Watchandi Man. Robert Hallsworth

In 1629 the VOC (Dutch East Indies Co.), ship, Batavia, was wrecked on the Abrolhos Islands off the coast of Western Australia. What followed became one of the most horrific events in maritime history and has been well documented. Subsequent to those events two members of the Batavia,s crew, Wouter Loss and Jan Pelgrom De Bye, were marooned on the mainland by the Commander, Francisco Pelsaert. They were never seen or heard from again, although many believe that they did survive and integrated with the local Aboriginal tribe, the Nhanda people. If this is true, it may well have been the birth of multicultural Australia. This is the story of what might have happened.