samcster94
Banned
So, basically the status quo, but a much more racially mixed pop?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?
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).