Dirk Hartog's Plate Left

Date: October 25, 1616 • Location: Denham, Australia

Dutch explorer Dirk Hartog left a plate on an island in Shark Bay, the oldest-known artefact of European exploration in Australia still in existence.

Dirk Hartog was a 17th-century Dutch mariner and explorer. Dirk Hartog's expedition was the second European group to land in Australia and the first to leave behind an artefact to record his visit, the Hartog Plate. His name is sometimes alternatively spelled Dirck Hartog or Dierick Hartochsz. Explorer Ernest Giles referred to him as Theodoric Hartog. The Western Australian island Dirk Hartog Island is named after Hartog.