dirk hartog island history

Dirk Hartog Island sits off WA’s Shark Bay and claims the first recorded European landing in Australia, courtesy of Dutch captain Dirk Hartog in 1616.

He nailed a pewter plate at Cape Inscription, which Willem de Vlamingh replaced in 1697 and carted Hartog’s original back to Amsterdam (now in the Rijksmuseum).

In 1818, Louis de Freycinet removed de Vlamingh’s plate for France; it returned in 1947 and resides with the Western Australian Museum.

Fast-forward a few centuries and the island became a national park, with the “Return to 1616” project evicting goats and cats and reintroducing native mammals.

Today it’s part of a UNESCO-listed wonderland where history, dunes and wildlife quietly upstage the brochures.