Dirk Hartog Island

Located off the Gascoyne coast of Western Australia, within the Shark Bay World Heritage Area, Dirk Hartog Island is the largest and westernmost island in Western Australia.

Spanning around 80 kilometers in length and between 3 and 15 kilometers in width, the island covers an area of 620 square kilometers and is approximately 850 kilometers north of Perth. The island is known as Wirruwana by the traditional owners of the land, the Malgana people, but was given its current name after the Dutch sea captain, Dirk Hartog.

Dirk Hartog made history discovering the island on 25 October 1616 in the Dutch East India Company (VOC) ship Eendracht. The island's history continued when Dutch captain Willem de Vlamingh landed on the island in 1697 and found Hartog's plate. He replaced it with one of his own and took the original plate home to Amsterdam. In March 1772, Breton navigator Louis Aleno de St Aloüarn claimed the island for the French. The island was used as a sheep station by early European settlers and became part of the Shark Bay Marine Park in 1969.

Dirk Hartog Island offers many incredible spots, including Cape Inscription, where Hartog's plaque is located, and the main lighthouse. Turtle Bay, a bay facing north next to Cape Inscription, is another notable location on the island. The most southwesterly point, known as Surf Point, is situated at the channel known as South Passage, across from Steep Point on its southwest side.

The island is an important breeding site for loggerhead sea turtles, and both green turtles and loggerhead turtles can be found nesting on