Dirk Hartog's Interesting Adventure

 Dirk Hartog was born in October 1580, and was baptised on the 30th of October Owde Kerb-Church Amsterdamin the Netherlands.The island was discovered on October 25 1616 by the Dutch Dirk Hartog who was blown off course while sailing in the V.O.C Eendraucht from Cape Town to Batavia (Jakarta).

 When he had arrived at the island Hartog had nailed a pewter plate which says:

1616. On the 25th October the ship Eendraucht of Amsterdam arrived here upper merchant Gilles Miebais of Luick (Leige) Skipper Dirck hatichs (Dirk Hartog) of Amsterdam. On the 27th ditto we sail for Bantum. Under merchant Jan Stins upper steerman Pieter Doores of Bil (Brielle).

In 1697 Willem De Vlamingh landed on this island and discovered Hartogs plate. He replaced it with one of his own, and took the original plate home to Amsterdam, where it is still kept in the Rijismuseum Amsterdam (state museum).

In 1801 the island was visited again by a French Expedition aboard the Naturaliste led by Captain Emmanuel Hamelin, this expedition found Willem De Vlaminghs plate almost half buried in the sand, it's post having rotted away, the captain ordered that it be re-erected to its original positon.

Then in 1818 the French Explorer Louis De Freycinet, who had been an officer in Hamelin's 1801 Expedition, sent a boat ashore to recover Willem De Vlaminghs Plate.it eventually arrived in Paris, only to be lost for over a century.

In 2000 the Hartog's plate was temporarily brought to Australia as a part of an exhibition at the Martime Museum. This led to suggestions that the plate, considered imporant as the oldest-known artefact from Australia's European history, should  be acquired for an Australian Museum but the Dutch authorities have made it clear that the plate was not for sale.

Dirk Hartog left the employ of the V.O.C upon his return to Amsterdam in 1617, resuming private trading ventures inthe Balactic.

Dirk Hartog died on the eleventh of October 1621 in Amsterdam at the age of 41.

Dirk Hartogs contribution for Australia was discovering Shark bay and helping to discover more land for people to live and have a holiday on. They said there's up to about 400 to 450 people living there.