"New Holland Company" settles Victoria, Australia and discovers Gold

[Adora Basil Winterpock]

The Dutch explored the western part of Australia in OTL and found it pretty uninmpressive and didn't do anything with it.

What if Abel Tasman instead of ending up in New Zeeland maps the southeastern part of Australia, the coast of modern day Victoria. The pleasant climate and huge natural harbour will surely impress him.

I don't think the VOC would take the risk of founding a settlement in such a remote location without a good reason to do so, but what if some crazy and very rich dutchman decides to found his own "New Holland Company" to explore and exploit the new continent, convinced that it contains vast riches. Would that even be possible?

Melbourne was founded in 1835 and gold was discovered in 1851, if the NHC founds a settlement around 1650 then they'll probably discover gold 1665-1670 and from there on the colony will grow massively of course. Is this a probable scenario? How will the colony develop and how will it change Dutch policy? Will the Spanish, British or French conquer it? What might happen to New Zeeland in this TL?

 

[coz957]

Well look at what happened to Asia and America when it was rumoured to be the lands of gold.Australia would be split between France,the Dutch, and the UK.

 

[HJ Tulp]

I don't think the VOC would take the risk of founding a settlement in such a remote location without a good reason to do so, but what if some crazy and very rich dutchman decides to found his own "New Holland Company" to explore and exploit the new continent, convinced that it contains vast riches. Would that even be possible?

The problem with this scenario is that the VOC had a total monopoly on trade east of Cape Good Hope, and this was very much enforced, on pain of death at times. This venture would have to be at least a joint venture, if such a thing would be possible.

 

[Xavier]

The problem with this scenario is that the VOC had a total monopoly on trade east of Cape Good Hope, and this was very much enforced, on pain of death at times. This venture would have to be at least a joint venture, if such a thing would be possible.

Indeed, and considering the lack of enthusiasm by the VOC in developping the Cape Colony as a true settler colony, I don't see how you could convince them that a settler colony twice as far is a good idea to invest in.

You would probably need several explorers making landfall and going inland so they eventually end up stumbling upon some rich gold veins. Going by the OTL AUS gold discoveries, one or two small discoveries aren't enough to trigger major investment/a gold rush. Now in OTL, both in South Africa and New Holland, the gold was too far from the coast for the limited Dutch exploration to stumble upon it before the British took it all. I don't see how you could get much more Dutch exploration going before knowing the gold is there, so you basically need one of the few explorators that were around to get really, really lucky in a stretches-the-limits-of-plausability-to-the-limit kind of events. (which, to be be honest, did sometimes occur in OTL)

A New Holland colony would thus most likely be founded after said lucky find, as that would probably be the only thing to attract some serious interest from the VOC.