History
The two main islands were discovered by the French explorer Nicolas Baudin in 1801. Hermite Island is named after the French Admiral Jean-Marthe-Adrien L'Hermite. Trimouille Island is named after a French noble family. There are problems with the naming of the islands in the accounts of the early explorers, and it has been suggested that the French. and later the British, explorers mixed up the names of Lowendal and Hermite Islands.
An early reference to the islands is in 1622, when the Tryall was wrecked just west of them. For years afterwards their approximate position was recorded on charts as the Tryal Rocks. The islands were economically significant for pearl fishing from the end of the nineteenth century until the outbreak of the Second World War.
Read more about this topic: Montebello Islands
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