To Build A Ship

In 1606, the Duyfken left the spice island of Banda and sailed east in search of a "fabled land of gold" known as Tera Australis Incognita.

A fast, sturdy little ship, Little Dove was a troubleshooter for larger cargo ships, battling Portuguese traders, carrying provisions and exploring foreign waters.

Nearly four centuries later the Duyfken replica left the shores of Australia, no longer a fabled continent but a modern nation, and set sail for Banda.

Her mission this time - peace, as her name suggests.

The only shots fired from the vessel sailing in her wake were from a camera.

Robert Garvey traces the building of the replica, from the symbolic laying of the keel in the Duyfken shipyard in Fremantle to her sea trials.

He charts her maiden voyage up the coast of Western Australia to Banda in the Indonesian Spice Islands, and thence on to Cape York in Queensland where the little Dove took on a new role - as an instrument of reconciliation with the Aboriginal people of the region.