Map of the Shark Bay regionCopy of Dirk Hartog's plate in the Rijksmuseum, AmsterdamCape Inscription lighthouse, c.1910
Dirk Hartog Island is an island off the Gascoyne coast of Western Australia, within the Shark Bay World Heritage Area. It is about 80 kilometres (50 miles) long and between 3 and 15 kilometres (1.9 and 9.3 miles) wide and is Western Australia's largest and most western island. It covers an area of 620 square kilometres (240 square miles) and is approximately 850 kilometres (530 miles) north of Perth.
Known as Wirruwana by the traditional custodians of the island, the Malgana people,[2] the island is named after Dirk Hartog, a Dutch sea captain, whose ship first encountered the Western Australian coastline in 1616, close to the 26th parallel south latitude, which runs through the island. After leaving the island, Hartog continued his voyage north-east along the coast, giving the Australian mainland one of its earliest known names, Eendrachtsland, which he named after his ship Eendracht, meaning "concord".
The island is now the site of a major environmental reconstruction project, Return to 1616, that has seen all introduced livestock and feral animals removed, and eleven native species in various stages of reintroduction.[3]
The first Europeans known to have sighted the island were the crew of the Dutch East India Company (VOC) ship Eendracht, captained by Hartog, on 25 October 1616, during a voyage from Cape Town to Batavia (now Jakarta).[4] The date, and the names of the senior people on the vessel, were inscribed on a pewter plate and nailed to a post.
In 1697, Dutch captain Willem de Vlamingh landed on the island and found Hartog's plate. He replaced it with one of his own, which included a copy of Hartog's inscription, and took the original plate home to Amsterdam, where it is still kept in the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam.
On 28 March 1772, Breton navigator Louis Aleno de St Aloüarn landed on the island and became the first European to formally take possession of Western Australia in the name of the French king Louis XV. That involved a ceremony on 30 March, during which one or more bottles were buried on the island. One bottle was recorded as containing an annexation document and a coin. In 1998 a bottle cap made of lead with an écu coin set in it was found at Turtle Bay by a team led by Philippe Godard and Max Cramer. That triggered a broader search by a team from the Western Australian Museum, led by Myra Stanbury, with Bob Sheppard, Bob Creasy and Dr Michael McCarthy. On 1 April 1998, an intact bottle was unearthed, with a lead cap identical to the one recovered earlier, and also with a coin set in it. No trace of an annexation document has yet been found.[5][6][7]
In 1801, the island was visited by the Naturaliste, under captain Emmanuel Hamelin, which was part of the Baudin expedition to Australia. They found de Vlamingh's plate almost buried in the sand, its post having rotted away. Hamelin ordered that it be re-erected in its original position. In 1818, the Uranie, captained by French explorer Louis de Freycinet, who had been an officer in Hamelin's 1801 crew, sent a boat ashore to recover de Vlamingh's plate. It eventually arrived in Paris, only to be lost for over a century. It was found in 1940 and returned to Australia in 1947, where it can now be seen in the Western Australian Maritime Museum in Fremantle, Western Australia.[citation needed]
In 1869, Francis Louis von Bibra (son of Franz Ludwig von Bibra) was granted a lease to the island. Von Bibra grazed sheep there and traded guano from its bays.[8]
In 1907, the leasehold on the island was acquired from Messrs Moore and Meade by the Withnell brothers. It was regarded as an ideal place for a sheep station as there was no danger of rabbit invasion.[9] In 1909, it was carrying a flock of about 12,000 sheep and produced approximately 400 bales of wool. The property was then owned by John and James Withnell, the children of John and Emma Withnell who had been early settlers in the Pilbara. The brothers estimated the area of the island to be 156,000 acres (631km2) and intended to increase the flock on the island to 25,000.[10] By 1910 the flock size was 14,200.[11]
By 1919, the pastoral lease was put up for auction by the owner James Nicholas, who also owned Croydon and Peron Peninsula Stations. The station occupied an area of 153,000 acres (61,917ha) and was stocked with approximately 19,000 sheep.[12]
Perth Lord MayorSir Thomas Wardle purchased the island as a private retreat for his family in about 1969 and later retired there, becoming a semi-recluse with his wife. With the exception of the pastoral homestead, the island later returned to government ownership and became part of the Shark Bay Marine Park.[13] The homestead is now run as an eco-tourism resort and maintained by Wardle's grandson, Kieran Wardle.
On 16 March 2008, Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd announced that the wreck of the World War II German raider Kormoran had been found on the seabed about 150 kilometres (93 miles) west of the island.[14]
Geography
The northerly most point Cape Inscription[15] is the location of the plates and the main lighthouse.[16]
The island consists mostly of scrub-covered sand dunes. At times it has been used as a sheep station and supported 20,000 head of sheep at one stage. The island is now Dirk Hartog Island National Park and sheep have been removed. To the east it is bounded by the Shark Bay Marine Park, and it is part of Shark BayWorld Heritage Area. A small area is leased to the Wardle family who runs it as a tourism destination. The region is widely used for recreational fishing.[citation needed]
In October 2018, at the end of a 20-year project, the island was declared free of feral cats, goats and sheep, paving the way for the reintroduction of 11 native animals, most of which had disappeared following a century and a half of pastoral activity and predation.[18]
The western barred bandicoot and the dibbler were returned in October 2019.[21][22] The Shark Bay mouse and the greater stick-nest rat were reintroduced to the island in April and May of 2021, respectively, with early monitoring suggesting ongoing survival.[23][24][25] The western thick-billed grasswren was returned in October 2022, with 85 birds translocated to the island from two distinct mainland populations at Shark Bay.[2][26]
Proof that dibblers were reproducing on the island was established in June 2021.[27] By November 2022, all six reintroduced mammal species were described as breeding and establishing new territories on the island.[2]
One hundred brush-tailed mulgaras were reintroduced to the island from Matuwa Kurrara Kurrara National Park in the Western Australian Goldfields, in June 2023.[28][29] The population is hoped to expand to 3000 individuals.[30]
Dirk Hartog was a 17th-century Dutch sailor and explorer. Dirk Hartog's expedition was the second European group to land in Australia and the first to leave behind an artefact to record his visit, the Hartog Plate. His name is sometimes alternatively spelled Dirck Hartog or Dierick Hartochszch. Ernest Giles referred to him as Theodoric Hartog. The Western Australian island Dirk Hartog Island is named after Hartog.
The human history of Western Australia commenced "over 50,000 years ago and possibly as much as 70,000 years ago" with the arrival of Aboriginal Australians on the northwest coast. The first inhabitants expanded across the east and south of the continent.
Willem Hesselsz de Vlamingh was a Dutch sea captain who explored the central west coast of New Holland (Australia) in the late 17th century, where he landed in what is now Perth on the Swan River. The mission proved fruitless, but he charted parts of the continent's western coast.
Shark Bay is a World Heritage Site in the Gascoyne region of Western Australia. The 23,000-square-kilometre (8,900 sq mi) area is located approximately 800 kilometres (500 mi) north of Perth, on the westernmost point of the Australian continent. UNESCO's listing of Shark Bay as a World Heritage Site reads:
The Shark Bay Marine Park is protected marine park located within the UNESCO World Heritage–listed Shark Bay, in the Gascoyne region of Western Australia. The 748,725-hectare (1,850,140-acre) marine park is situated over 800 km (500 mi) north of Perth and 400 kilometres (250 mi) north of Geraldton.
Denham is the administrative town for the Shire of Shark Bay, Western Australia. At the 2016 census, Denham had a population of 754. Located on the western coast of the Peron Peninsula 831 kilometres (516 mi) north of Perth, Denham is the westernmost publicly accessible town in Australia, and is named in honour of Captain Henry Mangles Denham of the Royal Navy, who charted Shark Bay in 1858. Today, Denham survives as the gateway for the tourists who come to see the dolphins at Monkey Mia, which is located 23 kilometres (14 mi) northeast of the town. The town also has an attractive beach and a jetty popular with those interested in fishing and boating.
The Eendracht was an early 17th century Dutch wooden-hulled 700 tonne East Indiaman, launched in 1615 in the service of the Dutch East India Company (VOC). Its Dutch name means "concord", "unity" or "union", and was a common name given to Dutch ships of the period, from the motto of the Republic: Concordia res parvae crescunt . The ship was captained by Dirk Hartog when he made the second recorded landfall by a European on Australian soil, in 1616.
Steep Point is the westernmost point of mainland Australia. It is located within the Gascoyne region of Western Australia, 670 kilometres (420 mi) north of the state's capital Perth, in the proposed Edel Land National Park. It is also a part of the Shark Bay World Heritage Site. The point was named Steyle Hock by Willem de Vlamingh in 1697.
Baron Jacques Félix Emmanuel Hamelin was a rear admiral of the French navy and later a Baron. He commanded numerous naval expeditions and battles with the Royal Navy as well as exploratory voyages in the Indian Ocean and the South Seas.
Hartog Plate or Dirk Hartog's Plate is either of two pewter plates, although primarily the first, which were left on Dirk Hartog Island during a period of European exploration of the western coast of Australia prior to European settlement there. The first plate, left in 1616 by Dutch explorer Dirk Hartog, is the oldest-known artifact of European exploration in Australia still in existence. A replacement, copying the text of the original plus some new text, was left in 1697 – the original dish returned to the Netherlands, where it is on display in the Rijksmuseum. Further additions at the site, in 1801 and 1818, led to the location being named Cape Inscription.
Yalgoo is an interim Australian bioregion located in Western Australia. It has an area of 5,087,577 hectares. The bioregion, together with the Avon Wheatbelt and Geraldton Sandplains bioregions, is part of the larger Southwest Australia savanna ecoregion as classified by the World Wildlife Fund.
Walga Rock, also known as Walgahna Rock and Walganna Rock, is a granite monolith situated about 48 kilometres (30 mi) west of Cue, Western Australia, within the Austin Downs pastoral lease. It is one of the largest granite monoliths in Australia.
Sir Thomas Edward Wardle was a businessman and supermarket proprietor from Western Australia. He was best known for his "Tom the Cheap" supermarket chain as well as revolutionising grocery shopping in the state.
Louis Francois Marie Aleno de Saint Aloüarn was a French Navy officer and explorer who claimed French Western Australia.
Dorre Island is one of three islands that make up the Bernier and Dorre Island Nature Reserve in the Shark Bay World Heritage area in Western Australia. The island was named after Peter Dorre, the pilot of a Dutch vessel, the Eendracht, in 1616.
Quoin Bluff, also known as Quoin Bluff South, is an elevated limestone headland midway along the eastern side of Dirk Hartog Island, in Shark Bay, on the-west coast of Western Australia. It extends into Shark Bay between Herald Bay to the north and Tetrodon Loop to the south, and serves as a prominent navigation point with an all-round view of the approaches to Egg Island.
The western grasswren, also referred to as the thick-billed grasswren and, formerly, as the textile wren, is a species of bird in the family Maluridae. It is endemic to Australia. It was formerly lumped as the nominate subspecies of the thick-billed grasswren.
Edel Land National Park is a proposed national park located in the Gascoyne Region of Western Australia, located 670 kilometres (420 mi) north of the state's capital Perth.
French Western Australia was a French territorial claim in modern-day Western Australia. It was made at Dirk Hartog Island by an expedition under French explorer Louis Aleno de St Aloüarn in 1772.
↑ Godard, Philippe; de Kerros, Tugdual; Margot, Odette; Stanbury, Myra; Baxter, Sue (2008), 1772: the French annexation of New Holland: the tale of Louis de Saint Aloürn, Western Australian Museum, ISBN978-1-920843-98-4
↑ Walter R. Bloom,"The Role of a French Écu in the Colonization of Western Australia", and "Another French Écu surfaces in Western Australia", The Numismatic Association of Australia Journal, vol.9, 1998, pp.34 – 42; vol.11, 2000, pp.47 – 49. "Cape Inscription - de St Alo?arn Annexation". Archived from the original on 13 October 2009. Retrieved 15 April 2010.
↑ Philippe Godard, Tugdual de Kerros 2002, "Louis de Saint Aloüarn, un marin breton à la conquête des terres australes", Les Portes du large, Saint-Jacques-de-la-Lande, 331-336
↑ Nyman, Lois; von Bibra, Graeme (1996). The von Bibra story. Launceston, Tasmania: Foot & Playsted. pp.64–66. ISBN978-0-9597188-1-2. OCLC38406671.
↑ BirdLife International. (2011). Important Bird Areas factsheet: Quoin Bluff and Freycinet Island (Shark Bay). Downloaded from "BirdLife International - conserving the world's birds". Archived from the original on 30 June 2007. Retrieved 16 December 2012. on 25 September 2011.
↑ Cowen, Saul; Rayner, Kelly; Sims, Colleen; (1 July 2021). Dirk Hartog Island National Park Ecological Restoration Project: Stage Two–Year Three Translocation and Monitoring Report
Green, J., (ed.) Report on the 2006 Western Australian Museum, Department of Maritime Archaeology, Cape Inscription National Heritage Listing Archaeological Survey. Report—Department of Maritime Archaeology Western Australian Museum, No. 223 Special Publication No. 10, Australian National Centre of Excellence for Maritime Archaeology
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
