History
Before its discovery by Europeans, the Gascoyne had been home to Indigenous Australians for thousands of years. The first known European to land in the region was Dirk Hartog in 1616; other early visitors include Willem Jansz, William Dampier, Nicolas Baudin, and Phillip King.
In 1839, George Grey explored the area and named the Gascoyne River after Captain John Gascoyne RN, son of Bamber Gascoyne, a Lord Commissioner of the Admiralty. Captain Gascoyne was a committee member of the London-based Western Australian Missionary Society and a member of the London Association for the Protection of the Interests of the Colony.
Shark Bay became the site of Australia's first pearling industry in the 1850s. In 1858 Francis Gregory explored the region and subsequently publicised it as highly suitable to pastoralism. Settlement began in the 1860s, and the town of Carnarvon was gazetted in 1883.
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