The pewter plate only tells part of the story of Dirk Hartog. Dr Wendy van Duivenvoorde searched the archives of the city of Amsterdam to find out more about the man behind the plate.

Together with Dirk Hartog Island, this remote peninsula makes up Shark Bay, or Gutharraguda in the local language, a UNESCO World Heritage site 500 miles north of Perth in Western Australia.

Twenty-eight dibblers have been released onto Dirk Hartog Island, 730km north of Perth. The tiny marsupial – one of Australia’s rarest – once thrived on the island, until feral animals wiped them out.