Hartog, Dirk, a Dutch navigator born in the 1500’s, was the first European to land on the western coast of Australia. Hartog was captain of the Dutch ship Eendracht, which was sailing to the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia) to collect spices. The Dutch had established Batavia (now Jakarta) as their chief town there. Hartog landed on the western coast of Australia in 1616. He named the whole western coast region Eendracht Land.
In 1611, another Dutch navigator, Hendrik Brouwer, had found a new route to the East Indies. He had sailed southeastward from Africa’s Cape of Good Hope, using the westerly winds called the Roaring Forties to speed his journey until northerly currents turned his ship toward Java. Hartog followed this route but sailed too far east. He sighted land near Shark Bay in western Australia in October 1616. With a party from the Eendracht, he landed at what is now known as Dirk Hartog Island. While ashore, he fixed an inscribed pewter plate to a post. Today, it is preserved in a museum in Amsterdam, in the Netherlands. An English translation of the inscription on the plate reads as follows: “On Oct. 25, 1616, there arrived here the ship Eendracht of Amsterdam, the supercargo Gillis Miebais of Liege, skipper Dirk Hartog of Amsterdam; on Oct. 27 sailed for Bantam: The subcargo Jan Steyn, the mate Pieter Ledocker Van Bil.”
Historians know little of Hartog’s life. The only information about him appears in records and maps of the Dutch East India Company (see Dutch East India Company). His name is sometimes spelled Dirck Hartog.
