The WA Museum holds one of the most extensive VOC artefact collections in the world following the discovery, excavation and research of four Dutch East India Company ships wrecked off the Western Australian coast – Batavia (1629), Vergulde Draeck (Gilt Dragon) (1656), Zuytdorp (1712) and Zeewijk (1727).
These ships offer an opportunity to explore the complex interactions within the Indian Ocean and Southern Hemisphere as European exploration and commercial interests expanded, and multiple places and people’s lives were indelibly altered.
These encounters also have legacies for Western Australia, and continue to shape our understandings, use and interactions with places and people at home and worldwide.
These will be explored through the objects and stories featured on this website.
This portal serves as a place where the latest research about these Australian-based collections, situated in a global perspective, can be explored.
All content copyright Government of Western Australia (all rights reserved) unless otherwise indicated.
Partners and contributors
This portal builds on an international network of research and investigation of maritime archaeology and heritage that the WA Museum has been part of since the 1970s, including the Australian Research Council Linkage Project ‘Mobilising Dutch East India Company collections for new global stories’ (LP210300960). Thanks go to our many partners and contributors.
