Qualla: Dirk Hartog Island

Dirk Hartog Island: Introduction

Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Ernest Scott, Public domain. A pewter dinner plate, nailed to a wooden post and wedged into a cliff-top fissure -- that was what Dutch captain Dirk Hartog left behind on 25 October 1616, after becoming the first confirmed European to set foot on the Western Australian coast. The plate recorded the date, the ship Eendracht, and the names of the senior crew. Four centuries later, the island that bears his name is the site of one of the most ambitious ecological restoration projects in Australia: an attempt to wind the clock back to the very day Hartog stepped ashore.

Read more: Dirk Hartog Island on Qualla

Image: Ernest Scott | Public domain

Dirk Hartog Island: A Parade of Plates

Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit User:JarrahTree, CC BY 2.5 au. Known as Wirruwana to its traditional custodians, the Malgana people, Dirk Hartog Island stretches 80 km along the Gascoyne coast, covering 620 square kilometers of scrub-covered sand dunes within the Shark Bay World Heritage Area. Hartog's pewter plate survived 81 years of wind ...

Read more: Dirk Hartog Island on Qualla

Image: User:JarrahTree | CC BY 2.5 au

Dirk Hartog Island: The Plate's Odyssey

Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Melchisédech Thévenot, Public domain. De Vlamingh's replacement plate had its own eventful journey. In 1801, Emmanuel Hamelin's expedition found it half-buried in sand and re-erected it. Seventeen years later, Louis de Freycinet -- who had served under Hamelin -- sent men ashore to take the plate to France. It arrive...

Read more: Dirk Hartog Island on Qualla

Image: Melchisédech Thévenot | Public domain

Dirk Hartog Island: From Sheep Station to National Park

Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Frederik Vanrenterghem, CC BY-SA 4.0. By the late 19th century, the island's history had shifted from maritime exploration to pastoralism. Francis Louis von Bibra took a lease in 1869, grazing sheep and trading guano. The Withnell brothers acquired the property in 1907 and built it into a substantial operation -- by ...

Read more: Dirk Hartog Island on Qualla

Image: Frederik Vanrenterghem | CC BY-SA 4.0

Dirk Hartog Island: Return to 1616

Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Frank Vincentz, CC BY-SA 3.0. The ecological cost of 150 years of sheep, goats, and feral cats was severe. In 2018, after a six-year eradication campaign, the island was declared free of all introduced animals. The 'Return to 1616' project then began reintroducing native species confirmed to have once lived h...

Read more: Dirk Hartog Island on Qualla

Image: Frank Vincentz | CC BY-SA 3.0