Batavia_ENG

Of the 282 people who survived the wrecking of Batavia, most ended up on a small, waterless, coral shingle island, which survivors named ‘Batavia’s Graveyard’. About 30 survivors died from thirst in the first few days. At just 350 metres long and 3.5 metres above sea level at its highest point, Beacon Island, as it is now known, became the main setting of the mutiny and subsequent massacre.

Cornelisz ordered the first murders on 3 July 1629, a month after the shipwreck. He started with the ill and infirm, and the men who were loyal to Pelsaert and the VOC. Over the next four weeks, the mutineers were responsible for the deaths of 115 people.

Fishing camps

Since the 1950s, Beacon Islands has been inhabited by western rock lobster fishers. The State Government negotiated with the Beacon Island fishing camp owners to relinquish their camps and relocate to other islands. This enabled the removal of all camps and other infrastructure in 2014. Today, the island is much like it was when the shipwreck survivors arrived there in 1629. Remnant coral slab walls, built using natural materials from the island, are the only signs of the former fishing community.

Historic features

A plate coral windbreak or shelter structure at the south-eastern end of Beacon Island is often described as ‘Cornelisz’s prison’. However, there is no documentary or archaeological evidence to support this. This structure has been subject to an unknown amount of reconstruction and probably differs from its original form. In 1967, an archaeological excavation found brass sheeting, a small piece of fabric, iron fragments and animal bones. A clay pipe bowl was found nearby but this, together with remains of a pale green glass bottle, appear to be nineteenth century in origin. The structure is not confirmed to be associated with Batavia. It may be associated with survivors from the nineteenth century Hadda (1877) shipwreck.

A submerged iron cannon is visible from the shore in shallow water off the southern edge of the island. It has been there since it was removed from the Batavia wreck site by rock lobster fishers in the 1970s.

Research continues

Beacon Island is historically and archaeologically significant due to its confirmed association with the survivors and fatalities following the wreck of Batavia, and the subsequent mutiny and massacre. Although there has been a substantial amount of uncontrolled and controlled excavation on the island, the exact locations of the seventeenth century survivors’ encampments have not been determined.

The modern mapping, geophysical site recording and forensic analytical techniques used on Beacon Island have already revealed answers to significant questions about the shipwreck and mutiny. The WA Museum and its research partners continue to actively research the island due to its high archaeological values and potential for more discoveries.

STS Leeuwin sailing past Beacon Island, 2005. Credit: C. Souter

Massacre on Beacon Island. Illustration from Ongeluckige voyagie, 1647.

Credit: State Library of Western Australia, b1660729_3