Dirk Hartog lands on beach, the gold-bearing province

Dirk Hartog, master of the 'Eendracht', landed in October 1616 on the coast of a land then known as Beach. Beach was a prominent feature of the 'Terra Australis' on maps of that time. The name was a corruption of 'Locach', a country described by Marco Polo. The location of 'Locach' has been called one of the great riddles of Polo's text. It is likely that Marco Polo intended to refer by this name to Cambodia. Due to corruption and misunderstanding of Polo's text, 'Beach / Locach' was displaced from its true position to the 'Terra Australis', where it was found by Dirk Hartog in October 1616 and subsequently inspired Abel Tasman's expedition in 1642.