Dirk Hartog

Dirk Hartog was a Dutch mariner who landed on the western Australian coast in 1616, making the first recorded European landing there.

Connect

Eendracht (ship): Eendracht was a Dutch East India Company ship that sailed to the East Indies under Dirk Hartog in 1616. Hartog commanded Eendracht when he reached the western Australian coast.
Hartog Plate: A pewter plate inscribed by Dirk Hartog’s crew in 1616 and left on an island off Western Australia. Hartog’s inscription provides direct evidence of his landing and its date.
Early European exploration of Australia: The voyages by European navigators that charted Australia’s coast before British colonization began in 1788. Hartog’s landing was an early recorded episode in these voyages.
Aboriginal Australians: The Indigenous peoples of mainland Australia and many nearby islands, with diverse cultures and continuing communities. Their presence on the continent long predates Hartog’s European arrival.
Dutch East India Company: The Dutch trading company that held a charter for trade and colonial activity in Asia from 1602 to 1799. The company employed Hartog and operated the route his voyage followed.
Dirk Hartog Island: An island off the coast of Western Australia, named for the Dutch mariner who landed there in 1616. It is the place where Hartog’s crew left the commemorative plate.
Terra Australis: A hypothetical southern continent sought by European mapmakers and explorers before Australia’s full geography was known. Hartog’s landing added a recorded observation to European knowledge of the southern landmass.
Macassan contact with Australia: Seasonal visits by seafarers from Sulawesi to northern Australia, especially to collect trepang, or sea cucumber. This established maritime contact predates Hartog, though it occurred far from his landing site.
Cape of Good Hope: A headland at the southern tip of Africa, passed by ships traveling between Europe and Asia. Hartog's outward route to the East Indies passed the Cape.
François Pelsaert: A Dutch East India Company commander whose ship Batavia was wrecked off Western Australia in 1629. Pelsaert’s expedition later encountered the coast first reached by Hartog.