Tom became involved with Duyfken Project from its onset in 1993 and it immediately triggered his interest in the Dutch ships that had sailed past Western Australia's coastline in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

He found that, generally speaking, very little was known about this in the community other than that there were some shipwrecks on the coast - the Batavia being the most well known.

Further investigations revealed that the ships had not only just sailed past on their way to the Indies with some wrecking, but  their Captains had also "put Australia on the map" by charting its coastline. By the middle of the 17th century, he found that ships of the Vereeningde Oostindiesche Compagnie or Dutch East India Company or plain VOC had in fact mapped Australia's  coastline from Cape York  west and southwards along WA coastline to Ceduna in the Great Australian Bight. 

That is 120 years before Captain Cook claimed the East coast of Australia for the Crown!

Furthermore, apart from the Batavia at least another 3 VOC ships had wrecked leaving survivors stranded on the shore of a strange land. He estimates that the survivors over the period could have amounted to around 300. Treasure too, along with many artifacts, was brought to the mainland by them. 

He feels that after the annexation of New Holland, the colonists and subsequent governments have done little or nothing to safeguard anything to do with that pre-colonial history.

He thinks that it was a substantial period of West Australian history and that it should not be ignored. Over 150 years of pre-colonial Australian history needs to be accounted for! 

As often happens he was not the only one interested in this history and in 2000 the VOC Historical Society Inc. was established. Tom  became the inaugural President. He still is!.

Tom has dedicated his life to researching the fate of VOC shipwreck survivors in Western Australia in the 17th Century. He is certain many survived long enough to mingle with the local aboriginal population and that traces of this co-habitation can still be found. Tom has collected a massive amount of information  by talking to academics, local coastal people, undertaking library and archival searches and the internet. In fact he is happy to talk to anyone about this history. His enthusiasm and passion for the subject will soon become apparent and he hopes it is infectious and will translate into more members for the Society.

The Society has a solid and loyal membership of many years standing. Ongoing research will reveal more of  what happened to the descendants of these unfortunate European sailors. There may well be several thousand of them in present day Western Australia. He says he would like to hear from them!