Dirk Hartog

Timeline

1. 1580–1616Amsterdam · AmsterdamHartog grew up in Amsterdam and worked in seafaring; in 1616 he was hired by the East India Company to command the newly built Eendracht, departing from Holland with a plan to sail via the Cape of Good Hope to Bantam and beyond. While crossing the southern Indian Ocean using the westerlies, the fleet drifted off course, ending up further east than intended and thereby approaching the west coast of the southern continent, which was almost blank on European charts at the time.
2. 1616Cape Inscription (Dirk Hartog Island) · Dirk Hartog IslandOn 25 October 1616 the Eendracht landed on an outer island of Shark Bay. Hartog and the senior merchant Gillis Miebbs and others went ashore to inspect, confirming the land was barren and of no commercial value. Before sailing on 27 October, they flattened and inscribed a pewter dinner plate, nailed it to a post set up on the northern cliff, and recorded the ship's name, the captain's name, and their plan to continue to Bantam. This plate is the oldest surviving physical evidence of a European arrival in Australia; it was discovered in 1697 by Vlamingh and brought back to Holland.
3. c. 1616–1617Eendracht Land (west coast of Western Australia) · Western AustraliaAfter leaving the island, Hartog sailed north along the west coast of Australia and made rough charts, and Dutch charts thereafter labelled this stretch of coast Eendracht Land. The fleet then sailed on to Makassar and Bantam, completing the East Indies voyage. This accidental deviation gave Europe its first direct record of the Western Australian coast, supplementing knowledge of the southern continent's western edge after Janszoon's 1606 landing on Cape York.
4. 1617–1621Amsterdam · AmsterdamAfter completing the East Indies voyage Hartog returned to the United Provinces and left no further records of exploration connected with Australia. He died and was buried in Amsterdam in 1621. The pewter plate he left behind is now held in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, and the landing site at Cape Inscription is listed on the Australian National Heritage List.