French Western Australia

On 28 March 1772, the French navigator Louis Aleno de St Aloüarn landed on Dirk Hartog Island "and became the first European to claim possession of Western Australia".

[2]: 9 [3] Members of Mengaud's ceremonial team raised the royal flag on the island and buried a bottle containing a document stating what had occurred, alongside two silver écu coins, worth six Livres tournois (Francs).

[3] This occurred in sight of Cape Inscription, where in 1696 the Dutch mariner Willem de Vlamingh had also left a commemorative plate recording his visit and that of Dirk Hartog in 1616.

[citation needed] In 1998, a lead bottle cap with a shield coin set into it was discovered at Turtle Bay by a team led by Philippe Godard and Max Cramer.

[citation needed] On 1 April 1998, an intact bottle bearing a lead cap identical to the one found earlier, also with an écu coin in it, was unearthed.

Left, in Western Australia, the Dirk Hartog island where Saint-Aloüarn first landed
1663 map edited by French cartographer Melchisédech Thévenot : Terre Australe decouuerte l'an 1644 , Paris: De l'imprimerie de Iaqves Langlois, collaboration by Dutch cartographer Joan Blaeu.