Description
Dirk Hartog (1580 – 1621) was a seventeenth century Dutch seaman and explorer. He was appointed master of a ship called the Eendracht, in a fleet that would voyage from the Netherlands to the Dutch East Indies.
After setting sail in January 1616, the Eendracht became separated from the fleet in a storm and ended up at the Cape of Good Hope, which would later become Cape Town, South Africa. After leaving the Cape, Hartog sailed across the Indian Ocean bound for Batavia, now known as Jakarta. However, he sailed further east than he meant to and on 25 October 1616 he landed on an island off the coast of Shark Bay, Western Australia. That island is now known as Dirk Hartog Island.
The Perth Mint and Australia Post have released the Dirk Hartog Australian Landing 1616 – Stamp and Coin Cover, celebrating the 400th anniversary of Hartog’s alighting on Australia in 1616.
The coin’s reverse depicts the representation of the view through a telescope of Dirk Hartog’s boat, the Eendracht, sailing across the ocean aside a compass rose.