Dirk Hartog Year in Full Swing

Replica of the Duyfen, the ship with the first authenticated European discovery of Australia

WA Museum

Dirk Hartog Year in Full Swing

This year, Australia and the Netherlands are celebrating the 400th anniversary of VOC Captain Dirk Hartog’s landing on West-Australia.

donderdag 25 februari 2016 12:00

Highlights so far have been the opening at Sydney Festival, the launch of a website about Australia’s discovery along with a toolbox for history educators, and the digitisation of historic Dutch-Australian newspapers.

The year officially kicked off in a fully packed City Recital Hall at Sydney Festival on 17 January with a special concert entitled ‘Bach and His Dutch Contemporaries’, presenting music from the 17th and 18th century.
For more information, please click here

The ‘Land of the Eendracht’ website
On Friday, January 22, the Premier of Western Australia, Colin Barnett, officially launched a new website about Dirk Hartog created by the Western Australian Museum. The website tells the story of Dirk Hartog and the European discovery of Western Australia. The launch was held aboard a replica of the Duyfken, the first Dutch VOC vessel to discover the Australian coast. For more information, please click here.

Presentation of Dirk Hartog 1616 – 2016: an online resource for teachers and students of Third and Fourth Year History
The History Teachers Association of Western Australia (HTAWA) has published a website with educational tools that support teaching about Dirk Hartog and the early explorers of Australia.

The website uses the story of Dirk Hartog and his journey to the Spice Islands to develop historical inquiry skills, helping students to actively learn about and do research on history. The tools stimulate students to find answers to questions such as: ‘Where is Bantam?’, ‘How did the plate survive for 400 years?’ and ‘What was an Uppermerchant and an Undermerchant?’ The website’s educational material focuses on teaching children between the ages of 6 to 10. For more information, please click here.

Digitisation of old Dutch newspapers
The Dutch-Australian Weekly (1951-1993) and the Dutch Weekly (1993-2004) will be digitised in Trove, an online source and free search engine created and maintained by the National Library of Australia. For more information, please click here.