Blog post | 19-06-2024 | RCE employee

We're not just looking at the shipwrecks as old relics; we want to understand their broader significance. How do these sites affect the daily lives of community members, specifically those of Fremantle and Geraldton? We’ll be exploring some intriguing ideas like hauntology and enjoyment to get to the heart of this.

Geraldton

The day after we arrived in Perth, we made our way to Geraldton, a coastal town about 5 hours north of Perth. Geraldton has a strong connection to VOC history, especially with the Batavia—hence the popular name of the area; Batavia Coast. Geraldton is the gateway to the Abrolhos Islands, famous for the Batavia story. In Geraldton, there is a branch of the Western Australia Museum. Here, you can admire finds from all four VOC shipwrecks; the Batavia (1628), the Vergulde Draeck (1656), the Zuytdorp (1712), and the Zeewijk (1725) that are found on the Abrolhos islands and the mainland west coast of Australia.

The museum would be our primary workspace for the week. The museum archives were a major information source. Here we focused on the newspaper articles from the 60’s, when the shipwrecks were discovered, and onwards. Prof. Dr. M.R. Manders gave a presentation about the VOC including a more detail account of the excavation of the Rooswijk (1740) and an introduction of the project for which we were visiting the place.  After the presentation we had the opportunity to get in contact with the audience and ask them for a follow-up interview about the VOC in their community. A few days later we interviewed these people about their feelings towards the VOC and their experiences with them.

The last thing we did in Geraldton was a scenic observation, taking a walk through the city to identify contemporary remnants of the VOC. We went to Batavia-park, where there is a reconstruction of the Batavia survivors’ fort (Wiebe Hayes Stone Fort) which still partly stands in West- Wallibi, one of the Abrolhos islands. Other things that we saw included the Batavia Brewery and the Batavia Butchery.

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Fremantle

This town/city is located near Perth and has a more urbanized character than Geraldton. It is home to the Western Australia (WA) Shipwrecks Gallery and the Western Australian (WA) Maritime Museum. The WA Shipwrecks Gallery houses most of the finds from the four VOC wrecks and serves as the headquarters for their maritime/underwater archaeology department. Here, we conducted an in-depth literature review of their archives, focusing on third-party correspondence, such as newspaper articles.

During the city walks, the connection with the VOC was less prominent than in Geraldton but still noticeable. We also visited one of the world's largest private VOC collections, the Stokes Collection, and the HIVE at Curtin University, a state-of-the-art facility for enhanced visualization. Using 3D projectors, visitors can observe models of shipwrecks, like those of the Batavia and the Zeewijk, providing a great opportunity for future exhibitions.

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General recap

Our Australian travel adventure has come to an end now. However, the research does not stop here. During our stay we met a lot of interesting people willing to help us with our research. Unfortunately, we could not interview everyone on the spot. So, a survey has been made that we will send around and which is also available through a QR-code in the museums we collaborated with. Overall, the VOC and its related stories are still very much alive in Western Australia, which makes this research project an interesting one. This heritage is present in white communities as well as in the aboriginal people stories.  And then to think that it was not the intention of the VOC to set foot on this coast! We are so enthusiastic about this research that this will be definitely continued…

Prof. Dr. M.R. Manders (Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands), Robin Jonker & Danielle Vlasblom (students University of Leiden)