Historic Tours
Historical Tours and Island Walking:
The Abrolhos Islands are quiet a hostile environment on your feet so it is very important to bring along some closed in shoes if you want to explore the land or do some beach combing. While visiting each of the islands and remote sites, you begin to realize the rich history of the area. The early mariners, "abre os olhos", quickly named the islands Abrolhos, meaning "Open The Eyes". Wrecks are littered through out the islands, a reminder just how hazardous these waters once were.
The best known being the Dutch East Indies Company vessel Batavia ( 1629 ) wrecked on morning reef near beacon Island. While Commander Pelsart and 44 of his men took the ships tender to Jakarta for help, fighting and mutiny erupted on the Islands. Jeronimus Cornelies had more than 130 men woman and children murdered. When Pelsart returned he captured and tried the perpetrators, 36 were hanged on Long Island.
There's the fort ... nothing more than a tiny, sandstone-coloured rectangle in the scrub about 100 metres from the sea. It is unimpressive and isolated and yet this simple structure, just some loose rocks piled up to make a simple fortress, is the first building Europeans constructed in Australia. It was built 375 years ago, in 1629. That was 141 years before Cook sailed up the continent's east coast and 159 years before Phillip set foot on the shores of Port Jackson. Contact us now to ask us how to organize your next historical and truly fascinating tour of this famous part of Australia.
Batavia Anchor & Webbie Hayes Fort 1629
Contact us for group rates and dates