Unfortunately, once again, it was too rough and windy to visit the main reason (in my opinion) for coming here - Beacon Island and the Batavia. As we learnt at school, the Batavia was a Dutch ship carrying a large amount of gold and jewels and people to the Dutch East Indies that ran aground close by. The survivors ended up on Beacon Island. The two small boats that survived the wreckage were sailed to Batavia (Jakarta) and a rescue ship was dispatched. Some of the crew had already planned a mutiny, and the leader of the mutineers was left in charge. The mutineers sent the soldiers (without any muskets) on the ship to another island to find water, then massacred a number of those who remained, but many of them escaped to the other island. Subsequently, the two groups engaged in battles. The rescue ship came in the middle of a battle, sorted out what was happening, and distributed various means of capital punishment to the ring leaders. They left the two youngest mutineers on the coast, making them the first Europeans to possibly live in Australia.
For many years, the wreck and the associated islands were thought to be in a different part of the Abrolhos, but people built holiday shacks on the island and kept discovering bones (over 100 people were massacred), and it became obvious that this was where everything happened. Today the shacks are all gone, and the island is protected.
But we didn’t visit it.
We did visit Turtle Beach on East Wallabi Island. It’s another great Australian beach - white sand, coral very close to the beach so you can snorkel, shelter sheds and seating, other amenities, and a lookout point. Presumably, at the right time of year there are even turtles.
It was too rough for snorkelling, so we went for walks and waded in the water.
There were a variety of birds around.
And the sunset was pretty good too.
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