Port Gregory - Culture and History

The first European to pass through the area was George Grey who, after his abortive attempt to explore the coast north of North­West Cape, was forced to walk back to Perth through the area in 1839. Grey reported the existence of the Hutt River (both the Hutt River and Hutt Lagoon were named by Grey after William Hutt, the brother of the Governor of Western Australia) and in 1841 a government expedition was sent to explore the Hutt River. Being unable to cross the sandbars they sailed north to somewhere near the site of modern day Port Gregory.

A subsequent exploration party arrived in the area in 1847 and reported favourably on the area¹s pastoral potential and in 1848 the explorer A.C. Gregory discovered lead ore in the Murchison River. So it was that on 22 May 1853 F.T. Gregory (brother of A.C. Gregory after whom the port is named) and Captain J. Johnson sailed into the Port Gregory harbour with 60 ticket of leave men. The plan was to hire the convicts to local pastoralists.

There is some kind of appropriate irony in the fact that Johnson¹s brig Leander ran aground and had to be abandoned. Port Gregory may be a pretty port but it is not a safe one. Between 1853-1867 six vessels were wrecked on the reef.

Port Gregory was a short­lived experiment. By 1856 the ticket-of-leave depot was closed down and the port slowly declined in importance. It is a comment on the skills of the convicts that many of the buildings which they constructed from limestone which they had quarried from the nearby hills are still standing today.

There is no question about the appeal of Port Gregory. On one level this tiny village is nothing more than a fishing port and a place for people who really want to get away from it all. It is isolated at the end of a dirt road and has only the most minimal of services. However the area does boast beautiful huge white sand dunes which are 10­15 metres high, a remarkable pink lake and some of the most interesting convict ruins anywhere in Western Australia. Not bad for a community with a permanent population of less than 200.