Dutch-Australian maritime symposium

Two world experts on the early Dutch exploration of the Australian coast will contribute to an entertaining symposium on Dutch-Australian maritime links in Sydney on 12-13 May this year.

Other speakers will talk on wide-ranging subjects such as early Dutch efforts to chart the Western Australian coast, Dutch-Australian relations in World War II and Dutch influences in contemporary Australian culture.

The two-day symposium Dutch Connections – 400 Years of Australian-Dutch Maritime Links 1606-2006 will celebrate the 400th anniversary of Dutch navigator Willem Janszoon, in the Duyfken, sailing into the Gulf of Carpenteria and making the first European contact with Australia in the spring of 1606.With registration open to everyone, it will be presented by the Australian National Maritime Museum and Shell at the National Maritime Museum, Darling Harbour.

The two visiting experts on early Dutch trade with the East Indies and the exploration of Australia’s west coast are
· Professor Peter Sigmond, Director of Collections at the renowned Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, and
· Dr Robert Parthesius, historian and curator at the Amsterdam Historical Museum.

The other speakers will include:
Dr Philip Playford (Western Australian Museum): Dirck Hartogh and the Land of the Eendracht: early exploration and shipwrecks on the coast of Western Australia… a paper that will review the famous navigators who visited Cape Inscription WA in the 17th – 19th centuries.
Paul Brunton (State Library of NSW): Abel Janszoon Tasman – The Australian voyages, missing journals and fugitive charts.
Dr Mack McCarthy (Western Australian Maritime Museum): The Dutch on Australian Shores, the Zuytdorp tragedy – unfinished business.
Dr Nonja Peters (Curtin University of Technology WA): Doubled Dutch – Post-war Migration to Australia.
Dr Peter Stanley (Australian War Memorial): ‘The Dutch are a mob of bastards’ – Australian and Dutch relations in the Pacific War.
Dr Nigel Erskine (Australian National Maritime Museum): Dutch encounters and the Australasian shore… a paper that will consider how Dutch settlements in Asia contributed to the British settlement of Australia, and Dutch connections in the National Maritime Collection.
Akky van Ogtrop (Dutch-Australia Cultural Centre): The Dutch Experience in Australia – Visual Arts
Gerard Willems (Sydney Conservatorium of Museum): The Dutch Experience in Australia - Music

Registration for the two-day symposium Dutch Connections – 400 Years of Australian-Dutch Maritime Links 1606-2006 costs $77. This includes two lunches, morning and afternoon teas. Registration for one of the two days costs $44. For information and bookings, phone Carolyn Allen +61 2 9298 3777.