This book is dedicated to all those members of the Duyfken Foundation and their supporters, who had the foresight to build the Duyfken replica ship and through their continued involvement keep the history of the first Dutch voyages to Australia alive.
The founder of the Duyfken Replica Project was Dutch-born Australian historian Michael Young who lobbied extensively for a new replica project after the launch of the Endeavour replica at Fremantle in the mid-1990s. The Duyfken Replica committee was established in 1995 consisting of Michael Young, Dr. Kees de Heer, Peter Becu and journalist James Henderson. This led to the establishment of the 'Friends of the Duyfken' group and then with John Longley's support the 'Duyfken 1606 Replica Foundation'. The Foundation was initially chaired by the dynamic entrepreneur Michael G. Kailis of Perth, who led the charge in raising the $3.9 million building budget by raising significant donations from governments and private industry. On 27 March 1997, Dutch Crown Prince Willem-Alexander laid the Duyfken Replica's keel at the construction ship yard in front of the Fremantle Maritime Museum in Fremantle, Western Australia.
When the original Duyfken was built, ships were not built according to plans but evolved with the skill of a master shipwright according to his instructions and the material at hand. The aim was to build the replica in the same way as the original, which is by building it plank-first with no frames to predetermine the shape of the hull. This of course was a huge leap for the current 20th century shipwrights who were used to building a ship frame first. Duyfken’s hull is built from European oak imported from Latvia and her sails and rigging are made of natural flax and hemp. Oak planks, some of them more than 100mm thick, were bent to shape by heating them over open fires until the timber became plastic and could be fastened to each other to form the shell of the hull. The inside frames or ribbing were added afterwards in the same manner as similar ships are still built in Indonesia.
The hull of the Duyfken replica was launched in January 1999 and the ship was ready for sea trials the following July. In April 2000 the Duyfken replica sailed from Fremantle on what would be a re-enactment of the original Duyfken voyage from Banda to Cape York. The crew had to learn new sailing skills, those needed to sail the equivalent of a 400 year old ship and it is believed to be the only ship operating in the world using a traditional Dutch Whipstaff or ‘Kolderstok’ for steering. The Duyfken replica followed Willem Janszoon’s original route from Banda to the Queensland coast, but unlike the voyage of 1606 they came ashore with the permission of the Aboriginal people of the Cape York Peninsula. This time, message sticks and handshakes were exchanged – not musket balls and spears.