island unsuitable for prolonged settlement or VOC investment, though they made note of a vast mainland in the distance to the east.

To record their visit to the new land, Hartog had a pewter dinner plate flattened and inscribed with details of their landing and further journey plans. This plate was nailed to a post and placed on high ground at the northern end of the island, a spot now known as Cape Inscription.

Leaving the island on 27 October, Hartog sailed north up the coast of Western Australia towards Batavia. Naming the continent Eendrachtsland in honour of his ship, Hartog used the voyage to create the earliest nautical maps of Australia's western coastline.

On 14 December the Eendracht reached the East Indies before returning to Holland nearly two years later. Hartog left the VOC but remained a skipper within European waters. He died in 1621.

After Hartog

Dirk Hartog’s plate remained undisturbed on the island for 81 years after his landing.

In 1697 another VOC captain, Willem de Vlamingh, came ashore and found the marker half buried in sand. Removing the degraded plate, de Vlamingh created a new one, copying Hartog’s inscription then adding the details of his own visit to the island.

De Vlamingh returned to the Netherlands with the Hartog plate, the oldest European artefact recovered from Australian shores. It is now held by the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.

In 1801 a French expedition led by Nicolas Baudin landed on the Island. The de Vlamingh plate was located by the young cartographer, Louis de Freycinet, who bought it back to the corvette Naturaliste . Captain of the Naturaliste , Jacques Hamelin, ordered de Freycinet to return the plate considering it poor form to remove it.

In 1818 de Freycinet returned, this time in charge of his own ship, and took the de Vlamingh plate back to France. The plate was misplaced until the 1940s when it was relocated and, after the Second World War, was gifted to the Australian people by the French government. The plate is now on display in the Maritime Museum in Fremantle, Western Australia.

Many other explorers also spent time in the area around Dirk Hartog Island after its namesake’s visit. In 1699 Englishman William Dampier arrived at the island during his voyage to explore and map the coasts of ‘New Holland’.

Naming the surrounding area Shark Bay because of the large number of sharks spotted, he spent a week in the region mapping the coast and collecting plant specimens.

In 1772 Frenchman Francois de Saint Aloüarn arrived at the island and delegated to a junior officer, Jean Mengaud, the task of claiming the western half of ‘New Holland’ for King Louis XV. Mengaud performed a ceremony, burying two bottles sealed with lead and French coins at Turtle Bay on the island. It was not until 1998 that the coins and lead seals as well as one bottle were recovered.

Fifty years after de Saint Aloüarn buried his bottles, Phillip Parker King, the English captain of the Bathurst , also made his mark on the island, inscribing his initials and the year 1822 on one of the remaining posts.

Cape Inscription, Dirk Hartog Island, Western Australia. Photo: John Mokrzycki

Dirk Hartog Island today

After more than a century of private settlement and sheep farming, much of Dirk Hartog Island has now become a national park. Some privately owned tourism businesses still operate there, offering accommodation, fishing charters, eco cruises and 4WD tours.

The island is also part of the Shark Bay World Heritage Site, acknowledging its special place in the history of European interaction with the Australian continent.

Digital Classroom

Explore free online learning resources on Australia's Defining Moments Digital Classroom.

• exploration
• australian history

Explore Defining Moments

You may also like

Dirk Hartog, Australian Dictionary of Biography

Dirk Hartog plate, Rijksmuseum

The Western Australian Museum (WAM) Shipwreck Galleries

Nonja Peters, The Dutch Down Under: 1606–2006 , University of Western Australia Press, 2006

The National Museum of Australia acknowledges First Australians and recognises their continuous connection to Country, community and culture.

This website contains names, images and voices of deceased Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

• Obituaries Australia
• People Australia
• Indigenous Australia
• Women Australia
• Labour Australia

Australian Dictionary of Biography

• person text
• Tip: searches only the name field
• Tip: Use double quotes to search for a phrase

• Date of Birth
• Date of Death

Cultural Advice

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people should be aware that this website contains names, images, and voices of deceased persons.

In addition, some articles contain terms or views that were acceptable within mainstream Australian culture in the period in which they were written, but may no longer be considered appropriate.

These articles do not necessarily reflect the views of The Australian National University.

Older articles are being reviewed with a view to bringing them into line with contemporary values but the original text will remain available for historical context.

Dirk Hartog (1580–1621)

by Phillip E. Playford

This article was published:

• in the Australian Dictionary of Biography, Supplement , 2005
• online in 2006

Dirk Hartog (1580-1621), mariner, was baptized on 30 October 1580 in the Oude Kerk (Old Church), Amsterdam, the Netherlands, second son and one of at least four children of Hartych Krynen, mariner, and his wife Griet Jans. On 20 February 1611, in the Old Church, Dirk married with Calvinist forms 18-year-old Meynsgen Abels. They are not known to have had children. At a time when Dutch spellings were not standardized, his name was variously spelled, including Hartogszoon, Hartogsz, Hartoogs, Hatichs and Hertoghsz as his surname, and Dirck or Dirick as his first name. He signed his name (in several extant documents) as Dyrck Hartoochz. In Australian history, however, he has become known as Dirk Hartog.

By 1615 Hartog had engaged on voyages to various European ports as the owner and skipper of a small trading vessel, the Dolphyn (Dolphin). In 1616 he was appointed to the Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie (United East India Co.) as skipper of the Eendracht (Concord) on its maiden voyage to the East Indies (Indonesia). It sailed from Texel on 23 January, carrying ten money chests containing 80,000 reals (pieces-of-eight), valued at about 200,000 guilders. The weather was bitterly cold and immediately before sailing twenty-one crewmembers and eight soldiers deserted by walking ashore over sea ice.

1616, 25 October, is here arrived the ship the Eendracht of Amsterdam, the upper-merchant Gillis Miebais of Liege, skipper Dirck Hatichs of Amsterdam; the 27th ditto set sail again for Bantam, the under-merchant Jan Stins, the uppersteersman Pieter Dookes van Bill, Anno 1616.

Leaving V.O.C. employment, Hartog skippered the Geluckige Leeu (Lucky Lion) on voyages to European ports. He died in 1621, in Amsterdam, and was buried on 11 October in the grounds of the Nieuwe Kerk (New Church). His remains were later removed to a communal grave field outside the city.

The Eendracht plate remained where it had been placed until 2 February 1697, when men of Willem de Vlamingh 's expedition found it lying beside a decayed post. Vlamingh replaced it with another flattened pewter plate, inscribed with a copy of the text on the old plate and a record of his own visit, and nailed it to a new post. He took the Eendracht plate to Batavia (Jakarta); from there it was transferred to the V.O.C.'s archives in the Netherlands and later to the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. It is the oldest known record of a landing by Europeans in Australia.

Hartog's discovery had a major impact on world cartography. Although Willem Jansz had charted the west coast of Cape York Peninsula some ten years earlier, that land was generally regarded as an extension of New Guinea. After Hartog's discovery, the mythical continent known as Terra Australis Incognita (the Unknown South Land) was replaced on maps by a major landmass called 't Landt van de Eendracht (the Land of the Eendracht ). Later discoveries extended charts of its coastline and the continent was later renamed Hollandia Nova (New Holland) by the Dutch, and Australia by the British.

Select Bibliography

• J. E. Heeres, The Part Borne by the Dutch in the Discovery of Australia 1606-1765 (Lond, 1899)
• G. Schilder, Australia Unveiled (Amsterdam, 1976)
• J. P. Sigmond and L. H. Zuiderbaan, Nederlanders ontdekken Australie (Bussum, Netherlands, 1976)
• J. P. Sigmond and L. H. Zuiderbaan, Dutch Discoveries of Australia (Syd, 1979)
• G. Schilder (ed), Voyage to the Great South Land, Willlem de Vlamingh 1696-1697 (Syd, 1985)
• J. van der Veen, Australië: Het Onbekende Zuidland Naderbij (Groningen, Netherlands, 1988)
• P. E. Playford, Carpet of Silver (Perth, 1996)
• P. E. Playford, Voyage of Discovery to Terra Australis (Perth, 1998)
• information from the National Archives, the Hague, and the Municipal Archives, Amsterdam
• private information.

Citation details

Phillip E. Playford, 'Hartog, Dirk (1580–1621)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/hartog-dirk-12968/text23435, published first in hardcopy 2005, accessed online 2 May 2024.

This article was published in hardcopy in Australian Dictionary of Biography , Supplementary Volume, (Melbourne University Press), 2005

View the front pages for the Supplementary Volume

© Copyright Australian Dictionary of Biography, 2006-2024

Life Summary [details]

1580 Netherlands

1621 (aged ~ 41) Amsterdam , Netherlands

Cultural Heritage

Includes subject's nationality; their parents' nationality; the countries in which they spent a significant part of their childhood, and their self-identity.

Popular searches

Popular pages.

A Chance Encounter: Dirk Hartog’s Landing in 1616

Commemorating the 400th anniversary of dirk hartog’s landing.

Four hundred years ago, Dutch mariner Dirk Hartog (1580–1621) sailed into history when, on 25 October 1616, he made the first documented European landing on the west coast of Australia. But while his legacy is preserved through the remote island that now bears his name at the entrance to Shark Bay, Western Australia, Hartog himself remains an enigmatic figure.

This evocative pewter relic provides tangible evidence of one of the earliest European encounters with the mysterious Terra Australis Incognita – the unknown southern land.

There are no known portraits of the Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie (Dutch East India Company) captain or his ship the Eendracht (Concord or Unity). At a period in which regional Dutch spellings were not yet standardised, his forename appears variously in the historical record as Dirck, Dirick or Dierck, and his surname as Hatichs, Hartoogs, Hartogszoon or Hartogh. Regardless of its spelling, four centuries on his name is synonymous with the inscribed ‘Hartog plate’ that marked his landfall at the far western edge of the Australian continent. This evocative pewter relic, now held in Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum, provides tangible evidence of one of the earliest European encounters with the mysterious Terra Australis Incognita – the unknown southern land.

Terra Australis Incognita

Ancient Greek and Roman scholars firmly believed in the existence of a southern land, based on the concept of a balanced globe. In the fourth century BC, Greek philosopher Aristotle declared that ‘there must be a region bearing the same relation to the southern pole as the place we live in bears to our pole’, while geographer Ptolemy of Alexandria, in the second century AD, hypothesised that the landmass of the northern hemisphere should be balanced by a similar landmass in the south. 1 Their ideas influenced the work of 16th-century cartographers including Gerardus Mercator and Abraham Ortelius, whose world maps depicted fabled southern lands that overflowed with gold and spices, and were derived from the tales of Venetian traveller Marco Polo in the 13th century.

The promise of gold and abundant wealth lured European voyagers to the southern seas – home to exotic goods such as tea, porcelain, silk and spices. At the end of the 15th century, Portuguese explorers discovered the seaway from Europe to Asia around the southern tip of Africa, and dominated this trade route for a century. But by the end of the 16th century, the Dutch and English were ready to challenge their monopoly. European interests were particularly centred on the historic Spice Islands (the Moluccas) in the eastern part of the Indonesian archipelago, once the world’s exclusive source of nutmeg and cloves. Here traders wrestled for control of the lucrative market in spices, which were in high demand in Europe as they had medicinal qualities, added flavour and zest to food, and also helped in food preservation (this was especially important in the days before refrigeration). It was against this backdrop that the Dutch government formed the Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie (also known by its Dutch acronym VOC) in 1602.

The Dutch East India Company (VOC)

Dese pascaerte vertoont de wegh, soo int heen als in het weerom seylen, die gehouden is bij het jacht Het Duijfien in het besoecken van de lands beoosten Banda, tot aen Nova Guinea (The discovery of Australia by the yacht Het Duyfien, 1606) , c 1670. Reproduced courtesy National Library of Australia.

The VOC brought together six regional chambers of commerce based in the coastal cities of Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Hoorn, Enkhuizen, Delft and Middelburg, and was governed by a board of directors known as the Heren XVII (Gentlemen 17). Exercising a mix of diplomacy, commercial pressure and military force, it developed into one of the largest and most powerful companies in the world, with fortified trading posts scattered around the coasts of Africa, India and Asia. The VOC’s activities were focused on discovering and exploiting new profitable ventures in the east, as opposed to acquiring territorial possessions. It was in this context that the earliest Dutch engagement with the Australian mainland and its indigenous inhabitants was established, when the VOC’s Willem Jansz, captain of the Duyfken (Little Dove), was sent by the Governor-General at Bantam (now Banten) to explore the legendary island of gold, New Guinea. In early 1606 Jansz charted more than 300 kilometres of the west coast of Cape York Peninsula, but found nothing to recommend it from a mercantile point of view. He was unaware that he had made the first documented European sighting of the unknown southern land, regarding it instead as an extension of New Guinea.

In 1619 the VOC consolidated its position in the East Indies by establishing a permanent base at Batavia (now Jakarta, Indonesia), following Governor-General Jan Pieterszoon Coen’s conquest of Jacatra. The walled city, crisscrossed by canals reminiscent of Holland, was home to bureaucrats, merchants, mapmakers, soldiers and shipwrights. By 1700 Batavia had a population of about 70,000 people, 6,000 of whom were Europeans. The VOC dominated the commerce of the Far East until it was eclipsed by the British East India Company in the 18th century.

A new route to the East

Matthys Balen, Portrait of Henrik (Hendrik) Brouwer, Governor General of the Dutch East Indies , 1632–1636, 1726. ANMM Collection 00008301.

Between 1595 and 1795, Dutch ships made nearly 4,800 voyages across the Indian Ocean on their way to the Spice Islands, originally taking up to a year to sail one way from Europe to Asia. During this time the protracted journeys, cramped conditions and equatorial heat took their toll on seafarers. In 1610–11 Hendrik Brouwer, commander and later Governor-General of the East Indies, pioneered a faster sea route that utilised the westerly winds of the Southern Ocean between latitudes 35° and 40° south, rather than the more traditional northerly routes across the Indian Ocean. The Brouwer route instructed ships to maintain an easterly course for at least a thousand mijlen (an old Dutch mile, equivalent to approximately four modern nautical miles), or about 7,400 kilometres, after rounding the Cape of Good Hope, before heading north towards the Sunda Strait between Sumatra and Java. In doing so VOC ships could halve their sailing time, so reducing the risk of infectious disease and death among the crew, while also giving the company a distinct advantage over its competitors. The Brouwer route was officially adopted by the VOC in its 1617 seynbrief (sailing instruction):

… not only because this route has a wide sea, free of all rocks and shoals, a cooler climate which is healthier for the people and is better to prevent heat and decay of the victuals and the cargo, but also because steady Westerly winds blow here and because the degrees are considerably shorter, so that one makes up for the distance apparently lost in this route by looking for the Westerly winds and having to sail back North again. 2

The main navigational problem with the Brouwer route was working out when to turn north. The only orientation points on the way were the small islands of St Paul and Amsterdam at about 700 mijlen . While navigators were able to ascertain their latitude (distance north or south of the equator) by this time, there was no reliable method for determining longitude (distance east or west of a given point) at sea until the development of the marine chronometer in the 18th century. Thus a consequence of the new route was that VOC ships might sooner or later come into contact with the west coast of Australia. The wrecks of a number of VOC ships dotted along the treacherous western seaboard attest to the early Dutch presence in the Indian Ocean, as does a most curious encounter at a prominent, but isolated, headland on Western Australia’s largest island. 3 Today it is known as Dirk Hartog Island, named after the first recorded European to set foot on it in October 1616.

 Map of the Shark Bay area in Western Australia. Reproduced courtesy Wikimedia.

• Aristotle, Meteorology , Book II, Part 5.
• J P Sigmond and L H Zuiderbaan, Dutch Discoveries of Australia: Shipwrecks, Treasures and Early Voyages off the West Coast , Batavian Lion, Amsterdam, 1995, p 33.
• The wrecks include Batavia (1629), Vergulde Draeck (1656), Zuytdorp (1712) and Zeewijk (1727).

NEXT CHAPTER

Search for the Great South Land

Kim is the curator of post-Federation immigration at the Australian National Maritime Museum.

Dirk Hartog: The Tale of Two Plates

This resource has been generously supported by the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Australia, to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the arrival of Dirk Hartog on the West Australian coast in 1616.

(1950).  [Replica of the Vlamingh Plate] [realia] . http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-135734827

As captain of the newly built Eendracht , Dirk Hartog was bound for the East Indies in 1616, along with other VOC ships. Separated from those ships in a storm, and seeking to shorten his sailing time to Batavia, Hartog used the strong winds of the ‘roaring forties’. Finding himself off course, Hartog made contact with the West Australian coast. This was the second time Europeans had landed on the continent of Australia.

Hartog spent three days exploring the area now known as Dirk Hartog Island. He declared the area inhospitable and of no use to the VOC in their quest for trading goods and world domination. Hartog recorded the existence of a large continent to the East and named this continent ‘Landt van d’ Eendracht ’after his ship. Flattening a pewter dinner plate, Hartog inscribed it with the details of his arrival. He nailed it to a post, in an area now known as Cape Inscription, and continued up the coast of Western Australia, charting the area for the first time before heading to Batavia.

The plate remained there, until 1697, when fellow Dutch Captain Willem de Vlamingh visited the island, finding the plate weathered and half-buried. He took the plate and replaced it with his own. On this new plate, Vlamingh copied the transcription left by Hartog, and added in the details of his own visit.

Vlamingh’s plate remained untouched until 1801, when two French ships, the Naturaliste led by Jacques Hamelin and the Géographe led by Nicolas Baudin, visited the island. Louis de Freycinet, a young cartographer of the French navy, removed Vlamingh’s plate, only to be ordered to return it by Captain Hamelin.

Later in 1818, when Freycinet was himself a captain of his own ship, the Uranie , he returned to Dirk Hartog Island and took the plate again. With no-one to order him to return it, he took his prize back to France. For some time, it sat unnoticed on a shelf among some copper plates at the Académie Française. It was discovered in 1940, in storage in the Musée de l’Homme in Paris, and returned to Australia by the French Government.

The National Library of Australia’s collection includes this replica plate of the original Vlamingh plate, which is now stored in the collection of the Western Australian Maritime Museum.

1. Have students create a timeline of the many visits that were made to Dirk Hartog Island between 1606 and 1818. Have them consider: 

• How many visitors were there to Shark Bay in the 212 years between 1606 and 1818?
• What nationalities were represented on those visits?
• Did any of the visitors make a claim to the land? Why or why not?
• Who did the land belong to?

2. Show students the original plate held in the Rijksmuseum , and the replica of the Vlamingh plate held in the National Library of Australia .

Tell them that Hartog chose to use pewter to record his visit to the Western Australian coast. Have them investigate: 

• What is pewter?
• What purposes did it have in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries?
• Why do you think Hartog used pewter?
• Why do you think Hartog left the plate?
• What did he write on the plate?
• What did Vlamingh write on his plate?
• What are the differences between the two plates?

3. 2016 is an important year in Australian history, marking 400 years since the arrival of Dirk Hartog in Western Australia. Have students investigate what special events are planned to commemorate this anniversary. In doing so, have them ask: 

• What are the planned celebrations in 2016?
• What name do we give to a 400 year anniversary?
• How has Dirk Hartog Island changed in those 400 years?
• What are the future plans for Dirk Hartog Island and why?

4. Have students imagine that they are the first explorers on a newly discovered planet. Having arrived in a previously uncharted area, they are going to leave their mark on history with an object or long-lasting record for posterity. Have them think about the following: 

• What will you need to consider in terms of where you leave your object?
• What should you think about in terms of the conditions on that planet?
• What material are you going to use and why?
• What information are you going to include and why?
• What are the reasons for leaving behind a record of your visit?

Ask students to illustrate their object, including any writing or markings on it, and display their work in the classroom.

5. Have students look closely at these two maps created by Vlamingh when he visited the West Australian coast in 1697. These maps were so accurate that Matthew Flinders used them to complete his own map of Australia in 1814.

Links here: http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-231306558/view http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-231306393/view

Ask them to find the relevant areas on Google Maps.

Investigate the Vlamingh maps with the following questions: 

• Are the maps accurate? Why or why not?
• What challenges do you think Dutch explorers faced when charting new territories?
• Why did Vlamingh call the island near Perth, ‘Rottnest’?
• Where exactly did Vlamingh explore?
• Why was Vlamingh visiting the West Australian coast? 

6. Students can then look at Freycinet’s map of the Shark Bay area, from his first visit in 1803 and an image from his 1818 visit to the same area.

Links here: http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-230976159/view http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-135928443/view

Use the images as inspiration for a larger enquiry about Freycinet’s visits to the area. Ask students to investigate the images with the following questions:

• What did Freycinet find there in 1803?
• What did he find there in 1818?
• What did he do with what he found? Why do you think he did that?
• What did Freycinet call the land that he was visiting? Who does he reference on the map?
• What appears to be happening in the scene with the local Indigenous people?
• What happened on Freycinet’s voyage back to France?
• He took something else on that voyage, which was out of the ordinary – can you find out more?

7. Have students write a narrative from the point of view of the Indigenous people in the 1818 Freycinet image. Have them consider their feelings about the encounter and what was exchanged.   8. Dirk Hartog left a legacy behind him—not only a pewter plate, but a destination for future ships from other countries, such as France and England. In 1772, the first French vessel visited Dirk Hartog Island.   Have students research the journey of Frenchman François de Saint Aloüarn, including his claim of the western half of Australia for France, and his death on his return voyage. Conduct a debate in your classroom on the topic: ‘Western Australia actually belongs to the French’. You should encourage your students to consider the viewpoints of all groups with interest in Australia—the Indigenous people, the English, the French and the Dutch.   9. Hartog’s original plate now resides in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam as the earliest artefact of European visitation to Australia. The original Vlamingh plate is held at the Western Australian Maritime Museum; however, this wasn’t always the case. The Vlamingh plate has moved from Australia to France, and back to Australia. Using TROVE, have students research the story of the Vlamingh plate, and its return to Australia from France in the 1940s. In searching for newspaper articles about the event, have students consider the following questions:

• What should govern where an item of such significance is held?
• What was the reasoning given by Western Australia for being the rightful owners of the Vlamingh plate?
• What was given to the National Library in exchange for the plate?
• Where do you think the plate should be held and why?

Other Digital Classroom sources that relate to the concepts explored in this source include:  Indigenous Experiences   and  Early Explorers . 

The National Library of Australia acknowledges Australia’s First Nations Peoples – the First Australians – as the Traditional Owners and Custodians of this land and gives respect to the Elders – past and present – and through them to all Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

Cultural Notification

Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are advised that this website contains a range of material which may be considered culturally sensitive including the records of people who have passed away.

This website has been archived and is no longer updated.

Nsw migration heritage centre, documenting australia's migration history.

1616 Dirk Hartog Plate

Collection Rijksmuseum, Netherlands.

Object Name Dirk Hartog plate.

Object Description Dirk Hartog landed at Shark Bay, Western Australia in 1616 and left this pewter plate with an inscription detailing their voyage and destination. Another Dutch explorer, William de Vlamingh, landed at the same spot 1697 and put another plate there with the original inscription and added one of his own. Vlamingh took the original plate back to the Netherlands. The original Hartog plate is in the Rijksmuseum in the Netherlands. The Vlamingh plate was later removed by French explorer, Lois de Freycinet in 1827 and the French government presented the plate back to Australia on the 28th of May 1947. Dimensions: 36.5mm.

Shark Bay has a unique place within Australia’s European history, as it is the site of the first recorded European landing on Australian soil. Captain Dirk Hartog arrived on the Eendracht on October the 25th 1616. Hartog acknowledged the landing by nailing an inscribed pewter plate to a wooden post at the site now known as Cape Inscription. The inscription read;

1616. On the 25th October the ship Eendracht of Amsterdam arrived here. Upper merchant Gilles Miebais of Luick (Liege); skipper Dirck Hatichs (Dirk Hartog) of Amsterdam. On the 27th ditto we sail for Bantum. Under merchant Jan Stins; upper steerman Pieter Doores of Bil (Brielle). In the year 1616.

In 1697 Dutch Captain William de Vlamingh landed at Cape Inscription and found Dirk Hartog’s plate, though the plate was badly weathered and the post had almost rotted away. Vlamingh copied the record on to another plate, added his own inscription and nailed the plate to a new post that he erected. Vlamingh took the Hartog plate back to the Netherlands. Vlamingh’s inscription read.

1697 The 4th February is here arrived the ship The Geelvinck for Amsterdam. The Commodore and Skipper William De Vlamingh of Vlielandt, Assistant Joannes Bremer of Copenhagen Upper Steersman Michil Bloem of The Bishopric of Bremen The Hooker The Nyptangh Skipper Gerrit Colaart of Amsterdam Assit Theodoris Heirmans Ditto Upper Steersman Gerrit Geritson of Bremen The Galliot The Weeseltie Commander Cornelis De Vlamingh of Vlielandt Steerman Coert Gerritsen of Bremen Sailed from Here with our fleet the also The Southland Further to Explore and Bound for Batavia.

In August 1699 Captain William Dampier anchored in Shark Bay and surveyed the northern end of Dirk Hartog Island. He spent nine days in the Shark Bay area before sailing north around North West Cape.

In 1772 Captain Alesne de Saint – Allouran landed on Dirk Hartog Island in Shark Bay and claimed it in the name of the King of France. To validate France’s claim he buried a parchment and two French coins in a bottle that were discovered in 1998.

In 1801 Captain Hamelin on the Naturalist , a ship from a French expedition led by Nicholas Baudin, entered Shark Bay and a party was sent ashore. By chance the party found the Vlamingh memorial of Dirk Hartog’s previous visit, though the plate was almost buried in the sand. When the party returned the plate to the ship, Hamelin ordered it to be returned, considering it somewhat sacrilegious to have removed it. One of Hamelin’s officers, Louis de Freycinet, felt that this action was inappropriate and that such a trophy should be taken and returned to Europe.

In 1818 Freycinet returned to Shark Bay, in command of his own vessel, and was able to find the plate still in place at Cape Inscription. He removed the plate and returned it to Europe where it was presented to the French Academy in Paris.

The Vlamingh plate then disappeared for more than a century until it was rediscovered in 1940 on the bottom shelf of a small room of the French Academy mixed up with old copper engraving plates.

The Hartog Plate sets the moment in time when the existence of the speculated south land was realised. It tells of the early Dutch presence in the Indian Ocean, its trade with Java and the subsequent mapping and exploration of the Australian west coast and Tasmania.

Bibliography

Coupe, S & Andrews M, 1992, Their Ghosts May Be Heard: Australia to 1900 , Longman Cheshire, Sydney.

Heritage Office & Dept of Urban Affairs & Planning, Sydney, 1996, Regional Histories of New South Wales , Sydney.

www.nla.gov.au/exhibitions/southland/Char-Dirk_Hartog.html

www.anmm.gov.au/sample_navigators.htm

Crown copyright 2006©

• Bookmark on Delicious
• Recommend on Facebook
• Share with Stumblers
• Tweet about it

The Migration Heritage Centre at the Powerhouse Museum is a NSW Government initiative supported by the Community Relations Commission. www.migrationheritage.nsw.gov.au

Regional Services at the Powerhouse Museum is supported by Movable Heritage, NSW funding from the NSW Ministry for the Arts.

First contact between the Dutch and the Aboriginal People

Published by dacc on february 25, 2023 february 25, 2023.

The first known Dutch encounters with the Aborigines in Australia took place during the 17th century, when Dutch ships were looking for new trading opportunities and made voyages of discovery to the region now known as Australia.

It’s worth noting, however, that the lack of recorded incidents does not mean that there were no other instances of contact and/or conflict between the Dutch and the Aboriginal people apart from the ones mentioned below. Many historical records from this time are incomplete, and Indigenous perspectives and experiences were often not recorded or acknowledged.

The interactions between the Dutch explorers and the Aborigines did influence later European explorations.

The Duyfken – 1606

The first documented contact took place in 1606 when Willem Janszoon arrived on the west coast of the Cape York Peninsula. His ship, the Duyfken , was the first European ship to reach the Australian coast. Janszoon and his crew went ashore and probably met the Yolngu community of the region. There are no written records of this meeting, but according to oral traditions of the Yolngu, Janszoon was described as a “little man” with “red hair” and “white skin”.

In case of the loss of live of sailors of the Duyfken during the expedition also that information is not totally clear. What is more or less certain is that 9 sailors lost their lives.

There is the recorded story of the Aboriginal elder Jack Spear Karntin, who lived near Cape Keerweer. He claims that during a fight 9 Dutchies and a large number of aboriginals were killed. However not all aboriginal stories are similar. Combining all the stories, including what is known from scattered Dutch archives, it looks most likely that at least one sailor was killed (speared by aboriginals) near Batavia River and likely at least 3 sailors killed near Cape Keerweer.

On the return journey the Duyfken anchored near Frederik Hendrik Island in Dutch New Guinea (now Indonesian west New Guinea). When trying to get firewood and water a scuffle erupted with the locals. Some sailors were killed, which brought the total to 9. So the most likely conclusion is that a minimum of 4 sailors were killed by aboriginals and a maximum of 5 sailors lost their lives at the hand of people from New Guinea.

There is no information how many Aboriginal people were killed during these encounters. But below is an interesting art work that includes the first contact with the Duyfken from an Aboriginal perspective.

Dirk Hartog – 1616

In 1616, Dutch captain Dirk Hartog landed on an island off the coast of Western Australia, now known as Dirk Hartog Island. He planted a pole with an inscription to mark his arrival. There is no documentation of his encounters with the Aboriginal people on the island.

Abel Tasman 1642 – 1644

In 1642, Dutch explorer Abel Tasman explored the coasts of Tasmania and the southern part of Australia, which he called “New Holland”. Tasman had a number of violent confrontations with the Aboriginal people.

During his journey to the Tasman Sea, Tasman had no contact with the indigenous people. However, he reached the west coast of Tasmania and the south coast of Australia, where he had several meetings with Aboriginal people. It is not known exactly which tribe or community he met, as he did not leave notes on his observations of the indigenous people.

In his first meetings with the Aborigines, there was curiosity on both sides. Tasman offered mirrors and other gifts, and the Aboriginal people responded by giving spears and animal skins. However, after a few days, the atmosphere between the two groups changed. Tasman reportedly tried to capture some Aboriginal people to question them about the region and its inhabitants, which the Aboriginal people considered threatening and aggressive.

In a later encounter, the Aborigines threw spears at Tasman and his crew, killing one sailor and injuring several others. Tasman then ordered his crew to return to their ship and leave the Aborigines alone. The confrontations with the Aborigines during Tasman’s expedition left a lasting impression on the Dutch navigator and he warned other sailors of the hostility of the Australian indigenous

William de Vlamingh – 1696

In 1696, the Dutch captain William de Vlamingh landed in Western Australia.

On 10 January 1697, he ventured up the Swan River. He and his crew are believed to have been the first Europeans to do so. They are also assumed to be the first Europeans to see black swans, and De Vlamingh named the Swan River (Zwaanenrivier in Dutch) after the large number they observed there. The crew split into three parties, hoping to catch an Aborigine, but about five days later they gave up their quest to catch a “South lander”.

The Vergulde  Draeck   – 1656

On the night of the 28 April 1656, the Vergulde Draeck struck a submerged coral reef midway between what are now the coastal towns of Seabird and Ledge Point, Western Australia.

A rescue mission was launched from Batavia. On 9 March 1658, Captain Jonck of the Emeloordt managed to send a small party to land. Upon returning, the shore party reported having seen three Aboriginal natives of tall stature who attempted to communicate with them using basic hand signals. This story of ‘first contact’ was a peaceful exchange, likely with the Yuet people of Western Australia.

First contact – Aboriginal Rock Art

There is rich evidence of European contact through the dozens of rock arts depicting European boats and people. However, it is not always clear which ships are depicted and with country they represented.

The rock art to the left is known as the ‘Mystery Ship of Walga Rock’. It lies more than 350 km inland from the nearest place of the Western Australian coast.

Some people believe the picture is of one of the long-lost Dutch ships which came to grief off Western Australia’s rugged coast in the 17th Century. The VOC ships Batavia and Zuytdorp head the list.

It is possible these men may have been taken in by local Aborigines and followed the Murchison River inland to the Wajarri people’s land and made the painting.

Of course it could also depict on other European vessel and the discussion about this continues .

Related Posts

Cultural Events and Activities

Organising dutch speech competitions.

We received an email with this Facebook post from the Dutch Community in New Zealand, with the suggestion that this perhaps is also an idea for Dutch organisations in Australia. Dutch Clubs and Dutch Language Read more…

Book Library

Dacc – primary research projects.

The following breakdown provides a comprehensive overview of completed and ongoing research projects in the field of DACC. Allies in a Bind: Australia and the Netherlands East Indies in the Second World War Australia Explained: Read more…

Migration history

Michaël “sjel” de bruyckere: a football journey from the netherlands to australia.

Michaël “Sjel” (Mike) de Bruyckere, born in Kaatsheuvel, the Netherlands, on 6 February 1928, was a remarkable Dutch and Australian footballer whose legacy extended beyond the pitch. Early Years and Dutch Success. De Bruyckere commenced Read more…

Queensland and NSW floods 2022

Visit recovery.gov.au to see what help is available.

National Heritage Places - Dirk Hartog Landing Site 1616 - Cape Inscription Area

National Heritage List inscription date 6 April 2006

Cape Inscription is the site of the earliest known landings of Europeans on the western coast of the Australian continent. Notable explorers landed there from 1616 and conducted surveys and work over a 250-year period. This process changed world cartography and these navigators literally put Australia on the map.

Click an image for a larger view

• More images from the Australian Heritage Photographic Library

Cape Inscription lies at the north-western tip of Western Australia's largest isle, Dirk Hartog Island. It is surrounded by steep limestone cliffs, white sandy beaches and the magnificent Indian Ocean, and forms the western edge of Shark Bay. It was here in October 1616 that Dirk Hartog and his crew became the first Europeans to land on the west coast of Australia.

Captain Dirk Hartog of the Dutch East India Company's ship, Eendracht , had been following the faster southern route to the port of Batavia in the East Indies (Indonesia). Sailing too far east, on 25 October 1616 Hartog landed at what is now known as Cape Inscription.

Charting the west coast of Australia

Hartog's discovery had a major impact on world cartography. After leaving the Island, he sailed northwards charting the coastline of Western Australia to 22 degrees south. As a result, a known part of the coastline of Western Australia appeared on world maps for the first time, profoundly changing the 18th century European worldview of the mythical southern continent, ‘Terra Australis Incognita.’

Hartog’s 1616 chart of the northern part of the Western Australia coastline, prompted a series of surveys by many notable Dutch, French and English explorers during the next 250 years including Victor Victorszoon’s chart of 1697 drawn during Vlamingh’s voyage, the French charts drawn by Ensign Rosily during the St Allouarne voyage in 1772 and by Hamelin and Baudin during their expedition in 1801.  In 1822, British Philip Parker King attempted to complete the charting commenced by Matthew Flinders in 1801; and Captain Denham on HMS Herald completed the first naval hydrographic charts of the WA coastline in 1858.

Inscriptions at the Cape

These early European explorers left markers of their landings, with the names of their ship, captain and significant crew at Cape Inscription. Hartog left a pewter plate inscribed with a record of his 1616 visit nailed to a post in a rock cleft. Now preserved in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, the plate is the oldest physical record of a European landing in Australia.

Dirk Hartog's plate was recovered by Willem de Vlamingh during his voyage of discovery in 1697. He in turn left a pewter plate inscribed with a record of his visit. The plate left by Vlamingh was in turn found in 1801 by Baron Emanuel Hamelin, a member of Nicolas Baudin's French expedition. He left the plate in place and added his own inscription on a piece of lead sheet, nailed to the post. Both of the posts left by Vlamingh and Hamelin were removed to Perth in 1908 at the time of the construction of the lighthouse, and are now in the WA Maritime Museum.

Vlamingh’s plate was subsequently removed to Paris by Louis de Freycinet, one of Hamelin's junior officers, when he returned to Cape Inscription in his own ship in 1818. The plate was subsequently returned to Australia by the French Government in 1947 and is now at the WA Maritime Museum. In 1822 British navigator and son of a former Governor of New South Wales, Philip Parker King, also left a record of his visit to Cape Inscription.

In 1772 French navigator, Francois de Saint-Allouarn, landed at Turtle Bay. He buried two bottles, one containing a parchment claiming the west coast of New Holland for France. Each bottle was sealed with a silver French coin under the lead cap. One of the bottles, together with its coin and lead cap but without a parchment, was recovered in 1998 and are now in the WA Maritime Museum.

Scientific exploration

Growing interest in Australia stimulated by the charting of the coastline led to expeditions of scientific discovery, such as Baudin’s and de Freycinet’s, whose primary purpose was scientific examination of the flora and fauna of the new continent. In 1699 British navigator and naturalist, William Dampier, landed on the north-western side of the island at the place now known as Dampier Landing. Dampier named Shark Bay, and made the first scientific collection of Australian plants, marking the beginnings of scientific interest in Australian botany.

In 1991, Dirk Hartog Island was included in the Shark Bay World Heritage Area in recognition of its outstanding natural values.

Further information

• Location and Boundary map (PDF - 160.53 KB) ​
• Gazettal Notice (PDF - 303.74 KB) ​
• Australian Heritage Database record

We aren't able to respond to your individual comments or questions. To contact us directly phone us or submit an online inquiry

Please verify that you are not a robot.

Why Dirk Hartog Island is on the edge of eternity

Fleur Bainger

Travel Journalist

20 February 2023

With untouched landscapes ripe for 4WDing, nature hikes and an all-consuming love story, Dirk Hartog Island – population five – is the remote wilderness you need to know about.

Nine hours’ drive north of Perth, across the ocean from Australia’s westernmost point, is an unlikely place for a love story. Seemingly in the middle of nowhere, the lone wilderness of Dirk Hartog Island is as spectacular as it is desolate, the land’s chalk dryness tempered by the seagrass-mottled ocean’s expanse of blue. Its long, thin form sees the meeting of wildflower speckled scrub with motionless turquoise bays. Sahara-like dunes lead to rugged cliff edges; crimson saltpans preface watery horizons that whales seem to bounce along. And our lovebirds? What makes this tale even more serendipitous is that neither of them intended to be here.

Kieran Wardle was just 18 when he arrived for what he thought was a week-long fill-in gig, covering for a station hand who’d taken ill. When it turned into a longer stay, he put a call out for a camp cook. Word reached Melbourne, where 19-year-old Tory was part way through her chef’s apprenticeship. She crossed back to her home state and before the year was out, she and Kieran were more than just work mates.

“We met briefly in Perth at a party and I never saw her again until I picked her up to bring her to the island, three years later,” says Kieran. “She was in a white top and pants and I took one look and thought, this girl is not going to last.”

But Tory’s easy-going, boots-and-all style saw Kieran come up with methods to extend her stay. “I guess it was the romance of an island, having no one else around, long beach walks and camping out. Things happen,” he says, laughing. “And I may have cancelled the plane out a few times.” Twenty-two years and three children later, they are still the only people to call the island home.

The dramatic coastline of Dirk Hartog Island

Located in Western Australia’s World Heritage-listed Shark Bay, Dirk Hartog Island harbours other surprises on its 80-kilometre-long finger of earth. More than 400 years ago, a Dutch merchant ship captain was late making a left turn and accidentally came across the place that now bears his name. He became the first European to land on the west coast, 154 years before Captain James Cook claimed Australia’s eastern side for Britain. Hartog left a pewter plate inscribed with an ‘I was here’ of sorts, and eventually returned to Europe, prompting a rewrite of world maps.

Jump forward quite a bit and Kieran’s grandfather, a supermarket mogul whose chain was eponymously named ‘Tom the Cheap’, was running a sheep station on the outpost. Kieran and Tory had already started to blend it with tourism when the island became a national park in 2009, spelling an end to 139 years of pastoralism.

Evidence of the couple’s extraordinary resourcefulness is everywhere. The ocean-facing shearer’s quarters have become an eco lodge with a cooling grass terrace; beach-salvaged wooden planks form the bar fronting Tory’s open kitchen; stone collected by hand has built a holiday villa (the stonemason was paid in wine).

Then there’s the daily nuts and bolts: with rain scarce, a windmill journeys water from a bore seven kilometres away; solar panels and a wind turbine meet most electricity needs; silkie chooks supply eggs; and fresh fruit and veg is barged across once a week from Denham, Shark Bay’s main township of 600 residents. Meat arrives monthly, but seafood is sourced locally – every time someone puts a line in or prises oysters off the rocks. Being far flung doesn’t mean Tory compromises on food – her island flavours are the stuff of legend. “That’s the biggest surprise people have,” she admits. “There’s such good fresh food. They expect something basic.”

Exploring the stunning Rose Lake

Sharp culinary nous means the Wardles attract an appreciative mix of 4WD explorers, nature enthusiasts, fishing fans and families, all connected by their love of good grub. It reaches its zenith at the annual Gourmet Island Escape. Daily, guided 4WD adventures are enhanced by fire pit cook-ups, long table lunches and candlelit dinners. The inaugural event in 2017 drew people from around Australia.

It’s how I find myself rattling along a corrugated track that morphs into rocky limestone terrain and then smooth, ochre soils edged by velvety shrubs. As we travel from one end of the isle to the other, we pass broad leaf grasses with tropical leanings, khaki bushes sprouting clusters of banana-shaped leaves and yellow baubles of colour, hinting at the mass of wildflowers to come. The landscape changes shyly but distinctly, and exclamation marks are dropped without warning: the Loop, a realm of moving sand dunes, bear sharp edges with invisible drops.

“You definitely want to stick to the tracks here,” advises our convoy’s guide, Lindsay Wiltshire, nicknamed ‘MacGyver’. He can tell you exactly what happens if you don’t – from skylarking personal experience. The former cray fisherman and mad-keen skydiver is a regular visitor. He and art teacher partner Karen Sabitay volunteer as caretakers while Kieran and Tory are away. He deftly leads us to Turtle Bay, a haven for 3000 turtles that come to nest at what is Australia’s largest loggerhead breeding colony.

Explore the stunning views of Dirk Hartog Island and you’ll find that not only are the views spectacular, but it also has some stunning secret natural phenomenon (photo: Will Wardle).

Beyond its pale orange bluffs, we reach Cape Inscription – the spot where Hartog nailed his plate into a post. Here we don’t so much glimpse but are overwhelmed by whales on their annual migration. Their torpedo-like frames twist in the air before hitting the ocean in an explosion of white water.

Eventually, we drive on to Urchin Point. The rickety shed is all that stands, its insides scrawled with the names and musings of countless visitors. A bunch of fishing mates in stubby shorts are sharing a plate of cheese and olives when we drop in. Their tented swags fan around the remote retreat. “Life’s a beach,” they say, clinking beer bottles.

On other days we motor to the blowholes, forces of nature that sound like jet engines firing up as each shoots spray into the air, just like whales puffing out vapour. A cloudy mist blows over the desert moonscape beyond, coating us in brine.

Further south, we follow an Aboriginal guide, Darren ‘Capes’ Capewell, around Surf Point as reef sharks dart in the shallows. He plans to bring his Wula Gura Nyinda tours to the island in 2018, sharing 25,000 years of his ancestors’ history. We clamber up the point, sighting the white belly of a humpback rolling in the surf, flanked by two playful dolphins.

“There’s a very strong energy here, in Shark Bay, where the desert meets the ocean,” says Capes. “It’s important to connect people to country, to nature. People can feel it, rather than just see it.”

Elements of the Dirk Hartog Eco Lodge are made from beach-salvaged wood (photo: Elise Hassey).

A sense of restored balance befalls us all each night, when we eat together on long tables, chattering about flat tyres, amateur fishing blunders and wild beauty. Laughter is shared among us otherwise-strangers as easily as wine. But dawn is when the magic happens. Lodge-dwellers and campers alike emerge in an unspoken daily ritual, silently gawping at clouds ignited with shades of coral as the curve of the earth glowers in yellow gold. Tory, an early riser, catches it from her kitchen every day.

“I fell in love with the island before I fell in love with Kieran,” she says. Kieran’s pride aside, it’s not hard to see why.

Details: Dirk Hartog Island, Western Australia

Getting there:  Shark Bay’s main township, Denham , is about 820 kilometres, or nine hours’ drive from Perth. If driving, the reservation-essential island barge departs from Steep Point. It runs year-round, on demand.  Skippers Aviation is the sole aviator operating flights from Perth to Shark Bay (Monkey Mia) on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays. From Denham airport, take a highly recommended scenic flight to DHI with Shark Bay Aviation , or arrange with the lodge to boat across. Package stays include transport to the island. Day trips are also offered.

Staying there:  Wild camping and remote shed shelter around the island are options, but we recommend the rustic comfort of either the Dirk Hartog Island Eco Lodge or private ocean villa.

Eating there:  With an all-inclusive package, meals are catered for by the cooks at Dirk Hartog Island Eco Lodge. Guests who opt for a non-catered option have kitchen and room facilities available. If you’re camping, you will need to bring fuel and water.

Playing there:  Along with beach walks, swims and snorkels, you can follow the old goat trails on self-guided walks and explore the island by 4WD on your own or with a guide.

When to go:  Shark Bay enjoys mild-to-warm temperatures year-round; peak season is March to May, but it’s pleasant through to October. Wildflowers bloom and whales breach from late August.

Gourmet Island Escape: Blending starlit cook-ups and chaperoned 4WD adventures, this annual event reveals the island’s wild diversity while keeping you ridiculously well fed and watered. Guided from Steep Point on the WA mainland, the week includes the barge trip to Dirk Hartog Island , a tour of the former sheep station, campfire paella, a clifftop feast, long, slow lunch and visits to island icons. 6‑11 August 2018.

Fleur Bainger is a freelance travel writer and journalism mentor who has been contributing to Australian Traveller since 2009! The thrill of discovering new, hidden and surprising things is what ignites her. She gets a buzz from sharing these adventures with readers, so their travels can be equally transformative.

LEAVE YOUR COMMENT

Cancel reply.

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

One Comment

Was there 1969, have dreamed of going back to visit every year since. Blessings to all there.

You might also like

Monkey Mia, where the red desert meets the sea

On one side is rugged outback, on the other a marine wonderland, and in the middle...  Monkey Mia, where the red desert meets the sea Western Austra...

A close encounter with Ningaloo’s whale sharks

If swimming with whale sharks isn’t on your outback bucket list, well then you’re missing out, says Daniel Scott. Just being here on this sparkli...

© Australian Traveller Media 2024. All rights reserved.

• Australia's Coral Coast

Dirk Hartog Island National Park

We recognise and acknowledge Malgana people as the traditional owners of Dirk Hartog Island National Park.

Just a hop, skip and a jump away. Hop onto the ferry, skip off at the other side and jump into your four-wheel drive. Let the adventure begin! 

No park entry fee

• Need to know

About this park

Attractions, campgrounds, maps and brochures.

Dirk Hartog Island National Park is part of the spectacular Shark Bay World Heritage Area. The island takes its name from Dutch sea captain, Dirk Hartog who made the first European landing on Western Australian soil in 1616, leaving behind a pewter plate. 

Known as Wirruwana to Malgana traditional owners, the natural scenery of the island is dramatic from the wild coastal cliffs along its western edge to pristine beaches that stretch on forever on the eastern side.  It’s also known to be a top fishing spot, so don’t forget your fishing rod! In fact, don’t forget anything as there are no supplies available in the national park. 

Checkout huge surf that bursts into kaleidoscopic shades of blue as it crashes against 200m high coastal cliffs and explodes from blow holes to create plumes of rainbow mist.  You can swim at secluded beaches or dive and snorkel at Surf Point. It’s a pretty awesome place.  Towering sand dunes and dirt tracks make four-wheel driving a must for getting around. If four-wheel driving and camping are your thing, with both national park camping as well as a range of accommodation at the privately owned Dirk Hartog Island Eco Lodge , this is the place to go. We’re talking super remote folks!   

The national park has a rich European history. From the 1860’s until the early 2000s, the island was a pastoral lease and used for grazing stock, mainly sheep. It has also been a base for pearling and guano mining. (That’s bird poop to you and me!). History buffs will love the historic sites and ruins that shine a light on the past. And talking about shining lights, don’t miss the lighthouse and restored lighthouse keeper’s quarters at Cape Inscription. It’s illuminating!

But wait…… there’s more!

Dirk Hartog Island is Western Australia’s largest island, and one of the world’s most important islands for mammal conservation. When Dirk Hartog landed there in October 1616, it was pristine. Since then, introduced plants and animals have damaged the island and most of its native animals became locally extinct. 

Turning the tables on this decline,  Return to 1616  is one of Australia’s most successful restoration projects. Since the early 2000’s it has removed sheep, goats and feral cats from the island and is slowly reintroducing the native mammal species that once occupied the area. Although they’ve had a tough time and are still rare on mainland Australia, these unique and threatened animal species are becoming increasingly easy to see when camping within the national park. Go for a night walk with a torch when you visit and you might just be lucky enough to see one! Thanks to  Return to 1616 , these animals are doing well in the national park but they need your help to keep it that way.

If you are planning a visit, you can help protect the national park’s amazing inhabitants and support the restoration   project:   

• Check out the Shark Bay  island protection brochure  and  island protection video  before you leave home to help you plan your visit.
• Drive slowly, or don’t drive at all from dusk to dawn when native mammals are most active. These precious animals use the tracks as well and they don’t know the road rules!!
• Camp at Ransonnet or the Dirk Hartog Island Ecolodge the night before you leave the island. Being close to the barge landing point ensures precious threatened fauna are not put at risk by driving at dawn to meet the barge.
• Leave your pets at home.
• Don’t bring any firewood into the island national park. Pests can hide in firewood and hitch a ride.
• Make sure your footwear, clothes, packs and camping gear are free of soil, weed seeds, insects, spiders and other animals. Introduced pests can have a devastating effect on the flora and fauna of the island.
• Packing your food in clean, sealed plastic or metal containers rather than cardboard boxes. Cardboard can harbour pest species.
• Making sure your fresh food is free of soil, ants, snails or other small animals. 
• Secure and store all your rubbish away from animals and remove it from the island when you leave.

Safety information

Plan  when to visit . Read this safety information about  fishing, diving  and  snorkelling . Consider travelling with a personal location beacon (PLB). In the event you need to be rescued it could save your life! 

• The park is remote and its hazardous coastline has large surf, 200 metre high cliffs, blowholes and dangerous marine animals. 
• Notify a reliable person of your trip plans so you can be traced in an emergency. 
• Be prepared for the heat. Take at least 10 litres of water for each person per day. 
• Exercise extreme caution near cliff edges. Supervise children at all times. Go to  Recfishwest  for important information about rock fishing. 

Bird watching

Canoeing and kayaking, scuba diving, snorkelling, plants, wildlife and fungi.

Find out about the threatened animal species being returned to the island with the exciting Return to 1616 project.

Visit the Atlas of Living Australia for a list of species recorded in Dirk Hartog Island National Park.

Traditional Owners

Charlie's Harbour

Massive waves that have built up over vast unbroken stretches of ocean break against spectacular 150m-high limestone cliffs on the western side of Dirk Hartog Island. There are no facilities at this place. 

Mystery Beach

This beautiful beach's shape and orientation at times, because of its prevailing winds, collects a variety of jetsam and flotsam from the world's oceans.

Cape Inscription

Enjoy stunning views of the beach and rocky headland at the most northerly point of Dirk Hartog Island National Park, which is arguably the most historically significant site in Australia.

Cape Ransonnet

Cape Ransonnet is the arrival point on Dirk Hartog Island for boats leaving from the Edel Land Peninsula.

Surf Point has stunning coastal scenery and offers good snorkelling and diving. You can often see turtles, sharks and other large marine animals from the shore.

Blowholes - Dirk Hartog Island

When the swell is running, surf is forced through fissures in the rocks below the cliffs to produce the eerie sound of the Blowholes, sometimes shooting spray up to 10m in the air.

Have a picnic on the beach on the east coast of Dirk Hartog Island. Enjoy a walk along the pristine beach or go fishing or swimming.

Quoin Bluff South

Quoin Bluff South is the place where you will find the remains of an army outpost, a stone jetty and other relics. There are no facilities available here.

This lookout point allows visitors to view the wildlife and coastline at the largest loggerhead turtle breeding colony in Australia. Camping fees apply to all camping areas within the national park. Please book your campsites through the Dirk Hartog Island Eco Lodge .

Quoin Head Campground

Quoin Head is one of six designated camping areas in Dirk Hartog Island National Park. Camping fees apply to all camping areas within the national park. Please book your campsites through the Dirk Hartog Island Eco Lodge .

Louisa Bay camping area

Louisa Bay is one of six designated camping areas in Dirk Hartog Island National Park. Camping fees apply to all camping areas within the national park. Please book your campsites through the Dirk Hartog Island Eco Lodge .

Notch Point

If you visit Dirk Hartog Island National Park by private boat, Notch Point is one of three camping areas where you may camp overnight. Camping fees apply to all camping areas within the national park. Please book your campsites through the Dirk Hartog Island Eco Lodge.

West Point/The Block Campground

One of the best shore fishing locations in Australia, this place is one of six designated camping areas in Dirk Hartog Island National Park. Camping fees apply to all camping areas within the national park. Please book your campsites through the Dirk Hartog Island Eco Lodge.

Urchin Point

One of the best shore fishing locations in Australia, this site is one of six designated camping areas in Dirk Hartog Island National Park. Camping fees apply to all camping areas within the national park. Please book your campsites through the Dirk Hartog Island Eco Lodge.

Sandy Point - Dirk Hartog Island

Sandy Point is one of six designated camping areas in Dirk Hartog Island National Park. Camping fees apply to all camping areas within the national park. Please book your campsites through the Dirk Hartog Island Lodge.

Dampiers Landing/Sammys Well

This historically significant site is one of six camping areas in Dirk Hartog Island National Park. Camping fees apply to all camping areas within the national park. Please book your campsites at  Dirk Hartog Island Eco Lodge.

Withnell Point camping area

Withnell Point  is a large beachside camping area. There is excellent beach fishing at the point. Camping fees apply to all camping areas within the national park. Please book your campsites through the Dirk Hartog Island Eco Lodge.

• Skip to Navigation
• Skip to Content

Hartog & de Vlamingh

Dirk hartog.

The Dutch explorer Dirk Hartog in 1616 made one of the first recorded landfalls by a European on the West Australian coastline. To record his visit for posterity, Hartog and the crew from the Dutch ship Eendracht (Unity), left a flattened, engraved pewter plate nailed to a wooden post before continuing their journey to Bantam. Leaving material reminders of visitations was continued by later explorers, including Willem de Vlamingh who produced the first detailed map of the region. Hartog's plate serves as proof of the first recorded landfall of a European on the coast of Australia. 

His landfall heralded the beginning of a series of explorations by Dutch, English and French navigators, many of whom called at Shark Bay and charted its waters. Significantly, the stretch of coast that Hartog discovered with  Eendracht was entered in the files of the VOC (Vereenigde Oostindische Companie) as the 'Land of the Eendracht' , a name used by cartographers, such as Hessel Gerritsz on his outline chart of 1627.

Hartog's pewter plate message was found and taken to Batavia (Jakarta) by Willem de Vlamingh in 1697.

 "1616 DEN 25 OCTOBER IS HIER AEN GECOMEN HET SCHIP DEENDRAGHT VAN AMSTERDAM DE OPPERKOPMAN GILLIS MIBAIS VAN LVIK SCHIPPER DIRCK HATICHS VAN AMSTERDAM DE 27 DITO TE SEIL GEGHM NA BANTVM DE ONDERKOPMAN JAN STINS DE OPPERSTVIERMAN PIETER DOOKES VAN BIL ANNO 1616"

Translation: "1616 THE 25 OCTOBER IS HERE ARRIVED THE SHIP EENDRAGHT OF AMSTERDAM THE UPPERMERCHANT GILLIS MIEBAIS OF LIEGE SKIPPER DIRCK HATICHS OF AMSTERDAM. THE 27 DITTO (we) SET SAIL FOR BANTUM THE UNDERMERCHANT JAN STINS, THE FIRST MATE PIETER DOOKES VAN BIL. ANNO 1616"

Willem de Vlamingh

In 1697, Willem de Vlamingh, sailing on  Geelvinck (Yellow Finch) was given specific instructions to leave pewter plates as landmarks for his voyage of discovery to the west coast of the Southland. It appears that de Vlamingh erected a variety of signs and messages on islands and places he visited, some merely being posts with an inscribed 'board' or 'tablet'. None of these signs has been recovered, which makes the pewter plate that he left at Cape Inscription of special significance.

On the 2nd February 1697, his upper-steersman (first mate), Michiel Bloem of Bremen, discovered Hartog's plate and took it on board. The wooden post it had been attached to was nearly decayed but still standing upright, and the plate was still lying near it. Recognising the historic value of the plate, and its inherent proof of the 'daring spirit of his ancestors,' de Vlamingh chose to take the plate and deliver it to the Dutch authorities in Batavia (Jakarta);

"This old dish which skipper Willem de Vlamingh brought us, has now likewise been handed to the Commander [of the fleet with which this letter was sent to the Netherlands] in order to be delivered to Your Worships, who will no doubt stand amazed that the same has for so long a series of years been preserved in spite of its being exposed to the influence of sky, rain and sun."

Before departing from Turtle Bay on 12th February 1697, de Vlamingh also had a pewter plate flattened and inscribed with the text from Hartog's plate and details of his own voyage. Including Hartog's message with his own changed the nature of the plate from one of being a message (as were his instructions) into a mark of honour commemorating this historic place. So the two plates, despite looking very similar, had different meanings at the time they were created. De Vlamingh's plate was nailed to a post and erected in the same place where the Eendracht plate had been found.

 "1616 DEN 25 OCTOBER IS HIER AEN GECOMEN HET SCHIP D EENDRAGHT VAN AMSTERDAM DE OPPERKOPMAN GIL LES MIEBAIS VAN LVCK SCHIPPER DIRCK HATICHS VAN AMSTERDAM DE 27 DITO TE SEILGEGHN NA BAN TVM DE ONDERCOEPMAN JAN STINS DE OPPERSTVIER MAN PIETER DOOKES VAN BIL ANNO 1616. 1697 DEN 4 FEBREVARY IS HIER AEN GEKOMEN HETSCHIP DE GEELVINCK VOOR AMSTERDAM DEN COMANDER ENT SCHIP PER WILLEM DE VLAMINGH VAN VLIELANDT ADSISTENT JOAN NES BREMER VAN COPPENHAGEN OPPERSTVIERMAN MICHIL BLOEM VANT STICHT BREMEN DE HOECKER DE NYPTANGH SCHIPPER GERRIT COLAART VAN AMSTERDAM ADSIST THEO DORIS HEIRMANS VAN DITO OPPERSTIERMAN GER RIT GERITSEN VAN BREMEN TE GALJOOT HET WEESELTIE GESAGH HEBBER CORNELIS DE VLAMINGH VAN VLIELANDT STVIERMAN COERT GERRITSEN VAN BREMEN EN VAN HIER GEZEYLT MET ONSE VLOT DEN VOORTSHET ZVYDLANDT VERDER TE ONDERSOECKEN ENGE DIS TINEERT VOOR BATAVIA #12 VOC."

"1616 THE 25 OCTOBER IS HERE ARRIVED THE SHIP EENDRACHT OF AMSTERDAM, THE UPPERMERCHANT GIL-LIS MIEBAIS OF LIEGE SKIPPER DIRCK HATICHS OF AMSTERDAM. THE 27 DITTO (we) SET SAIL FOR BANTUM (Bantam), THE UNDERMERCHANT JAN STINS, THE FIRST MATE PIETER DOOKES VAN BIL. ANNO 1616. 1697 THE 4 FEBRUARY IS HERE ARRIVED THE SHIP GEELVINCK OF AMSTERDAM, THE COMMANDER AND SKIPPER WILLEM DE VLAMINGH OF VLIELAND, ASSISTANT JOAN- NES BREMER OF COPENHAGEN; FIRST MATE MICHIL BLOEM OF BISHOPRIC BREMEN. THE HOOKER NYPTANGH SKIPPER GERRIT COLAART OF AMSTERDAM; ASSISTANT THEO-DORIS HEIRMANS OF DITTO (the same place), FIRST MATE GER-RIT GERITSEN OF BREMEN. THE GALIOT HET WESELTJE, MASTER CORNELIS DE VLAMINGH OF VLIELAND, MATE COERT GERRITSEN OF BREMEN AND FROM HERE (we) SAILED WITH OUR FLEET TO FURTHER EXPLORE THE SOUTHLAND AND (are) DESTINED FOR BATAVIA - #12 (on the twelfth) VOC."

Fortunately for us and history, both plates survive to this day.

The Hartog plate was taken to Batavia (Jakarta) and from there sent by the Governor General to VOC's headquarters in Holland. Currently the Hartog plate is in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

The de Vlamingh plate had a more precarious journey. In 1801, Captain Hamelin of the corvette Naturaliste (part of the Baudin Expedition) had become separated from Baudin's ship Géographe when he landed in Shark Bay. Several crew members, Louis de Freycinet among them, went to Dirk Hartog Island to find a suitable landing place and camping spot. There they found de Vlamingh's plate and delivered it to Captain Hamelin. He made a careful copy of the inscription, but then ordered it be returned from where it was found, although his young officers – including de Freycinet - felt it should be taken to France. Hamelin also erected his own post with a plaque to commemorate his visit to the island, but it is not entirely clear where and has never been found.

In 1818, de Freycinet returned to Shark Bay on  Uranie and recovered de Vlamingh's plate for delivery to France for safe keeping. Although  Uranie was shipwrecked at the Falkland Islands en route to Paris, fortunately both de Freycinet and the de Vlamingh plate survived. De Freycinet deposited the plate in the Académie Française on his return.

Finally, in 1940, after being lost for more than a century, it was discovered on the bottom shelf of a small room mixed up with old copper engraving plates. After the liberation of Paris the discovery of the plate was announced and the Australian Ambassador requested its return as a goodwill gesture.

In May 1947 the French Ambassador to Australia presented the plate to the Right Hon. J.B. Chifley, who received it on behalf of the Commonwealth. In 1950 it was returned to Western Australia, where it can be seen in the Shipwrecks Galleries of the Maritime Museum in Fremantle.

Archaeology

In October 2006, a thorough metal detector search of the entire area did not reveal any sign of the Hamelin plaque. However, since Hamelin refers to 'une feuille de plomb' - a leaf or sheet of lead - rather than 'un plat' - a plate, and Levillain refers to 'une plaque', it may mean that his memorial was not a flattened pewter plate such as the Dutch had left, but a round piece of lead, possibly sheathing lead. If this was the case, it could possibly have been mistakenly overlooked as an object of significance, particularly if it had become corroded and the writing was not legible.

The posts themselves still pose a number of queries. From the historical data it appears certain that three posts were erected at Cape Inscription (by Hartog, de Vlamingh and Hamelin), with another (by Hamelin) possibly on the north-east point or eastern coast of Dirk Hartog Island. Only two posts have been recovered from Cape Inscription and are permanent exhibits in the Shipwreck Galleries of the Western Australian Museum. These are believed to be the Rottnest Island pine (callitris) post erected by de Vlamingh and the 'oak' (de Freycinet), 'fir' (Cunningham) or 'Baltic pine' post placed by Hamelin to support the de Vlamingh plate. However, no record of any timber analyses of these posts can be located in the museum to confirm their species identification. Nor is there any record of what may have happened to the original Hartog post, reported by Cunningham and French accounts to be of oak.

The 1801 French accounts of the discovery of the de Vlamingh plate and its re-erection appear to vary slightly. Whether the plate was re-attached to its existing post, or whether Hamelin had a new post made, appears debatable from the various accounts: Levillain's infers the former; Hamelin (1801), de Freycinet (1827) and Péron (1807) the latter, de Freycinet remarking that the new post for the de Vlamingh plate was of oak. None of them comment on whether there was more than one post at the site - as one would expect if the remains of Hartog's original post of 'oak' had still been lying around.

Although later navigators sought to record their visits in similar ways to Dirk Hartog, Cape Inscription must remain the site of prime significance, being the provenance of the oldest European monument recovered from Australian soil. The locality is thus an important point of reference to the history of the discovery of Australia and the early cartography of its western coast.

A detailed account including appropriate citations of the Archeological Surveys undertaken by the WA Maritime Museum can be obtained by contacting Susan Cox: Phone: (08) 94318488

THE PLACE TO BE FOR ALL YOUR ADVENTURES IN AUSTRALIA

Top 10 things to do at Dirk Hartog Island

Dirk Hartog Island , in Shark Bay World Heritage Area, really is a true Aussie experience. You have to take quite a challenging 4WD track to access the barge to take you and your vehicle to Dirk Hartog Island....but it really is worth it. If you do not have a high clearance 4WD or are not comfortable on very remote, deep sand tracks then you can always join a tour or get a scenic flight over to the island, both of which depart from Denham . Just contact us for more information and we can help you out.

Here are our top 10 things to do at Dirk Hartog Island

1) Visit Surf Point between July and October to see 100's of nervous sharks.

2) See the blowholes, these are some of the biggest in Shark Bay. Best when the swell is 2.5m+.

3) Visit Turtle Bay to see nesting and hatching turtles (November - April). Turtle Bay is also a great location for swimming and it was rated the #1 regional beach in Australia in 2018.

4) Head out to Herald Heights, the highest point on Dirk Hartog Island. Up on the cliffs at 600ft you will have the best view as the sun sets over the ocean.

5) Visit Rose Lake; the pink lake named after the wife of explorer Louis de Freycinet.

6) Visit Cape Inscription, where Captain Dirk Hartog first landed on the island in 1616.

7) Explore Dampiers Landing. It was here in 1699 where the first recorded collection of botanicals were collected.

8) Take in the breath taking panorama views of Shark Bay from Quoin Bluff.

9) Witness the humpback whales migration along the west coast between July and November. Bets viewed from Cape Inscription and Turtle Bay.

10) Keep watch all around the island for so many species of birds. Ospreys and sea eagles can be seen all year round, and you maybe very lucky to see the engandered black and white wren.

*Note: Everything is so incredible...this list is in no particular order of what we think is better than others!

Check out more things to see and do at Dirk Hartog Island

Do you want to visit Dirk Hartog Island? We can help! Contact us for you free personalised quote!

Looking for more information? Read more of our blogs here:

Everything you need to know about your travel to western australia, south australia and the northern territory., swimming with whale sharks.

A dream of many, to swim with this beautiful creature. Swimming with the whale s ...

The 14 best things to do in and around Denham!

There is SO much to see and do in Denham.. That's why we have put together a top ...

Little Lagoon

Big colours: Little Lagoon! Visiting this spectacular lagoon is a must during yo ...

Shell Beach

As you probably can guess from the name, Shell Beach is a beach of shells! In fa ...

Steep Point and Edel Land

The most westerly place on mainland Australia! It is a 4WD adventure to access S ...

What marine animals will I see at the Ningaloo Reef?

Coral Bay and Exmouth are gateways to the Ningaloo Marine Park. Here you will be ...

Scuba diving and snorkelling at the Ningaloo Reef

The Ningaloo Reef has some of the world's best snorkel and dive sights. Visit c ...

What to expect at the dolphin experience at Monkey Mia

The dolphin experience at Monkey Mia is one of the main attractions which draws ...

The past and present feeding dolphins at Monkey Mia

The Monkey Mia dolphin experience is strictly monitored by the Department of Par ...

The dark history of the Houtman Abrolhos Islands

Looking at the stunningly beautiful Houtman Abrolhos Islands now, it is hard to ...

What are stromatolites made of and how are they formed?

Discover what stromatolites, the earliest record of life on earth, are made of a ...

What is there to see and do on Dirk Hartog Island?

Find out what sights to visit at Dirk Hartog Island, what activities you can enj ...

#adventureinoz

For anyone who loves a true adventure!

Destinations

• Who are we?
• Ask us for travel advice
• The West Coast
• The South Coast
• The Top End
• The Red Centre
• //australianadventuretravel
• /australianadventuretravel

For those who are a true adventurer at heart

Let us help you find the perfect Australian Adventure!

©Copyright DOT TRAVEL HQ PTY LTD - All rights reserved

Privacy Policy | Terms and Conditions | Terms and conditions Instagram contest

Want a free e-book ?

Meld je aan voor onze nieuwsbrief.

• Nieuw Zeeland

Add to your shopping cart