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Slideshow:
For
an overview of VOC contact with Australia see "Voyages
and Expeditions"
DID
YOU KNOW?
A
series of FIRSTS in Australian history.
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VOC
The
Vereenigde
Oostindische Compagnie
(United East Indies Company), or VOC, was
formed in the Netherlands in 1602 with the aim of sending ships to East Asia to buy
pepper, cinnamon and other spices and trade them on European markets. Its ships
sailed past, landed or were wrecked on Western Australia's coastline. Read all
about it on this site.
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Society
gets Award
The
National Chairman of the Commemorative Council of Australia on the Map 1606 - 2006
has
recognised the Society for
"Actively supporting the promotion of
knowledge and appreciation of early Australian history."
The Society appreciates this acknowledgement
of its efforts.
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What was a white
tribe doing in Central Australia in 1834?
An English newspaper (Leeds Mercury) reported that explorers in Central
Australia found there a
small colony descended from Dutchmen shipwrecked on Australia’s west coast
early in the eighteenth century. >>More
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Why
was there so much VOC activity along Western Australia's (WA) coast?
In
the very early days of Dutch trade, VOC ships stopped at the Cape of
Good Hope and then followed the Portuguese route across the Indian Ocean
to the East Indies. In 1610, Hendrik Brouwer, a senior official with the
Company, pioneered a new route. After the Cape he sailed south-east to
between 35 and 40 S lattitude and then east for about 3500 nautical
miles before turning north, sailing along the WA coast, towards Sunda
Strait and Java and then Batavia - the centre for Dutch trade with Asia.The
route was officially adopted. It was six months quicker!
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Researchers seek Dutch DNA
link to Aboriginals in Western Australia (WA).
University
researchers in WA, in collaboration with scholars in The Netherlands, are
investigating whether a genetic link exists between VOC shipwreck survivors
and the Nhanda Aboriginal community. Should the work proof that such a link
exists, it would settle a lot of speculation about what might have happened to
the survivors. It would also mean that
Europeans lived in Australia long before its Colonial history began. The
Society has always believed that, as a means of survival, some of the
survivors would have sought relationships with the local population, cohabited
with them and produced offspring. It is eagerly awaiting the outcome of the
study. Source:The
West Australian, Friday, February 15, 2008.
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This
month in VOC history
SEPTEMBER
1627
Jan Pieterszoon Coen, later to become Governor General of the East Indies (now Indonesia), charted land on the West Coast in the VOC ships Galia, Utrecht and Texel. He made strong
recommendations to the Directors of the VOC that “the highest importance” be placed upon the accurate charting of the Western Australian coast after nearly crashing into the
Abrolhos.
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CAN
YOU HELP?
We
are seeking information about habitats, graves, artifacts and co-habitation with the
indigenous population by the survivors of VOC (Dutch) shipwrecks on Western Australia’s coastline.
Confidentiality is assured.
>>More
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Website
created January 2002.
Last update August 2007
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(The number was
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Meet
the President