In some earlier threads I'd made discussing early discovery of sandalwood in Oceania and Aborigine equivalents to the Native American horse culture developing, other posters suggested that the location of OTL's Perth would have made a useful colony for the Dutch, and that it could have been a resupply station for ships on the Brouwer Route.

That got me wondering-what if the Dutch got a little luckier in their accidental run-ins with Australia, explore the area around Perth and find that it's potentially useful for European-style farming and did in fact create a colony in that area (let's call it the Zwaan Stroom colony, why not)? While a little more out of the way than the Cape, the Zwaan Stroom colony would therefore be at less risk from French and English attack, and Dutch ships would still have safe harbor when turning north to Indonesia from the roaring 40's in the southern Indian Ocean.

That leaves the question of the Cape. At the height of its power, would the VOC expend resources to maintain both a Cape Colony and an Australian colony, splitting personnel and ships between these two areas? Or would the Cape remain a landmark rather than a stopping point for the Dutch? And if so, would another European power move into this potentially strategic location-perhaps the Portuguese who already had African colonies, or the English or French?
 
In some earlier threads I'd made discussing early discovery of sandalwood in Oceania and Aborigine equivalents to the Native American horse culture developing, other posters suggested that the location of OTL's Perth would have made a useful colony for the Dutch, and that it could have been a resupply station for ships on the Brouwer Route.

That got me wondering-what if the Dutch got a little luckier in their accidental run-ins with Australia, explore the area around Perth and find that it's potentially useful for European-style farming and did in fact create a colony in that area (let's call it the Zwaan Stroom colony, why not)? While a little more out of the way than the Cape, the Zwaan Stroom colony would therefore be at less risk from French and English attack, and Dutch ships would still have safe harbor when turning north to Indonesia from the roaring 40's in the southern Indian Ocean.

That leaves the question of the Cape. At the height of its power, would the VOC expend resources to maintain both a Cape Colony and an Australian colony, splitting personnel and ships between these two areas? Or would the Cape remain a landmark rather than a stopping point for the Dutch? And if so, would another European power move into this potentially strategic location-perhaps the Portuguese who already had African colonies, or the English or French?

In a word, yes. If for no other reason than to insure the Portugese (Who they fought, both with gold and guns, tooth and nail in order to pry their way into naval dominance in the Indian/West Pacific Ocean and trade in the first place) don't set themselves up there and use it to choke the Company's commerce in order to wrestle their way back to the top. Australia and the East Indies would be at the end of a long and potentially vulnerable logistics chain... of which the Cape is one of the few absolutley vital links (Barring some kind of fantastic formation of some kind of secure 'land canal' of caravans through Ottoman Egypt... which would still require sailing within large areas of Portuguese control near their mainland and the Straits of Gibralter)
 
i think that the VOC would at least like a place to stop and refit if needed.
Technically western Australia could serve the same purpose. It is on the way from the Netherlands to Indonesia after all (that is why the Dutch discovered Australia). Mind you the Cape Colony has a superior location. you need less supplies if you use the Cape, since the Amsterdam-Cape colony is shorter than the Amsterdam-West-Australia.

Besides it never stopped our cousins across the pond (North Sea), so why not keep both?
True, if you have enough people to settle both places, why not use both? Well beside the fact that the VOC did not care about it. That is the biggest problem. The colonists can basicly take care of them selves. You don't even need a large group of people to settle it. It can grow on its own. There is no reason why the VOC could not control both colonies. Except that the cape colony (and other settleent colonies) was not profitable. Mind you, I don't think it cost a lot money either. But colonies/trading posts in Asia were far more valuable. If the VOC did not needed a place for suplies, it would have ignored the Cape, just like it did Western Australia.

To get a Western Australian Dutch colony, you need a reason for settlement. There is not realy a reason for the VOC, so you need to create one.
 
Western Australia can't serve as a substitute for the Cape Colony, since it's wholly inferior to it in every way. However, it can serve as a complement to it, since it makes a nice base for resupplying ships and perhaps growing extra food/wine for the Indies. I believe it would also allow ships to more reliably travel a quicker route (the Roaring 40s) and have a good place to stop at in the process.

But I think if Portugal adopted a Brazil-esque mindset to either the Cape or Western Australia, they'd get far more use out of it than the Dutch ever did.
 

Teejay

Gone Fishin'
Western Australia can't serve as a substitute for the Cape Colony, since it's wholly inferior to it in every way. However, it can serve as a complement to it, since it makes a nice base for resupplying ships and perhaps growing extra food/wine for the Indies. I believe it would also allow ships to more reliably travel a quicker route (the Roaring 40s) and have a good place to stop at in the process.

South-western Western Australia has a climate very similar to the Cape Colony, although with higher rainfall (around 700-1300 mm annually), also there are extensive forests of tall to very tall (Karri) trees* covering the region, which the Cape Province does not have. In a continent dominated by the ENSO cycle of El-Nino and La Nina, South-Western Western Australia has very reliable winter rainfall. It's Aboriginal population was quite dense by Australian standards before European settlement.

If the Dutch had established a colony in the South-West corner of Western Australia, by 1800 there would be settlements going from Just North of Geraldton to roughly Albany, also settlements in the South-Eastern corner of South Australia and small settlements in Tasmania and Southern Victoria. The main settlement would probably be where OTL Bunbury is. These settlements would hug close the coast, because the rainfall and soils are too poor beyond that in those parts of Australia for cropland anyway (not without modern fertilizers).

There would be about 50,000 people half "White" and half "Coloured" (mixture of Bantu Africans, Aborigines, Malagasy and Indonesians). However once Merino sheep are introduced there are going to be herds of sheep going start covering large areas of the continent. Also there would be small settlements in OTL Southern Victoria and Tasmania.

If the Dutch can keep Nieuw Holland, the real game changer is when gold gets discovered around say 1815-1820. Plus you might have some those people who became the voortrekkers in OTL migrating to Australia. That would result in a major transformation of the demographics of the country to that of a large "white" (German, Dutch and Scandinavian generally) majority and a small "colored" minority.

* Karri can grow to 90 meters tall
 
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Teejay

Gone Fishin'
Technically western Australia could serve the same purpose. It is on the way from the Netherlands to Indonesia after all (that is why the Dutch discovered Australia). Mind you the Cape Colony has a superior location. you need less supplies if you use the Cape, since the Amsterdam-Cape colony is shorter than the Amsterdam-West-Australia.

However the distance between Java and West Australia not that far, plus via the Leeuwin counter-current (which is southwards instead of Northwards) which runs along the coast of Western Australia getting there would be reasonably fast. I cant see any reason why the Dutch would not establish a settlement if they had investigating the OTL South-Western corner of Western Australia. Trading with the local Aboriginal population (called the Noongar which were among the dense in pre-European Australia) would be enough justification.

One point I forgot to mention my POD of a Dutch colony in the SW corner of Western Australia.The names for a lot of Australian animals and plants would be different than OTL, which for the great part are from the Dharug language of the Sydney Basin. In this TL they would be for the great part from the Noongar language (which was native to the SW of Western Australia), for example; Nyingarn for Echidna, Weitj for Emu, Yonga for Kangaroo and so forth.

Given the small amount of Dutch settlers versus the Noongar people, quite a few Noongar words would enter the local Dutch dialect. Because I believe that part of Australia was as densely populated as the Cape Colony was by the Khoikhoi.
 
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However the distance between Java and West Australia not that far, plus via the Leeuwin counter-current (which is southwards instead of Northwards) which runs along the coast of Western Australia getting there would be reasonably fast. I cant see any reason why the Dutch would not establish a settlement if they had investigating the OTL South-Western corner of Western Australia. Trading with the local Aboriginal population (called the Noongar which were among the dense in pre-European Australia) would be enough justification.

One point I forgot to mention my POD of a Dutch colony in the SW corner of Western Australia.The names for a lot of Australian animals and plants would be different than OTL, which for the great part are from the Dharug language of the Sydney Basin. In this TL they would be for the great part from the Noongar language (which was native to the SW of Western Australia), for example; Nyingarn for Echidna, Weitj for Emu, Yonga for Kangaroo and so forth.

Given the small amount of Dutch settlers versus the Noongar people, quite a few Noongar words would enter the local Dutch dialect. Because I believe that part of Australia was as densely populated as the Cape Colony was by the Khoikhoi.

South-western Western Australia has a climate very similar to the Cape Colony, although with higher rainfall (around 700-1300 mm annually), also there are extensive forests of tall to very tall (Karri) trees* covering the region, which the Cape Province does not have. In a continent dominated by the ENSO cycle of El-Nino and La Nina, South-Western Western Australia has very reliable winter rainfall. It's Aboriginal population was quite dense by Australian standards before European settlement.

If the Dutch had established a colony in the South-West corner of Western Australia, by 1800 there would be settlements going from Just North of Geraldton to roughly Albany, also settlements in the South-Eastern corner of South Australia and small settlements in Tasmania and Southern Victoria. The main settlement would probably be where OTL Bunbury is. These settlements would hug close the coast, because the rainfall and soils are too poor beyond that in those parts of Australia for cropland anyway (not without modern fertilizers).

There would be about 50,000 people half "White" and half "Coloured" (mixture of Bantu Africans, Aborigines, Malagasy and Indonesians). However once Merino sheep are introduced there are going to be herds of sheep going start covering large areas of the continent. Also there would be small settlements in OTL Southern Victoria and Tasmania.

If the Dutch can keep Nieuw Holland, the real game changer is when gold gets discovered around say 1815-1820. Plus you might have some those people who became the voortrekkers in OTL migrating to Australia. That would result in a major transformation of the demographics of the country to that of a large "white" (German, Dutch and Scandinavian generally) majority and a small "colored" minority.

* Karri can grow to 90 meters tall

It is certainly possible for the Dutch to settle Western Australia, but generaly speaking simply not worth it for the VOC. Asia was far, far more profitable. If it had been worth it, they would have actualu settled western Australia
 
A colony in the Cape is too useful not to be kept as long as possible.
In this scenario it might be smaller if resources are diverted to Dutch Australia.
 
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