Island Dirk Hartog

The island Dirk Hartog is located on the west coast of the Western Australia, to 850 km in the north of Perth, the capital of the state, at the entry of the Shark Bay, is classified with the World heritage of humanity.

It measures approximately 80 kilometers length and 3 to 15 kilometers broad and has a surface of 620 km ². It is largest and most Western of the islands of the state. It is consituée dunes sand covered with graminaceous. It is used to raise sheep (6 000 sheep and 1.500 goats) but it especially became a tourist resort and fishing.

The island is the principal point of laying of the state for the green tortoises Caouanne and tortoises.

History

The island was discovered on October 25th, 1616 by the captain Dutch Dirk Hartog with its boat: the " Eendracht" whereas it went Cape to Batavia. Hartog let remember its passage it on the island a tin plate which it fixed on a tree.

In 1697, the Dutch captain Willem de Vlamingh made stopover on the island and discovered the plate. He replaced it by one as of his and brought back the other to Amsterdam and it is at present in Rijksmuseum.

In 1801 the island was again visited by the French captain Emmanuel Hamelin which found the plate on sand and ordered that it is given to the place from where it had fallen.

External bonds

Web site of the island
Chart of the island

Random links: