Explore the fascinating history of Inscription Point on Dirk Hartog Island — where early Dutch explorers left their mark — and discover how this remote part of Shark Bay, Western Australia combines heritage, landscape and wildlife restoration.
Inscription Point and the scratched plate
On a wooden stake rammed into a cleft in the rock is a rusting metal plate.
Scratched into it is a message, reading: “I’ll be back in 2016. Dirk Hartog of the Eendracht.”
It’s fair to say that this is not the original plate at Inscription Point.
In October 1616, way before Lt James Cook claimed Australia for Britain, Dirk Hartog was one of several Dutch East India Company skippers who plied the trade route from the Netherlands to what is now Indonesia.
Dirk Hartog’s historic 1616 landing
The Eendracht became detached from the fleet in Cape Town, then followed the quicker Roaring Forties route east. Hartog miscalculated when to turn north, though, and did so later than usual.
This brought him into contact with a strange, forbidding coastline now known to be Western Australia’s. He made landfall at an island on the western fringe. And now Dirk Hartog Island is named in his honour.
He wasn’t the first European to land in Australia – that honour falls to fellow Dutchman William Janszoon who, in 1606, got chased off Cape York in north-east Queensland. But Janszoon probably thought he was in New Guinea, and Hartog was the first to leave documentary evidence.
The fate of the original plates
That evidence – an engraved pewter plate – can now been found in Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum. It was commandeered by later Dutch explorer Willem de Vlamingh, who decided to take the plate and leave a replacement.
Vlamingh’s plate, in turn, was taken away by Frenchman Louis de Freycinet – although it is now on display in the WA Maritime Museum in Fremantle.
Inscription Point today
400 years on from Hartog’s historic visit, today’s clearly makeshift post and plate are joined by a lighthouse. Its shadow proves to be the only shade for miles around on an inhospitable, forbidden landscape. It’s no wonder that the Dutch didn’t show much interest in exploring it further.
How to get to Inscription Point
Getting to Inscription Point isn’t quite the achievement it was 400 years ago, but it takes a fair old effort.
Dirk Hartog Island forms the western flank of Shark Bay. It is not named sarcastically, should anyone be thinking of swimming across from Denham, the only passable imitation of a town in the region.
Denham is 826km north of Perth, and unless taking a 4WD over a very sandy track and a barge from Steep Point, a pre-arranged ferry from Denham to the Dirk Hartog Island Eco Lodge is the only way across.
Then, from the Lodge, it’s a bumpy two-and-a-half hour drive over corrugated pseudo-tracks that pass wild sand dunes and pink-tinged lakes.
The island’s ecology and recovery
The island’s previous incarnation was as a sheep station – 25,000 sheep lived there during Australia’s wool boom. And this had disastrous consequences for the local ecology, with native creatures dying out in favour of the imports.
Kieran Wardle, who owns the Lodge and runs the four wheel drive tours up to Inscription Point, says things have changed dramatically in the last seven years. “In 2009 the island was declared a National Park, and the last sheep were removed. The bush has all regrown since then – it was bare.”
Half way up, a gate needs opening. This is part of a fence stretched across the island by National Parks employees. They’re confident that the southern half of the island is now free of feral cats, and the fence is to stop the few remaining holdouts in the north getting back there.
An eradication programme is in place and once the rangers are sure the cats are gone, several marsupial species with marvellously Australian names – including the western-barred bandicoot, woylie, dibbler and chuditch – will be reintroduced.
Botanical history: Dampier’s Landing
It’s the island’s flora that is more significant than its fauna, however.
Kieran parks up a few kilometres away from Inscription Point at a spot called Dampier’s Landing. Here in 1699, another European ship landed, this time a Royal Navy vessel captained by William Dampier. He named the area Sharks Bay.
But more importantly, he made a collection of plants that grew on the island. “It was the first scientific collection made in Australia,” says Kieran. “And the specimens he collected are still preserved in Oxford University’s Sherardian Herbarium.”
Turtle Bay and St Alouarn’s French claim
The land may be recuperating, but the coastline is still exquisitely beautiful. This is particularly the case at Turtle Bay, where a crescent beach that would be the envy of anywhere in the world unfolds.
Kieran leads towards a stunted tree, which played a part in Dirk Hartog Island’s third historic visit.
In 1772, French explorer Louis Aleno de St Alouarn arrived at the helm of the Gros Ventre. He sent his men ashore, and had them claim the country for France. A bottle with two coins and a parchment setting out the claim was buried under that tree.
The bottle was discovered 226 years later, and St Alouarn died before he could return to France. The shipmates that did return clearly didn’t make a great sales pitch – otherwise Australia would have ended up as a French, rather than British colony. But that ship has long since sailed…
Nearby attractions around Dirk Hartog Island
- Shark Bay World Heritage Area – A vast landscape of wildlife, coast and culture around the island – including the Hamelin Pool stromatolites and Shell Beach.
- Monkey Mia – Famous for friendly dolphins and water activities on the mainland side.
- Francois Peron National Park – Red dunes and salt lakes just north of Denham.
- Steep Point – Australia’s westernmost point and a 4WD highlight.
Dirk Hartog Island FAQs
| What is Inscription Point? | Inscription Point is the historic landing site on Dirk Hartog Island where a Dutch explorer left an inscribed plate in 1616. |
| Who was Dirk Hartog? | Dirk Hartog was a Dutch East India Company skipper who made landfall on the western coast of Australia in 1616. |
| Can you still see the original plate? | No, the original pewter plate is in Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum; Vlamingh’s replacement is in the WA Maritime Museum. |
| How do you get to Dirk Hartog Island? | Most visitors take a pre-arranged ferry from Denham to Dirk Hartog Island Eco Lodge, then a 4WD tour to Inscription Point. |
| Is Dirk Hartog Island a national park? | Yes, it was declared a national park in 2009 with ongoing wildlife restoration efforts. |
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More Western Australia travel
Other Western Australia travel articles on Planet Whitley include:
- A tale of mutiny and murder on the Houtman Abrolhos Islands.
- Why you should see the Pinnacles at night.
- An eye-opening drive along Western Australia’s Golden Pipeline.
- What it’s like to swim with whale sharks.
- Why I enjoyed the notorious drive across the Nullabor.
