The question my students had to answer was who was the first European to set food on Australian soil and when? Possibly it was Dutchman Willem Janszoon in 1605-6. But although Janszoon said he travelled along parts of Cape York Peninsula in 1606, there were two problems: a] he didn’t leave any record of the discovery and b] the land he said he saw was regarded as an extension of New Guinea.
So Dutchman Dirk Hartog (1580-1621) had to have been the first. Baptised in the Oude Kerk in Amsterdam, Dirk followed his father into the mariners’ world, married in 1611 and became a private merchant in the Baltic and Mediterranean seas. He only threw in his lot with the booming Dutch East India Company/VOC in 1615. At first Hartog had to lead short voyages to various European ports aboard the small trading vessel, the Dolphin.
The excitement mounted when he was appointed master of The Eendracht, a ship that was to travel on its maiden voyage from the Netherlands to the Dutch East Indies, now Indonesia. Carrying trunk loads of gold coins, Hartog sailed out the northern Dutch island of Texel in Jan 1616 with several other VOC ships. But the fleet became separated in a storm and was split up. Hartog arrived independently at the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa.
In took months before Hartog’s ship found their second surprise – in October that year they unexpectedly came upon various islands in Shark Bay, which were found to be uninhabited. He made landfall at one of those islands, immediately called Dirk Hartog Island after him. Hartog thus became the European expedition to land on the west coast.
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Captain Dirk Hartog
1580-1621
Hartog spent three days examining the coast and nearby islands, naming the area Eendrachtsland after his ship. Finding nothing of interest, he planned to leave, creating only the Hartog Plate as verification of their discovery. On this plate, Hartog recorded details of his visit to the island, nailed it to an oak post and placed it upright in a cliff crevice (now called Cape Inscription). Translated from the Dutch, he wrote: “On 25 October 1616 here arrived the ship the Eendracht of Amsterdam, upper-merchant Gillis Miebais of Liege, skipper Dirck Hatichs of Amsterdam; the 27th October we set sail again for Bantam, the under-merchant Jan Stins, upper-steersman Pieter Dookes van Bill, 1616”. Thus today we know Shark Bay as the site of the first recorded European landing on Australian soil.
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So Dutchman Dirk Hartog (1580-1621) had to have been the first. Baptised in the Oude Kerk in Amsterdam, Dirk followed his father into the mariners’ world, married in 1611 and became a private merchant in the Baltic and Mediterranean seas. He only threw in his lot with the booming Dutch East India Company/VOC in 1615. At first Hartog had to lead short voyages to various European ports aboard the small trading vessel, the Dolphin.
The excitement mounted when he was appointed master of The Eendracht, a ship that was to travel on its maiden voyage from the Netherlands to the Dutch East Indies, now Indonesia. Carrying trunk loads of gold coins, Hartog sailed out the northern Dutch island of Texel in Jan 1616 with several other VOC ships. But the fleet became separated in a storm and was split up. Hartog arrived independently at the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa.
In took months before Hartog’s ship found their second surprise – in October that year they unexpectedly came upon various islands in Shark Bay, which were found to be uninhabited. He made landfall at one of those islands, immediately called Dirk Hartog Island after him. Hartog thus became the European expedition to land on the west coast.
1580-1621
Hartog spent three days examining the coast and nearby islands, naming the area Eendrachtsland after his ship. Finding nothing of interest, he planned to leave, creating only the Hartog Plate as verification of their discovery. On this plate, Hartog recorded details of his visit to the island, nailed it to an oak post and placed it upright in a cliff crevice (now called Cape Inscription). Translated from the Dutch, he wrote: “On 25 October 1616 here arrived the ship the Eendracht of Amsterdam, upper-merchant Gillis Miebais of Liege, skipper Dirck Hatichs of Amsterdam; the 27th October we set sail again for Bantam, the under-merchant Jan Stins, upper-steersman Pieter Dookes van Bill, 1616”. Thus today we know Shark Bay as the site of the first recorded European landing on Australian soil.
Hartog continued sailing northwards along the uncharted coastline of Western Australia, making nautical charts himself en route. Imagine the impact on 17th century cartography! The mythical continent known as Terra Australis Incognita could now be given a proper name, the Land of the Eendracht. [Later discoveries made the coastal charts more accurate, so the continent was later renamed Hollandia Nova by the Dutch, and Australia by the British].
Press to expand explorers' routes around Australia
Shark Bay and de Vlamingh's first landing site are marked in red,
as is Batavia.
Anyhow, Hartog sailed away from the Australian coast and continued across the Indian Ocean towards Batavia/Jakarta, utilising the strong westerly winds. The ship arrived in Dec 1616, late but in one piece. When the Eendracht reached Macassar, the local citizens were not pleased to see the Dutchmen and many of those poor sailors were killed in an altercation. Apparently it didn’t matter. Hartog visited other trading centres in the East Indies, delivering chests of money and a healthy load of cargo that included beautiful silks. Fortunately the rest of the crew finally returned back the Netherlands in safety in October 1618.
Dirk Hartog left the employ of the VOC upon his return to Amsterdam in 1618, still sailing and trading, but now on private excursions in the Baltic Sea.
80 years later, in 1696, another Dutch explorer Willem de Vlamingh arrived in West Australian, including a stay in Dirk Hartog Island. Unbelievably he found the original plate that Hartog had left back in 1616! God certainly moves in mysterious ways! de Vlamingh replaced it with a new plate which reproduced Hartog's original inscription and added notes of his own. He took the Eendracht Plate to Batavia now Jakarta; from where it was taken into the VOC national archives. Its last, permanent home was the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam for all to see.
European ships starting arriving more often. In Aug 1699 the English 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 a French captain landed on Dirk Hartog Island in Shark Bay and claimed it in the name of the King of France.
Dirk Hartog left the employ of the VOC upon his return to Amsterdam in 1618, still sailing and trading, but now on private excursions in the Baltic Sea.
80 years later, in 1696, another Dutch explorer Willem de Vlamingh arrived in West Australian, including a stay in Dirk Hartog Island. Unbelievably he found the original plate that Hartog had left back in 1616! God certainly moves in mysterious ways! de Vlamingh replaced it with a new plate which reproduced Hartog's original inscription and added notes of his own. He took the Eendracht Plate to Batavia now Jakarta; from where it was taken into the VOC national archives. Its last, permanent home was the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam for all to see.
European ships starting arriving more often. In Aug 1699 the English 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 a French captain landed on Dirk Hartog Island in Shark Bay and claimed it in the name of the King of France.
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. These explorers found the Vlamingh memorial of Dirk Hartog’s original plate! The Vlamingh Plate was gifted to the French Academy in Paris. Since the second plate tells of the early Dutch presence in the Indian Ocean, its trade with Java and the subsequent mapping of the Australian west coast and Tasmania, it was presented to Australia in May 1947 in perpetuity.
The original Hartog Plate, 1616
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
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In 1966 and 1985 Hartog was memorialised on Australian postage stamps, both depicting his ship. But imagine the excitement when the Hartog and de Vlamingh's dishes were reunited in 1979, during Western Australia's centenary celebrations. And then again in 1988 during Australia’s first-fleet bicentenary celebrations.
In 2000, the Hartog Plate was again brought to Australia for an exhibition at the National Maritime Museum in Sydney. These temporary exhibitions promoted the idea that the Hartog Plate, the oldest-known written object from Australia's European history, should be acquired for an Australian museum, but the Dutch authorities wisely said Nee, dank u wel.
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
**
In 1966 and 1985 Hartog was memorialised on Australian postage stamps, both depicting his ship. But imagine the excitement when the Hartog and de Vlamingh's dishes were reunited in 1979, during Western Australia's centenary celebrations. And then again in 1988 during Australia’s first-fleet bicentenary celebrations.
In 2000, the Hartog Plate was again brought to Australia for an exhibition at the National Maritime Museum in Sydney. These temporary exhibitions promoted the idea that the Hartog Plate, the oldest-known written object from Australia's European history, should be acquired for an Australian museum, but the Dutch authorities wisely said Nee, dank u wel.