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DESTINATION | ESPERANCE, WESTERN AUSTRALIA
ABOVEBoatsmooredat the EsperanceBay YachtClub Marina
LEFTIn the local Aboriginallanguage,Esperenceis knownas 'a placewherethe waterlies in the shapeof a boomerang.'off-shore. The islands provide important habitats
for terrestrial fauna, haul-out sites for marine
mammals and crucial breeding grounds for
resident and migratory birds. The surrounding
waters teem with abundant marine life, including
hundreds of fish species, seagrass meadows, soft
corals, dolphins and whales.
MARITIME HISTORY
The Esperance region has a long and
distinguished maritime history, beginning in
1627 when the Dutch mariners Pieter Van Nuyts
and François Thijssen, in the Gulden Zeepaert
(Golden Seahorse), navigated the continent’s
southern coastline from Cape Leeuwin to present
day Ceduna in South Australia.
In 1791 George Vancouver sailed through
the archipelago in HMS Discovery. A year
later, Bruni D’Entrecasteaux in La Recherche
(Research) and Huon de Kermadec in
L'Esperance (Hope), were forced to shelter from
a violent storm in the lee of Observatory Island,
about 15 kilometres west of the location that is
now Esperance. The bay and the archipelago were
named after their ships, and Cape Le Grand in
honour of the young ensign who guided them to
safe anchor. In 1802, Matthew Flinders explored
and charted the archipelago in HMS Investigator.
He too was forced by rough weather to shelter
in a small cove east of Cape Le Grand, which he
named Lucky Bay.
From the 1820s, the archipelago was a favoured
destination for whalers and sealers, from as far
away as America, who plied the southern oceans
harpooning whales for meat and the bi-products,
and taking seals for fur. Australia's only recorded
pirate captain, John (“Black Jack”) Anderson,
frequented the archipelago in the 1830s. A former
whaler, he used Middle Island as a base from
which to launch raids on vessels sailing between
Adelaide and Albany, until he was murdered by
his own crew.SETTLEMENT AND PROGRESS
The first settlers in the district were the Dempster
brothers, who arrived in 1863 with sheep, cattle
and horses from Northam to establish the
304,000-acre Esperance Bay Pastoral Station
on the present-day townsite. The Dempsters
prospered and within a few years waves of
pioneering graziers followed. With the discovery
of gold at Coolgardie and Kalgoorlie in the
1890s, Esperance became the “Gateway to
the Goldfields”, and the influx of people and
supplies to the district became a catalyst for
rapid development of the town and its rise to
prominence as a commercial port with sea links
to the eastern states.
In the 1960s, vast tracts of the Esperance
sandplain were opened for large-scale agriculture,
and Western Mining Corporation discovered
huge deposits of nickel at Kambalda. To meet the
resulting demands of booming trade, a land-
backed harbour was constructed with two berths
in the lee of Dempster Head at the southern end
of Esperance Bay, with a 1,200-metre breakwater.
A $54 million upgrade in 2000 saw the
addition of a third berth alongside the
breakwater, the dredging of the harbour basin to
accommodate ships up to 200,000-tonne capacity,