Dirk Hartog Plate (1616): Oldest European Relic in Australia

The Dirk Hartog plate is a pewter plate inscribed by the crew of the Dutch East India Company ship Eendracht, which landed on 25 October 1616 at what is now Cape Inscription on Dirk Hartog Island, in Shark Bay, Western Australia. Nailed to a post on the cliff top, it recorded the ship’s visit and the names of its officers. It is the oldest known European artefact found in Australia and today is one of the treasures of the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.

Background

After the founding of the Dutch East India Company (VOC) in 1602, Dutch ships sailed regularly between the Netherlands and the East Indies. In 1611 the commander Hendrik Brouwer pioneered a faster route: after rounding the Cape of Good Hope, ships ran east across the southern Indian Ocean on the strong westerly winds before turning north towards Java.

The new route saved months, but it was hard to judge longitude at sea. Ships that sailed too far east before turning risked meeting an unknown coast. The Eendracht (“Unity”), an Amsterdam ship under the skipper Dirk Hartog, was among the first to do so.

The landing

The Eendracht reached the coast of Western Australia in late October 1616 and anchored at the entrance to Shark Bay. On 25 October a party went ashore on the northern tip of the large island that now bears Hartog’s name. They found no fresh water and saw no people, though the area was the country of the Malgana people.

Before leaving, the crew flattened a pewter dinner plate, scratched an inscription into it and nailed it to a wooden post. The text, in Dutch, recorded the arrival of the ship Eendracht of Amsterdam on 25 October 1616, named the upper merchant Gillis Miebais of Liege and the skipper Dirk Hartog of Amsterdam, and noted that they sailed for Bantam on 27 October. It also listed the under-merchant Jan Stins and the chief mate Pieter Doores.

The Eendracht then sailed north along the coast, charting part of it before continuing to the East Indies. The Dutch named this region Eendrachtsland after the ship.

The Brouwer route and the west coast

Hartog’s landing was the first of many Dutch encounters with the west coast. The VOC soon made the southern route compulsory for its ships, and over the next decade several captains sighted or charted parts of the coast. In 1619 Frederick de Houtman came upon the dangerous reefs and low islands that still bear his name, the Houtman Abrolhos. In 1622 the Leeuwin reached the far south-west corner of the continent, and in 1627 the Gulden Zeepaert sailed along part of the south coast.

From these scattered landfalls Dutch cartographers built up an outline of a large land they called New Holland. The coast was found to be dry and, to Dutch eyes, unpromising for trade, and the VOC made no attempt to settle it. For ships, however, it was a serious hazard, and several later wrecks occurred along it.

Later history of the plate

The plate stayed on its post for 80 years. In February 1697 the Dutch explorer Willem de Vlamingh landed at the same spot, found it, and took it to Batavia and then to the Netherlands. In its place he set up a new pewter plate that copied Hartog’s inscription and added a record of his own visit.

In 1801 a French expedition under Nicolas Baudin reached Shark Bay. Emmanuel Hamelin, captain of the Naturaliste, found Vlamingh’s plate and re-erected it. In 1818 Louis de Freycinet took it to France, where it was later rediscovered in the collections of the Academie Francaise; it was returned to Australia in 1947 and is now displayed by the Western Australian Museum in Fremantle.

Hartog’s original plate eventually entered the Rijksmuseum. In 2016, for the 400th anniversary of the landing, it was lent to the Western Australian Museum and displayed in Australia for the first time.

Today the island is part of the Shark Bay World Heritage Area, listed in 1991, and much of it is a national park. A lighthouse and memorials stand near Cape Inscription, where visitors can see the place where the plates were once set up.

Key people

Dirk Hartog (1580-1621) was an Amsterdam skipper. After the voyage he returned to trading in Europe and died in Amsterdam in 1621.

Willem de Vlamingh commanded a VOC search expedition in 1696-1697 looking for a missing ship. He also explored the Swan River, where Perth now stands.

Timeline

• 1606: The Duyfken makes the first recorded European landing in Australia, on Cape York.
• 1611: Hendrik Brouwer pioneers the southern route to Java.
• 1616, 25 October: The Eendracht’s crew land on Dirk Hartog Island and leave the plate.
• 1616, 27 October: The Eendracht sails north towards Bantam.
• 1697, February: Willem de Vlamingh removes the plate and leaves his own.
• 1801: Emmanuel Hamelin re-erects Vlamingh’s plate.
• 1818: Louis de Freycinet takes Vlamingh’s plate to France.
• 1947: Vlamingh’s plate is returned to Australia.

Why it matters

The Hartog plate is the earliest surviving written record left by Europeans on Australian soil. Hartog’s chance landing was the first of many encounters on the west coast caused by the Brouwer route, which also brought disasters such as the wreck of the Batavia in 1629. Together these voyages shaped the Dutch map of New Holland.