Esperance - Culture and History

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This was published 15 years ago

Esperance - Culture and History

The first Europeans into the area were the Dutch aboard the Gulde Zeepaard who sailed across the Great Australian Bight in 1627. A chart of the southern coast of Australia printed in Holland in 1628 includes the islands off Esperance. It is therefore reasonable to assume that Pieter Nuyts and the crew of the Gulde Zeepaard sailed through the islands during their voyage.

It is certain that the coast was visited by other Dutch sailors, and probably sealers and whalers, in the 165 years which passed between 1627 and 1792 but the next important visitors were Captain Bruni d'Entrecasteaux commanding Le Recherche and Captain Huon de Kermandec of L'Esperance who were searching the Australian waters for the missing explorer La Perouse while charting the coastline and exploring the new continent.

Forced to seek protection from a storm the two vessels sheltered on the lee side of Observatory Island and that night d'Entrecasteaux wrote in his journal 'I decided to give the harbour the name of Esperance Bay, that of the first frigate to enter it.' A translation of Esperance from the French would mean something like "hope, with confidence and faith in the future".

There is a monument to the discovery and naming of the area at Observatory Point which is beyond Twilight Bay in Twilight Beach Road west of the town.

The next explorer to visit the area was Matthew Flinders who arrived in the area on 8 January 1802 and stayed until 17 January, exploring the islands and the mainland and naming Thistle Cove and Lucky Bay.

In the 1820s and 1830s the harbours and bays around Esperance were commonly used by sealers and whalers who lived a primitive and brutal life mistreating the local Aborigines, fighting with each other, living in primitive huts and surviving on a diet of seal meat and supplies they picked up at infrequent intervals from the colony at Albany.

The next explorer into the area was Edward John Eyre who, exhausted from his journey across the Great Australian Bight, reached Rossiter Bay (now part of Cape Le Grand National Park to the east of Esperance) in June 1841. Eyre's description of his arrival at the bay is one of sheer elation.

'In a short time I arrived upon the summit of a rocky cliff, opposite to a fine large barque lying at anchor in a well sheltered bay (which I subsequently named Rossiter Bay, after the captain of the whaler) immediately east of Lucky Bay and at less than a quarter of a mile distant from the shore...I tied up my horses, therefore, to a bush and waited for Wylie, who was not long in coming after me, having driven the poor horses at a pace they had not been accustomed to for many a long day. I now made a smoke on the rock where I was, and hailed the vessel, upon which a boat immediately put off, and in a few moments I had the inexpressible pleasure of being again among civilised beings and of shaking hands with a fellow countryman in the person of Captain Rossiter, commanding the French whaler Mississippi.'

The sailors on the Mississippi had established a kind of settlement in the area and were growing vegetables and raising sheep and goats during the non-whaling season.

Eyre was followed through the area by John Septimus Roe's surveying expedition of 1848 but Roe's report on the coast was unenthusiastic and did little to encourage settlement.

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The first settlers were the Dempster brothers who drove sheep, cattle and horses from Northam in 1863, taking up a grazing lease of 304 000 acres. The former Dempster Homestead, located at 155 Dempster Street, is listed on the National Estate as an important relic of the early history of the area. Built in 1863 by the Dempster brothers it is rough in construction having used local limestone and a design based on needs rather than aesthetics. It has been restored and is now in private ownership and not open to the public.

Annie Dempster wrote in 1865: 'Andrew describes the place where they intend eventually to have their house - it must be a pretty spot at the entrance of Esperance Bay with a beautiful view of the bay which is twenty miles across - a good landing and a capital harbour - the bay seems almost landlocked with islands and the sea so quiet that when rough outside they could take a boat about to any part of it. Also enough good land for a garden and a field, and plenty of good water'.

Access to the outside world was greatly improved when the Overland Telegraph was opened in 1876. There were five telegraph stations along the southern coast at Bremer Bay, Esperance, Israelite Bay, Eyre (now the Bird Sanctuary south of Cocklebiddy) and Eucla. 200 km to the east of Esperance (the last 100 km is restricted to 4WD vehicles only and there are no facilities) is Israelite Bay where the ruins of the Israelite Bay Telegraph Station, which operated from 1877-1917, can be seen. The original building was constructed of timber. It was replaced by a standard stone building in 1896. The complex includes the ruins of a cottage built in 1884 and two graveyards where telegraph operators and others who lived in the area are buried. Although very inaccessible Israelite Bay offers both good fishing and good swimming. The road passes through Cape Arid National Park.

The town of Esperance came into existence in 1893 as a port facility for the Coolgardie goldfield. Its importance was short-lived. The arrival of the railway from Perth to Kalgoorlie in 1896 meant that most miners took the route from the west. The hotels, breweries, stores and guest houses which had sprung up to cater for the miners disappeared overnight.

Attempts were made to open up the area as wheat farming land in 1912 and 1924 but the drought of 1914-1915, the Great Depression and the light salty soils thwarted the development. It wasn't until 1949 that the Gibson Research Station of Esperance Downs discovered that the local soil only needed additional trace elements to make it fertile. This simple discovery ultimately turned the area into a successful producer of wheat, sheep and cattle.

The success of this venture is vividly expressed in the fact that in 1954 there were 36 farmers on about 8000 hectares and by the mid 1980s there were 600 farmers utilising over 400 000 hectares. It was a good combination of Australian technology and American capital.


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