Cervantes - Culture and History

Cervantes is one of Western Australia's newest towns. It was as recently as 1962 that the government removed 505 hectares from the northwest corner of the Nambung National Park to establish a town.

Cervantes takes its name from an American whaling ship which was wrecked off the coast in 1844. Apparently the Cervantes was anchored off Thirsty Point, the promontory which lies to the west of the town and separates Nambung Bay (to the south) from Ronsard Bay in the north, when a gale blew up and the ship was blown ashore on an island to the south of the point. The ship was not badly damaged but due to difficulty of repairs all the contents were sold on the site. The island was named Cervantes and, in 1963, it was given to the small township which had sprung up on the mainland.