More than 400 years after the Duyfken became the first European ship to make a recorded arrival on Australian shores, the replica of the Dutch sailing vessel will visit Newcastle Harbour, as it journeys towards a new chapter in its history.
The Duyfken replica is due to arrive in the port on Tuesday evening.
Only the ship won't be passing Nobbys under the power of its own sails; rather, this reminder of the Dutch maritime old will be carried into the port by the new.
The replica has hitched a ride from Fremantle in Western Australia on a Dutch cargo ship, the Marsgracht.
The Duyfken replica was constructed in WA, using traditional shipbuilding methods, and launched in 1999 to raise awareness of the Dutch maritime connections to Australia.
However, with state government funding for the ship's operation drying up, the Duyfken is headed for the Australian National Maritime Museum in Sydney. The museum has been handed the vessel by the Duyfken 1606 Replica Foundation.
"We are pleased and honoured that the DuyfkenFoundation approached us to take over the custodianship of this wonderful Fremantle-built vessel, and we are thankful that we are able to provide a safe home for it,' said Kevin Sumption, Director of the Australian National Maritime Museum, in a statement.
"The Duyfken will be an excellent addition to our fleet ... and we look forward to being able to sail it on Sydney Harbour regularly to give all our visitors a new way of both enjoying our harbour and understanding our history."
Not that the original Duyfken, which means "Little Dove", sailed into Sydney Harbour.
The ship, belonging to the powerful Dutch East India Company, had ventured from modern-day Indonesia to the coastline around Cape York in 1606.
The captain and crew of the Duyfken are believed to have been the first Europeans to step onto Australian soil, and to meet with Indigenous people.
The Duyfken was in northern Australian waters about 164 years before Captain James Cook made his famous voyage in the Endeavour along the east coast in 1770.
According to a museum spokesperson, a major reason the Duyfken replica has been freighted, not sailed, east is that COVID-related restrictions complicated transporting a crew to WA and then undertaking the voyage to Sydney.
The Duyfken replica is to be returned to the water in Newcastle. Once it is offloaded from the Marsgracht into the harbour, the Duyfken is expected to be berthed at the Thales shipyard, where it will have its masts reinstalled and be rerigged.
After that, the Duyfken will be sailed south to its new home on Sydney Harbour.
The Duyfken replica has visited Newcastle previously, including in 2006 when it was on a voyage commemorating the 400th anniversary of the original expedition.
A spokesman for Port of Newcastle said the replica's arrival this time on the deck of the Marsgracht would still catch attention.
"It has become quite a common capability for the port to take a vessel off another ship and put it straight into the water," he said, citing recent examples of ferries and luxury yachts.
But replicas of historic ships were rarer cargo.
"It's great to see that ship, which is significant in the European history of Australia," the spokesman said, "and that the port of Newcastle, which is one of the oldest ports in Australia, is able to play a role in her journey to Sydney."
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