Shark Bay

Distinguished and Famous people from Shark Bay

⛵ Dirk Hartog

Dutch skipper Dirk Hartog reached the island now named after him in October 1616 while commanding the Eendracht on a voyage to the East Indies. His party left an inscribed pewter plate at Cape Inscription, recording their arrival on 25 October and departure two days later. Preserved in Amsterdam, it is the oldest surviving physical record of a European landing in Australia. Hartog's was a brief recorded visit to Country already inhabited and known by Aboriginal people. The plate's survival makes that visit unusually tangible: a small shipboard object became a key document in the history of European navigation along the western coast.

⚓ Jacques Félix Emmanuel Hamelin

French naval officer Emmanuel Hamelin visited Shark Bay in 1801 as commander of Naturaliste during Nicolas Baudin's expedition. His party found the pewter plate left by Willem de Vlamingh, who had replaced Hartog's original marker in 1697. Hamelin left the historic plate in place and added a record of the French visit. The successive inscriptions made Cape Inscription something like a maritime visitors' book, though one requiring a considerably longer journey than most. Hamelin commanded Naturaliste, while Baudin sailed in Geographe.

⛵ Willem de Vlamingh

Willem de Vlamingh landed on Dirk Hartog Island during his northward survey of the western coast in 1697. He found the inscribed plate left by Hartog in 1616 and replaced it with a new one, continuing a documentary link between separate Dutch voyages. His expedition had been instructed to search for missing ships and survivors as well as chart the coast. The island encounter therefore combined navigation with a search for traces of earlier travellers. It forms the middle chapter between Hartog’s original marker and the French visitors who later encountered de Vlamingh’s plate.