Wiebbe Hayes Stone Fort
Defensive structure in West Wallabi Island, Australia
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Wiebbe Hayes Stone Fort on West Wallabi Island (also known as Wiebbe Hayes Island) is the oldest surviving European building in Australia,[2][3] and was built in 1629 by survivors of the Batavia shipwreck and massacre.[4] West Wallabi Island is 63 kilometres (39 mi) from the coast of Western Australia.
| Wiebbe Hayes Stone Fort | |
|---|---|
The fort in 2001 | |
 Interactive map of the Wiebbe Hayes Stone Fort area | |
General information | |
| Type | Defensive structure |
| Location | West Wallabi Island, Australia |
| Coordinates | 28°27′41″S 113°42′15″E |
Construction started | 1629 |
Official name | Ruins of Two Stone Huts |
| Type | Heritage Council |
| Designated | 31 July 1995 |
| Part of | Houtman Abrolhos Islands |
| Reference no. | 3990 |
Official name | Batavia Shipwreck Site and Survivor Camps Area 1629 |
| Type | Historic |
| Criteria | A, C, D, G |
| Designated | 6 April 2006 |
| Reference no. | 105887 |
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History
Following the Batavia shipwreck in 1629, a group of the marooned soldiers under the command of Wiebbe Hayes were put ashore on East Wallabi Island to search for water.[2] A group of mutineers, led by Jeronimus Cornelisz, took control of the other survivors and left Hayes' group there, secretly hoping that they would starve or die of thirst. However, the soldiers discovered that they were able to wade to West Wallabi Island,[2] where there was a fresh water source. Furthermore, West and East Wallabi Island are the only islands in the group upon which the tammar wallaby lives. Thus the soldiers had access to sources of both food and water that were unavailable to the mutineers.
Later the mutineers mounted a series of attacks, which the soldiers repulsed. The remnants of improvised defensive walls and stone shelters built by Wiebbe Hayes and his men on West Wallabi Island are Australia's oldest known European structures,[5][6][7] more than a century and a half before expeditions to the Australian continent by James Cook and Arthur Phillip.[4] The remnants of[4]
the fort ... [are] nothing more than a tiny, sandstone-coloured rectangle in the scrub about 100 metres [110 yd] from the sea. It is unimpressive and isolated and yet this simple structure, just some loose rocks piled up to make a simple fortress, is the first building Europeans constructed in Australia.