Today, our own member, Michael Young, was the guest speaker.  He told us of his role in this fascinating project to re-create a 15th Century sailing ship, and then to re-create a voyage.

Duyfken was an armed yacht owned by the United Dutch East India Company (VOC) which in 1606, captained by Willem Janszoon, made the first historically recorded voyage to Australia. We do not know when Duyfken was built. She was bought second-hand by the newly formed VOC in 1602 for 2200 florins. At that time she had already made one voyage to the Indies. Duyfken left Banten, Java, on November 18th, 1605 and sailed east to the Banda Islands. She set out on her voyage of exploration from Banda, probably in late December and reached Cape York, Peninsular in February. Duyfken’s  crew is known to have totaled twenty persons.                 

 Michael's background is as a social scientist, with a Bachelor of Social Science, major in sociology, economic, history and statistics from the University of New England. He has a wealth of experience in social policy and organizational development. His excellent understanding of Aboriginal culture and his ability to communicate and negotiate has assisted him greatly in establishing social impact guidelines related to development proposals within the Pilbara region of Western Australia.

In today's talk he described how he spent years of his spare time developing a replica of a Dutch VOC ship called Duyfken in the Duyfken replica project.He was the founder and project coordinator of the project.Since he was born in Holland, his inspiration for the project was initially sparked in 1975 when he was given a book on Duyfken written by Priscilla Murdoch.

Duyfken (little Dove) was a 24 meter Dutch yacht, the first European ship to chart Australian waters. Captain Willem Janszoon arrived at Cape York Peninsular after sailing along the New Guinea coasts in 1606. He has been passionate about the subject ever since.

When a replica of Captain Cook’s bark Endeavour was preparing to leave for her voyage from Fremantle to Sydney people suggested that traditional European shipbuilding skills acquired during the project should be nurtured and developed. Michael suggested building a second replica at Fremantle; this time it would be the ‘Duyfken’.

A’ friends of the Duyfken’ group as well as the ‘Duyfken Foundation’ was formed to raise money to build the vessel in Fremantle. The role of the Foundation was broader then just simply to build the most authentic replica and nurture replica shipbuilding skills in Fremantle. The project also aimed to make all Australians aware of the events that shaped their history, namely putting Australia on the world map and to promote closer understanding between Australia, Indonesia and the Netherlands. It took 5 years of sleepless nights countless meetings of up to 300 people crammed into his home, phone calls and letters but it has all been worth it.  On January 24 1999, the ship was launched, witnessed by thousands of visitors. 


Since it’s launching in 1999 Duyfken has made many impressive historical voyages in and outside Australia

• Chevron 2000 Duyfken expediton. Duyfken sailed through the Spice Islands arriving at Banda, the departure point for the original voyage in 1606. She then sailed back to Australia for an historic reenactment of the first landing and contact between Europeans and Aboriginal Australia. (This is the video Michael will be showing)
•  2002 VOC Duyfken Voyagie. The word Voyagie is an old Dutch word meaning voyage. As part of the VOC 400 anniversary celebrations Duyfken was invited and sponsored by the Duth Government to sail to the Netherlands. Duyfken sailed from Sydney to Jakarta, then across the Indian Ocean to Sri Lanka, then Mauritius and South Africa before sailing north through the Atlantic Ocean to The Netherlands. Not since the spice trading days of the Dutch East India Company (VOC) more than 300 years ago has such a voyage been attempted. Michael spent 6 months with the ship in The Netherlands giving lectures and interviews about this project
• The 1606-2006 Duyfken Voyage. This voyage marks the 400th anniversary of the first documented European contact with Australia. The story of this defining period in our history was told as Duyfken visited 25 ports around Australia, reminding Australians of the importance of our coastal and maritime heritage and giving those who visit the ship a deep appreciation of history in the raw and the courage and skills of 17th century seafaring explorers     

For further information:

• Duyfken 1606 Replica Foundation
• Duyfken on Wikipedia