The Society was formed in 2000 by a group of history enthusiasts that were:

Concerned at the lack of general knowledge about maritime events that took place in the 17th and 18th centuries off and on Western Australia’s (WA) coastline hundreds of years before the settlement of WA in 1829 and
Interested in finding out what happened to the survivors of Dutch shipwrecks and those marooned on WA soil during that period.

Hence the Society’s two objectives are:

To enhance the pre-colonial maritime history of Western Australia by adding another two hundred years to its record and to make this history extensively known, and
To investigate information concerning evidence of shipwreck survivors’ habitats on Australian soil and the extent to which survivors contacted local aboriginal groups, the degree of integration and its effect on aboriginal culture, practices and lifestyle.