PNC 2016 Dirk Hartog Australian Landing
The Perth Mint and Australia Post have released a stamp and coin cover (PNC) celebrating the 400th anniversary of Dirk Hartog’s landing on Australia in 1616. The PNC features a $2 postage stamp and aluminium bronze $1 coin struck by The Perth Mint.
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.