Zuiddorp (Zuytdorp) (1712/06)

North of Kalbarri

This is the only ship that needs permission to dive on in WA. Protected zone 500 m around wreck. On 1 August 1711 Zuytdorp also Zuiddorp (meaning ‘South village’) was dispatched from the Netherlands to the trading port of Batavia. It never arrived at its destination. No search was undertaken, since there was no idea where the ship was lost. The crew were never heard from again. In 1834, Aborigines told a farmer near the recently colonised Perth about a wreck some distance to the North. With references to a wreck and coins on the beach, details strongly point to the Zuytdorp, however the colonists presumed it was a recent wreck and sent rescue parties who failed to find the wreck or any survivors. In 1927 wreckage, mainly coins (some dated 1711), bottle fragments, timbers including a spar, carved female figure, breech blocks from swivel guns and other objects including evidence of a deliberately lit fire, were seen atop and at the foot of cliffs on the coast mid way between Tamala and Murchison House Stations on the mid-west coast. In 1954 following advice from Tamala Station head stockman Tom Pepper, a geologist Phillip Playford travelled to the site and viewed the site which had been seen by Pepper (a European who had married Lurleen Mallard an Aboriginal woman). Wreck material had also been seen by his Aboriginal family including Lurleen, her sister Ada and her husband Ernest Drage. The remains indicated that some survivors had got ashore from a then unknown wreck. In lying on the coast between two major Aboriginal encampments Wale Well to the north on Tamala Station and Billiecuthera Well to the south east on Murchison House Station, it was thought that the survivors may have joined the tribes s they travelled between those two centres. Phillip Playford was subsequently involved in a number of privately sponsored expeditions to the site, though at all time he and his companions were prevented from diving by the swells and the treacherous and extremely dangerous conditions offshore. Excavations were conducted and Playford subsequently produced a report describing and identifying the site mainly from the coins dated 1711. This was published by the Royal Western Australian Historical Society.[ In 1964 a team led by Geraldton identity Tom Brady, including Graham and Max Cramer, conducted the first dive on the wreck, and on a subsequent dive later found a veritable 'carpet of silver'. This discovery was followed by many other dives, including those by the Underwater Explorer's Club, the Royal Australia Navy and by the controversial salvage diver Alan Robinson. Many injuries resulted and some of the accidents nearly proved fatal. In 1969 the Western Australian Museum became responsible for the site and it commenced the recovery of the silver under the leadership of Harry Bingham. After 1971 the program was led by Jeremy Green, with Geoff Kimpton as his chief diver. A caretaker, responsible for site security and a weather watch (there are only ever a few days per year where diving is possible) was established in quarters adjacent the site. Infrastructure in the form of a large flying fox erected on the cliffs was provided by the then owner of Murchison House Station, Prince ‘Jah’ the former Nizam of Hyderabad. This led to a number of very successful recoveries. In 1976 the wreck was protected under the terms of the Commonwealth Historic Shipwrecks Act and under the terms of that Act a restricted zone was declared around the site. This prohibits all bar bona fide visitation to the site. There appears to have been considerable unauthorised looting of the site on occasions when the weather allowed diving nonetheless. In 1981 the dangers of the site, in water, on the land, (including in the air due to a very dangerous airstrip) and human factors (including the firebombing of the caretaker's quarters) led to the program being shelved and a resident abalone diver appointed watchkeeper. In 1986 the Museum's program was resurrected under the leadership of Dr M. McCarthy concentrating as much on the social elements of the tragedy as it did on the recovery of what little remained of the silver and other objects. It also looked towards the production of a site plan designed to examine theories about the wrecking and the possibility that survivors had got ashore. The expanded program also focussed on the possible movement of survivors away from the wrecksite and on the archaeological examination of the survivor's camps for evidence of intermingling with Indigenous people. This element involved many specialists including anthropologists, prehistorians, historical archaeologists and an expert metal detector operator. In 1986 Phillip Playford was invited to join the team with the express purpose of providing his knowledge and expertise to the Museum and of writing a popular book on the subject to add to his earlier academic works.