Pieces of history

This fort on one of the Abrolhos (which means 'open your eyes') Islands is the oldest standing European structure in Australia. In 1629 a Dutch East India Company ship called the Batavia ran aground on one of the islands. The captain headed to the mainalnd and then back to Jakarta, leaving 268 people including soldiers behind. In the pretext of finding water, the soliders were sent to this island without weapons. Meanwhile there was a mutiny on the other island and 125 men, women and children were murdered. The soldiers built the fort to protect themselves from invasion.

Below is a shot of one of the three shipwrecks we saw, that of a steamer which helped build Fremantle Port.