The Abrolhos Islands
The Houtman Abrolhos Islands
The 122 islands lie 60km west of Geraldton on Western Australia's Midwest coast. They are clustered into three main groups – Wallabi, Easter and Pelsaert - and spread from north to south across 100km of ocean. The islands and their surrounding reef communities are a meeting place for tropical and temperate sea life and form one of the State's most unique marine areas.
The islands lie in the stream of the warm, southward-flowing Leeuwin Current, which funnels warm, low-nutrient, tropical water from the Pacific Ocean down past Indonesia and along Western Australia's continental shelf. It carries a cargo of larvae, eggs and juveniles of many species of corals and other marine life far south of their usual range. The current maintains water temperatures throughout the winter at around 20 to 22 ºC, enabling corals and tropical species of fish and invertebrates to thrive in latitudes where they wouldn't normally survive.
The first sighting of the Houtman Abrolhos was by the Dutch ships Dordrecht and Amsterdam in 1619, only three years after Dirk Hartog made the first authenticated sighting of what is now Western Australia, and only 13 years after the first authenticated voyage to Australia, that of the Duyfken in 1606.
Commonly referred to as “The Abrolhos”, the islands are named after Dutch Commander Frederik de Houtman. The word Abrolhos is thought to be derived from the Portuguese expression Abre os olhos, meaning “keep your eyes open”.
Wildlife and vegetation
The Islands are home to an array of protected flora and fauna that have adapted uniquely to the diverse range of island ecosystems. Two mammal species are found on the Abrolhos: the Tammar wallaby occurs on East and West Wallabi and was introduced to North Island; while the bush rat occurs on West and East Wallabi.
The Abrolhos are among Australia's most important sites for breeding seabirds and more than 90 species of seabird have been identified on the islands
The islands also mark the northern-most habitat of the Australian sea lion. Once abundant, the Australian sea lion is now classified as a ‘vulnerable species'.
Shipwrecks
The Dutch East India Company's vessels, Batavia and Zeewijk, are probably the best known of the Abrolhos wrecks. The Batavia hit Morning Reef, near Beacon Island in the Wallabi Group, in 1629 while the Zeewijk was wrecked on Half-Moon Reef in the Pelsaert Group in 1727. Eighteen other historic wrecks have been discovered in Abrolhos waters.
Island Industries
The Abrolhos was noted as a potential commercial crayfish site by the WA Government as early as 1904. Today, the western rock lobster is the State's most valuable commercial fishery. The waters around the Abrolhos are an important lobster-breeding habitat - it has been estimated that about 50 per cent of the WA lobster fishery's egg production comes from the Abrolhos. Hence, careful management and conservation of these breeding stocks are of vital importance to the sustainability of the entire fishery.
Pearl farming is another Abrolhos industry. The highly-prized black pearl is produced from hatchery-raised black lipped pearl oysters at eight aquaculture sites in the archipelago.
The Batavia Story
Shipwrecked
On 4 June 1629 the Batavia struck a reef near part of the Houtman Abrolhos off the Western Australian coast. Of the 322 aboard, most of the passengers and crew managed to get ashore, although 40 people drowned. The survivors, including all the women and children, were then transferred to nearby islands in the ship's longboat. However, an initial survey of the islands found no fresh water and only limited food Pelsaert realised the dire situation, and decided to search for water on the mainland. After an unsuccessful search for water on the mainland, the group headed north to the city of Batavia, now Jakarta. This journey, which ranks as one of the greatest feats of navigation in open boats, took 33 days and all aboard survived.
As the long boat left, shipmate Jeronimus Cornelisz made plans to hijack any rescue ship that might return, and use the vessel to seek freedom and the start of a new life. Cornelisz even made plans to start a new kingdom, using the gold and silver from the wrecked Batavia. Cornelisz's first deliberate act was to have all weapons and food supplies commandeered. He then moved a group of soldiers led by Wiebbe Hayes to nearby West Wallabi Island, under the false pretence of searching for water. They were told to light signal fires when they found water and they would then be rescued. Convinced that they would be unsuccessful, he then left them there to die.
Cornelisz then had complete control. The remaining survivors would now face two months of unrelenting butchery and savagery. With a dedicated band of murderous young men, Cornelisz began to systematically kill anyone he believed would be a problem to his reign of terror, or a burden on their limited resources. Apart from the poisoning of a baby, Cornelisz never committed any of the murders himself. Instead, he used his powers of persuasion to coerce others into doing it for him. His followers murdered a minimum of 110 men, women, and children.
Help returns
Although Cornelisz had left the soldiers, led by Wiebbe Hayes, to die they had in fact found good sources of water and food on their islands. Initially, they did not know of the barbarity taking place on the other islands and still sent smoke signals announcing their finds. However after they learned of the massacres from survivors the soldiers put together makeshift weapons from materials washed up from the wreck and set a watch so that they were ready for the mutineers.
Cornelisz seized on the news of water on the other island as his own supply was dwindling and the continued survival of the soldiers threatened his own success. He went with his men to try and defeat the soldiers marooned on West Wallabi Island. However the trained soldiers were, by now, much better fed than the mutineers; easily beating them and taking Cornelisz hostage.
As Pelsaert arrived in the rescue ship, a race to the ship ensued between Cornelisz's men and the soldiers. But Hayes reached the ship first and was able to put his side of the story to Captain first. After a short battle the combined force captured all of the mutineers.
Aftermath
Pelsaert elected to conduct a trial on the islands. After a brief trial, the worst offenders were taken to Seal Island and executed. Cornelisz and several other mutineers had both hands chopped off before being hanged. Two young sailors, considered only minor offenders, were marooned on mainland Australia, never to be heard of again. Reports of unusually light-skinned Aborigines in the area by later British settlers have been suggested as evidence that the two men might have been adopted into a local Aboriginal clan.
The remaining mutineers were taken to Batavia for trial. Five were hanged, while several others were flogged. On the other hand, the common soldier Wiebbe Hayes was hailed a hero. The VOC promoted him to sergeant.
Of the original 341 people on board Batavia, only 68 souls made it to the port of Batavia.