The Wessel Islands group off the north-eastern coast of Arnhem Land has a rather abstruse history in terms of its naming and ultimate cartographic location. Cartographic evidence, and some primary documentary evidence points to a Wesel(s) Eijland initially referring to an island off the southern coast of present-day West Papua. Read more…
Maria Douwes started her career at Time-Life International, the Book Department. After that she worked at the PR-Departments at De Volkskrant (national newspaper) and the Cinetone Filmstudios. Thereafter she started her own Communication-Organisation Company and made the book’ Noord Nu’ (city district North Amsterdam) with Theo Dohte. For the city Read more…
Being the Narration by Diedrich Buys of His Discoveries and Exploits in Terra Australis Incognita about the Year 1630. Author: Ernest Favenc. First known publishing date: 1896 A fictionalised account of the adventures of two mutineers (Diedrich and Paul Buys) from the Dutch ship Batavia which was shipwrecked on the Read more…
By Gerard van Haren Richard was born on January 3, 1913, in Probolinggo, situated on the island of Java. He held the position of a militia sergeant, bearing the title tkl (2nd class), and was identified by pedigree number 13613. On December 15, 1941, he received his assignment for the Read more…
The text below is a brief summary of a report titled “EXPLORATORY VOYAGE OF THE SHIPS RIJDER AND BUIS, COMMANDED BY LIEUTENANT JEAN ETIENNE GONZAL AND FIRST LAVIENNE LODEWIJK VAN ASSCHENS, TO THE GULF OF CARPENTARIA.” This report was submitted by Gerrit de Haan, the “Master Cartographer” at Batavia, on Read more…
Sam Roggeveen was born in the Netherlands and emigrated with his family to Australia when he was seven years old. Before joining the Lowy Institute, Sam was a senior strategic analyst in Australia’s peak intelligence agency, the Office of National Assessments, where his work dealt mainly with North Asian strategic Read more…
Graeme Cocks. Through Darkest Seas. Inglewood: Motoring Past Vintage Publishing, 2023. E-book. Review by Jorien van Beukering Ever wondered what it would be like to build a replica of a seventeenth-century ship of exploration? If so, look no further than Graeme Cocks’ new book Through Darkest Seas, which tells the Read more…
For some three centuries confusion existed among Europeans over the location and name of the Indian Ocean island now referred to as Christmas Island. Maps appeared charting the island with no name, with one of three names, with two names simultaneously, or as two or three adjacent islands. It was Read more…
During the 17th and 18th centuries the Dutch were quite active in exploring the western and northern coastlines of the Great Southland. Of one of these expeditions, conducted by Maerten van Delft in 1705, intelligence is limited and it is infrequently mentioned in the canon of Australia’s exploration. The only Read more…
In 1859 the Dutch historian, L.C.D. van Dijk published a book on the voyages of discovery made by Jan Carstenszoon in 1623 and Jean Etienne Gonzal in 1756 to the Gulf of Carpentaria. The book contains a commentary of the two voyages as well as a copy of Carstenszoon’s journal. Read more…