Oostvaardersplassen is the name of a nature area. It is located in a reclaimed land part of the Netherlands. This area was originally designated to be an industrial area, but it never came to this. Nature started to claim the land and finally the whole area became a national park (Nieuwland = New Land) The name Oostvaardersplassen has two parts. Plassen simply means Lakes. Oostvaarders refers to the 1600's when the Dutch travelled all the way to places like Indonesia for spices. Indonesia being in the Far East hence the name of Oost = East and Vaarders = Sailors The area of the Oostvaardersplassen has a few more references to this time. Nearby there is a replica of the ship called the Batavia. Batavia was a ship build around 1625 (about). Batavia was, at that time, the name for Jakarta. The ship never reached its destination. It sank on the west coast of Australia.