Australia's Secret History transcript
Reporter: Ross Coulthart
Producer: Mick O’Donnell
ROSS COULTHART: To search for the first European Australians, we need to start here in old Amsterdam.
In Holland’s golden age from 1602, to 1756, hundreds of ships sailed from here in the old world to the new.
Four hundred years ago, sailing a ship like this around the world to the coast of Australia was a technological achievement, similar to a moon shot or a space shuttle walk today.
The voyage was fraught with risk and hundreds of people never made the return voyage.
But some did survive. Well before James Cook, perhaps hundreds made it to Australian shores.
DNA of Western Australian aborigines holds the key to solving four centuries old mystery. What happened to all those Europeans who survived 17th century shipwrecks on our coast?
Many, many years ago, long before the first fleet and well before James Cook first sighted Australia, something happened here on the coast of WA that could well rewrite our history books.
Pieter Bol: We think a total of 11 of these ships have been hitting the Australian west coast. In total maybe three to four hundred people have survived and have reached the Australian coast.
ROSS COULTHART: Could these aboriginal men be some of their descendents?
DNA testing is about to reveal Australia’s secret history but perhaps the Dutch, not the English, were Australia’s first European settlers.
Pieter Bol: They found out in the 17th century that they could reach Indonesia much faster if they took a southern course in between 35 and 43.
ROSS COULTHART: Dutch scientist and historian Dr Pieter Bol says at least 11 Dutch vessels were wrecked on or near the Australian coast.
Pieter Bol: Several of these ships had say 65 or 100 or even 150 who survived and invariably smaller boats were sent to the capital of Indonesia to come to the rescue of marooned sailors and they found nobody, they had disappeared.
ROSS COULTHART: So where did they go?
Pieter Bol: It must have been that they were helped and there is much evidence that there was a Dutch mixture in the genome of aborigines.
ROSS COULTHART: For two centuries, Holland was the world’s super power.
Pieter Bol: This room was the headquarters of the world in the economical, military and political sense. It was about the oval office of that time.
ROSS COULTHART: From this room the Dutch East India Company ruled the globe. It sent thousands of ships to South East Asia on the wildly lucrative spice trade. Many loaded with treasure. It was a perilous journey. Ships sailing to Indonesia used strong winds that pushed them in the direction of Australia. Some turned too late.
Pieter Bol: They were just blown against razorblade sharp cliffs.
ROSS COULTHART: Imagine three centuries ago, bedraggled survivors of a shipwreck, tearing themselves up cliffs like this. It must’ve been horrendous.
The largest group of shipwreck survivors to have made it to shore were the crew and soldiers aboard the Dutch ship Zuytdorp.
They were wrecked on these cliffs near Money Mia in June 1712.
So what we do know is that three centuries ago, there were survivors from Zuytdorp that staggered up these cliffs from the shipwreck, possibly as many as 200.
What we don’t know, one of the great mysteries of Australian settlement is what happened next? Did they get help from the local aborigines, did they survive?
Pieter Bol: In some days, some must have died from the cold, from thirst, from hunger but we think that a vast majority has been rescued by the aboriginals and has been mixing with them.
ROSS COULTHART: The first people to settle in Australia were Dutch, not English.
Tom Vanderveldt: Yes.
ROSS COULTHART: That completely overturns our understanding of history.
Tom Vanderveldt: Yes.
ROSS COULTHART: Tom Vanderveldt is President of WA’s Dutch East India Company, historical society.
Tom Vanderveldt: Initially they would’ve built fires to attract other ships. They had food that came off the ship, they had yams. There would have been goats on the ships. To dump 100 or 200 hundred white people onto an aboriginal tribe would’ve been totally impossible because the aboriginals wouldn’t have had food for them. So I think some went south down to the Murchison river where there was water and some might’ve gone north here to Shark Bay. Then they would’ve intermarried and they would’ve had offspring.
ROSS COULTHART: For the survivors of those terrible shipwrecks to be swept from this world to the barren shores of the southland as they called it – Western Australia as we now know it – would’ve been a terrible shock. What we do know is they brought some of their old world habits and customs with them.
There’s this 17th century tobacco tin found buried 10 kilometres from the Zuytdorp wreck. The Nanto aborigines, who lived in Shark Bay 400 years ago, still use Dutch words.
Pieter Bol: Boo-chee is the Dutch word for small boat.
ROSS COULTHART: And early English settlers were stunned by the European appearance and ways of some of the aborigines they met.
Pieter Bol: Men being bald at older age, tall persons, say several inches higher than the normal aboriginal and then also little children that the English spotted when they came the first time, who had names like Wilhelm. So blue eyes…
ROSS COULTHART: It might even be possible to get a name for some of those survivors who were marooned on the shores of Australia between three and 400 years ago. That’s because many of the ship files are still kept here in the Dutch national archives.
We know that when the British settlers went through WA in 1829, one of the first names that one of the aboriginal kids was called was Wilhelm. Can we see if there was a Wilhelm?
Historian: Let me go to the ‘W’ and then we have it, look. It is Wilhelm.
ROSS COULTHART: There it is. So there’s four Wilhelms and you know it’s possible that one of these Wilhelms made a baby with an aboriginal woman 300 years ago.
Historian: Wonderful to think about it.
ROSS COULTHART: And DNA may soon provide the proof. In WA aboriginal men like Arthur Pepper and Howard Cock are being tested. The tests are so accurate they can not only determine which country samples of their DNA came from, but also when, right down to within a couple of decades.
Aboriginal: There could be anything in all of us. So I’m quite happy to see the truth come out and I hope you find some people with it.
ROSS COULTHART: There are a lot of people in Holland and Germany who would be delighted to have aboriginal relatives.
Aboriginal: Well yeah that could well be too. They’ll come and stay with you.
ROSS COULTHART: While we wait for the evidence that might solve the mystery of what happened on Australia’s west coast, across the country in far north Queensland, another secret history is begging for answers. Somewhere where the beach meets the jungle is a cave only a handful of Australians have visited.
Inside is a remarkable gallery going back centuries. Paintings of European ships and perhaps most remarkable of all, this portrait.
Is this man the first European in Australia? Together with local historians, bushman and formal ranger, Pat Sheers believes this may be a 17th century Portuguese officer.
Pat Sheers: Those sort of boots were worn in the 17th century.
ROSS COULTHART: WE brought along Australia’s most respected rock art expert, Rob Bednarik.
Rob suspects the image is probably more recent that Pat hopes but with permission from local aboriginal elders, he’s taking samples to try to date this image.
Rob Bednarik: The painting lines are crossing over to the remains of a wasp nest so we’re going to sample the wasp nest to get the carbon date.
ROSS COULTHART: While we wait for an answer to that mystery, there are many in WA and Holland convinced that there were Dutch and other European Australians here among the aborigines long before the first fleet.
Pieter Bol: Well the hard proof will be the DNA, DNA proof. This month, news will come from that.
ROSS COULTHART: If the proof is definitive, do you think as a Dutchman, the full story as the Dutch settlement of Australia should be acknowledged?
Pieter Bol: Yes Dutch is inevitable to acknowledge that there was a presence before the First Fleet.
ROSS COULTHART: So, a Dutch Australia? Now there’s a thought. It could be the obligatory windmills, pretty good beer, lots of cheese, good morning ladies.
It’s unlikely the Dutch will go to war to reclaim Australia but they do love the idea of showing up the British.
Dutchman: Who settled Australia first?
Crowd: Holland.
