WI: Dutch Colonised Western Australia

As we know, the Dutch where the first europeans that we know of that arrived on the Australian continent. What if they decided to colonise australia, or at least western australia (not the state, just the western area).

Along the coast, its actually quiet green and lush up to a certain point. I calculated and at least 300,000 sq km is green, could the dutch have settled there and set up a colony?

Where would their main city/base be. How do you think a Dutch colony in western australia would have grown, would they have grown past the western edge or just keep to that area

what would their interactions with the britsh have been like if the dutch didn't get there already (probably not).

How would the dutch treat the indigenous population as opposed to the british in otl.
 

samcster94

Banned
As we know, the Dutch where the first europeans that we know of that arrived on the Australian continent. What if they decided to colonise australia, or at least western australia (not the state, just the western area).

Along the coast, its actually quiet green and lush up to a certain point. I calculated and at least 300,000 sq km is green, could the dutch have settled there and set up a colony?

Where would their main city/base be. How do you think a Dutch colony in western australia would have grown, would they have grown past the western edge or just keep to that area

what would their interactions with the britsh have been like if the dutch didn't get there already (probably not).

How would the dutch treat the indigenous population as opposed to the british in otl.
Their "Perth" would be a very different city and I think they'd be much more brutal.
 
Their "Perth" would be a very different city and I think they'd be much more brutal.

what would Perth be like? more dutch i'd guess, but a bigger city? Would they be looking to build up the south-west corner more (and areas such as albany).

Also brutal as in cracking down, integration or slaughter?
 
The Dutch could have colonised WA if they wanted to. They knew where it was and it was the most convenient part of the continent for Europeans to reach.

The question is why would they? Historically they never showed the slightest interest in doing so. The Dutch East India Company (VOC) was only really interested in trading outposts and resource exploitation, not settlement colonies. Even South Africa, their closest thing to a settlement colony, was only set up because it made the perfect way-station. Even then, the Dutch colonisation was half-hearted at best.

So work out the motivation for Dutch colonisation and that will determine where and how vigorously they set up any colonies.
 
There's a smattering of sandalwood in WA, which would give a colony of farmers and herders some easy cash early on. I don't think Perth or SW WA is hemmed in by mountains like Sydney is, so settlement might be scattered rather than concentrated.
 
I was working on this scenario as a POD to get an Aborigine version of the Plains Indians culture. The way I saw it, they wouldn't be too interested in the farmable parts of Western Australia, at least initially since they were interested in profit. The Aborigines were not mining gold or growing spices, so that's not going to draw them in. But Western Australia has large amounts of sandalwood, which is extremely valuable for trade especially in China but in India as well. If a ship finds sandalwood, that would be more than enough impetus to create a colony.

According to the botanical range maps I've looked up, though, Perth is not really sandalwood territory-apparently the Australian sandalwood species prefers semi-arid conditions. Esperance and Geraldton would, IMO, be more likely places to be the initial colony if this provides the impetus for settlement.
 
The Dutch could have colonised WA if they wanted to. They knew where it was and it was the most convenient part of the continent for Europeans to reach.

The question is why would they? Historically they never showed the slightest interest in doing so. The Dutch East India Company (VOC) was only really interested in trading outposts and resource exploitation, not settlement colonies. Even South Africa, their closest thing to a settlement colony, was only set up because it made the perfect way-station. Even then, the Dutch colonisation was half-hearted at best.

So work out the motivation for Dutch colonisation and that will determine where and how vigorously they set up any colonies.

maybe they find a reason to, an outpost for the East India company perhaps? a trading port there.
 
maybe they find a reason to, an outpost for the East India company perhaps? a trading port there.
There's no-one they can trade with. The local inhabitants do not produce the kind of goods which the Dutch are interested in.

The obvious attractive goods, for the Dutch, are gold and sandalwood. Both of those are present in the right parts of WA, but not near the coast where the Dutch might plausibly find them. Nor would the locals be interested in collecting them for the Dutch.

I'm not saying a Dutch colony in WA is impossible - far from it - but it's a tougher ask than it first appears. It needs to find either:
- a pull factor to interest the Dutch (hard)
- a push factor to motivate some Dutch people to leave the Netherlands and settle all the way in WA.

Neither of those are easy, but there may be possible scenarios.
 
There's no-one they can trade with. The local inhabitants do not produce the kind of goods which the Dutch are interested in.

The obvious attractive goods, for the Dutch, are gold and sandalwood. Both of those are present in the right parts of WA, but not near the coast where the Dutch might plausibly find them. Nor would the locals be interested in collecting them for the Dutch.

I'm not saying a Dutch colony in WA is impossible - far from it - but it's a tougher ask than it first appears. It needs to find either:
- a pull factor to interest the Dutch (hard)
- a push factor to motivate some Dutch people to leave the Netherlands and settle all the way in WA.

Neither of those are easy, but there may be possible scenarios.

I mentioned this possibility in a thread a few weeks ago, but a 'pull' factor for the VOC (Who, let's be honest, would be the one's doing the colonizing rather than the Dutch government proper; The Hague lacks the directly controlled institutions and governmental mindset, too much of a mercantile culture, and bigger issues to focus on closer to home for large-scale state-directed colonization that far from home to have much opportunity to materialize) would be the establishment of a slave trading post if they went ahead with a "replacement" program of the locals on key East Indies islands for stability and productivity of their spice plantations. Of course, you'd need a high enough attrition rate on imports from Africa (Most likely on the naval leg) to make the idea ideal, but the idea would be "Make friends with some local tribes, supply them with a few horses and guns in exchange for dragging in said sandalwood, and encourage them to make war on their rivals and sell them to us on the cheap. We can have our employees stay nice and safe near the fort, maybe do some light herding and artisan work so the colony can provide its own domestic source of trade-cloth and such for even more profit, or grow food that we can ship north so we can use even more of the plantation land for cash crops"; the former similar to the methoids employed in the fur trade of North America, the later what the Frenchies were planning on doing with Lousannia before losing Haiti.

Not the BEST option, nessicerily, but it could be profitable if the natives on, say, Banda get too restless.
 
There's no-one they can trade with. The local inhabitants do not produce the kind of goods which the Dutch are interested in.

The obvious attractive goods, for the Dutch, are gold and sandalwood. Both of those are present in the right parts of WA, but not near the coast where the Dutch might plausibly find them. Nor would the locals be interested in collecting them for the Dutch.

I'm not saying a Dutch colony in WA is impossible - far from it - but it's a tougher ask than it first appears. It needs to find either:
- a pull factor to interest the Dutch (hard)
- a push factor to motivate some Dutch people to leave the Netherlands and settle all the way in WA.

Neither of those are easy, but there may be possible scenarios.

well the dutch come in here and create the trade for themselves (for things such as sandlewood etc). I'm sure they'd find something in which they'd want to mine. Also i'm sure the lure of living in some new land would also be a pull for them (as it would be different from the east indies). Their would be a scenario there somewhere
 
There's no-one they can trade with. The local inhabitants do not produce the kind of goods which the Dutch are interested in.

The obvious attractive goods, for the Dutch, are gold and sandalwood. Both of those are present in the right parts of WA, but not near the coast where the Dutch might plausibly find them. Nor would the locals be interested in collecting them for the Dutch.

I'm not saying a Dutch colony in WA is impossible - far from it - but it's a tougher ask than it first appears. It needs to find either:
- a pull factor to interest the Dutch (hard)
- a push factor to motivate some Dutch people to leave the Netherlands and settle all the way in WA.

Neither of those are easy, but there may be possible scenarios.
Maybe the Dutch would like a settler state in Australia to have a more local garrison to defend its colonial possesion in south east asia? Also it would be a place for the dutch to export their population surplus to an area that is dutch linguistically, culturally and ethnically. This would increase the number of speekers of dutch as dutch emigrants to dutch australia wouls speek dutch and not english like dutch emigrants to USA.
 
As we know, the Dutch where the first europeans that we know of that arrived on the Australian continent. What if they decided to colonise australia, or at least western australia (not the state, just the western area).

Along the coast, its actually quiet green and lush up to a certain point. I calculated and at least 300,000 sq km is green, could the dutch have settled there and set up a colony?

Where would their main city/base be. How do you think a Dutch colony in western australia would have grown, would they have grown past the western edge or just keep to that area

what would their interactions with the britsh have been like if the dutch didn't get there already (probably not).

How would the dutch treat the indigenous population as opposed to the british in otl.
Why was it the Dutch decided to not colonise Australia in OTL?
 
well the dutch come in here and create the trade for themselves (for things such as sandlewood etc). I'm sure they'd find something in which they'd want to mine.
That would be more of a resource extraction colony than a trading outpost. And they would need to find the resources, which is not easy. The Dutch were in intermittent contact with Western Australia from about 1605-1770 without any meaningful competition (the English/British started to sniff around parts of Australia then), and never had the slightest hint that they were there. Sandalwood is easier to manage than gold, but would still require the Dutch to land and move about 100km or more inland (from the west coast), across unfamiliar country, before they might even encounter it in any numbers.

Also i'm sure the lure of living in some new land would also be a pull for them (as it would be different from the east indies). Their would be a scenario there somewhere
Not saying it's impossible, but it does require a significant change, probably somewhere in the Netherlands itself to create a push factor. The Dutch did not think it was a worthwhile land in OTL - their descriptions of it were unflattering, to say the least - and if there were individuals who wanted free land, North America or even South Africa was closer and more inviting.

Maybe the Dutch would like a settler state in Australia to have a more local garrison to defend its colonial possesion in south east asia? Also it would be a place for the dutch to export their population surplus to an area that is dutch linguistically, culturally and ethnically. This would increase the number of speekers of dutch as dutch emigrants to dutch australia wouls speek dutch and not english like dutch emigrants to USA.
The Dutch did not have a surplus population who wanted to emigrate. The Netherlands were attractive enough and religiously tolerant enough that the Dutch did not have large numbers of emigrants anywhere. This is in contrast to, say, Britain, which had a massive population outflow throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

A garrison/victualling station may have some potential, although given the difficulties the Dutch had in finding colonists for South Africa, would still be a challenge.

Why was it the Dutch decided to not colonise Australia in OTL?
Essentially because nothing there interested them. The Dutch East India Company was interested in profits, not in planting settlement colonies for the sake of it. They did not know of the potential resources further inland in Australia, and given the clear lack of appeal of the coast, were not going to sponsor expensive expeditions to wander aimlessly through the interior of a hostile land when their shareholders would rather that they spent money pursuing known profits elsewhere.
 
If you had William Janszoon have more favourable contacts on the Cape York peninsula, it's possible a Dutch trading/settler outpost could be set up in the Gulf of Carpentaria as a secure Dutch headquarters for the VOC. The location can be secured fairly easily from Timor and the Torres Strait and the low density of natives in the region secures it by land.

Given the Dutch trade routes through the roaring 40's I can see any such settlement spreading itself along the North and Western Coast and perhaps inland depending on whether seasonal lakes are present.

If it isn't taken in an Anglo-Dutch war, I can see the Netherlands being a much more active player in Asia, probably retaining Taiwan and incorporating Japan into their sphere of influence.
 
There's evidence Chinese maritime traders visited the coat, and claims of a lead mine. Perhaps had that, or some other group developed some small colonies the Dutch would have hijacked those?
 
The obvious attractive goods, for the Dutch, are gold and sandalwood. Both of those are present in the right parts of WA, but not near the coast where the Dutch might plausibly find them. Nor would the locals be interested in collecting them for the Dutch.


Possibly a Dutch expedition could go up the Swan River. I could see a damaged ship making landfall at OTL's Perth to make repairs, and a more permissive VOC official such as Pieter Nuyts giving permission to a captain to send an expedition up the river to explore. Of course, that would require the VOC to equip boats on their ocean going ships capable of navigating up a river-from what I've read about The Batavia, VOC ships did have smaller boats on them for crew use, but I don't know how well those would do on the Swan River.

Looking at the exploitation of sandalwood in Polynesia and Melanesia IOTL, it can be profitable with free labor but you need a motivator-IOTL, labor gangs of Tongans had wages that were literally cheap as nails, as they were seeking iron for tools and were happy to dig up trees in exchange for it. ITTL, a portion of sandalwood harvest, even just a few planks of sandalwood, could be an attractive payment to Asian laborers. And of course the VOC could use slaves, though in the vastness of Australia they could easily go maroon unless the company develops positive enough relations with the Aborigines to hire them as trackers (which is possible, but it could just as easily go the other way).

Edit: I had a thought, if this happened with the Tryall (an English ship that IOTL got wrecked further north in Australia) and the English found sandalwood, would they be able to out-hustle the VOC at that point in controlling WA? Or would the VOC kick them out? Even with a discovery of sandalwood, I don't see either side initially seeing WA as worth spilling a lot of blood over.
 
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If you had an even stronger Dutch presence at the Cape and in the Indies, and maybe even South America too, then maybe you have even more use of the Brouwer Route than OTL. What happens is somehow, the Dutch take the risk to put a supply station somewhere in Southwest Australia, where you can grow food for passing ships and also the Indies. If they find sandalwood, which is further north and in a place where agriculture is more difficult, the colony can grow food and produce beer/wine for the labourers to the north. These labourers will mostly be Indonesians and probably some Africans too. It would be very interesting to see the culture of Western Australia given a few centuries. It would have all sorts of Chinese, Indonesian, African, European, and Aboriginal influence, and probably at least a few mixed-race individuals who are a mixture of all those races.

And also, Haemodorum spicatum is an interesting plant the Dutch might exploit. According to this, it was traditionally used for medicinal purposes (allegedly helps toothaches, mouth sores, and even dysentery), and also because it can be used to produce a red dye, hence the common name "bloodroot". Even more interesting, it can be used as a spice comparable to chili, and it's allegedly very spicy. Known by the Aboriginals, could this end up a trade good of any note?

Their "Perth" would be a very different city and I think they'd be much more brutal.

Why slaughter? Why would the Dutch be any worse than the British who shot the locals for fun when they weren't killing them for other reasons? We have the Khoikhoi as an example of how the Dutch and VOC might deal with the locals and it's not really any worse than typical colonialism. I'm not sure of the density of Khoi peoples compared to Aboriginals (Southwest Australia was relatively densely populated for Aboriginal Australia), but you'd probably still have a decent amount of mixed-race people since the Dutch and Indonesian people in Australia will largely be single men (or otherwise away from their wives).
 
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