Reports concerning New South Wales, Queensland, the northern territory of South Australia (which then incorporated the Northern Territory), New Guinea and the Torres Strait by J.W. Ploos van Amstel, Consul-General of the Netherlands for Australia, New Zealand and Tasmania.
Ploos van Amstel’s accounts are signed Cardwell [North Queensland]; Sweers Island [Gulf of Carpenteria]; Port Darwin, 1871.
He travelled on board the steamship Curaçao and strongly recommends the establishment of a new steamboat line between Australia and the Dutch East Indies.
The publication also includes a Dutch translation of an account of the travels of Henry Majoribanks Chester (signed Somerset [on the northern tip of Cape York Peninsula], 1871). It was written after Chester had resigned, and before he resumed serving as police magistrate in 1875, and therefore probably contains different content to his later Narrative of Expeditions to New Guinea (1878).
Full contents
I. Verslag aangaande de kolonie Nieuw Zuid-Wallis
II. Verslag aangaande de kolonie Queensland
III. Verslag aangaande het noordelijk grondgebied der kolonie Zuid-Australië
IV. Verslag aangaande Nieuw Guinea en Torrestraat
V. Reisverhalen / van Henry M. Chester ; vertaald door J. Batten.
During the vist the newly emerging situation in Europe was also discussed. Germany had been united and the country is looking to become a world power and this could have implications for both the Netherlands and Australia. See also: WWI could have seen a different outcome for Australia and Netherlands
Also discussed was the establishment of a steam company between Australia and the Netherlands East indies. There is an article on this in the Sydney Morning Herald from 9 August 1871
The book is held by the National Library of Australia
