Hartog to De Vlamingh Exhibition 100 years of
Dutch explorations of Australia

It features a wealth of original books, journals, manuscripts, maps and charts, many of which have never before left The Netherlands.l.

The Journal of the ship Gelderland 1601 to 1603 on loan from the Algemeen Rijksarchief shows the Duyfken at anchor in a bay of the island of Mauritius on an earlier exploratory expedition to the East. This image is of great importance to the Duyfken 1606 Replica Project as it is the only artistic representation of the vesse

Other manuscript charts on exhibition detail the progressive knowledge being established about the Australian coastline and its inhabitants. Of particular fascination are three Aboriginal huts depicted on a map of 't Land Van Eendracht by Skipper Aucke Pieter Jonck of the Emerloort, sent in 1658 to search for the survivors of the Vergulde Draeck, wrecked north of Perth in 1656. Also, the descriptions of the Southlanders given in the Journals from the Pera and Arnhem.

Naturally, an original copy of Commander Francisco Pelsaert's Journal and the letter of the predicant, Gijsbert Bastiaensz, which detail the terrible massacre which took place after the wrecking of the Batavia at the Houtman Abrolhos in 1629, are of special interest. News of the horrifying events reached the Netherlands in the summer of 1630 and pamphlets, such as the Leyds Veerschuyts Praetjen (Leyden Ferry-boat Gossip) which contains two letters from people who survived the shipwreck and massacre, were published.

The historical documents are accompanied by artefacts which relate to the theme of navigation, trade and the impressions gleaned by the Dutch explorers of the Southland and its people.