Other Information
on Contact Shipwreck stories
There are also some tantalising incidents which suggest contact with survivors from some of the early Dutch shipwrecks. In some cases survivors are known to have reached shore, but subsequent rescue parties have failed to find any trace of them. A number of legends exist in WA concerning Aboriginals with European features and light or reddish hair. There are suggestions made that some Aboriginal languages contain Dutch or Portuguese sounding words and that some Aboriginal place names in Northern Australia are of Portuguese origin. Many of these theories relate to several enigmatic wreck incidents, in particular the two mutineers from the Batavia who were marooned, the large number of known survivors from the Vergulde Draeck and the possible survivors from the Zuytdorp. Each of the stories from these wrecks would be worthy of a TV miniseries if not a major movie.
If you would like to know more about these stories, check out our website where you will find a link to the Contact Shipwreck database. I already have a number of incidents catalogued from all other states which will be added to the database when completed. We would be happy to hear from anyone who knows any contact shipwreck incidents from anywhere in Australia, in particular any Aboriginal accounts of such incidents.
- Lesley Silvester and Mike Murray
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