Albany, Western Australia

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Albany, Western Australia

Albany is located in the Great Southern region of Western Australia

Western Australia

Western Australia is a States and territories of Australia occupying the entire western third of the Australia . The nation's largest state and the second largest subnational entity in the world, it has 2.1 million inhabitants , 85% of whom live in the south-west corner of the state....
, situated around a port on the southern coast.

Its metropolitan area has a population of 25,196 as of the 2006 census, making it the sixth largest city in the state. It is located within the City of Albany

City of Albany

The City of Albany is a Local Government Areas of Western Australia in the Great Southern region of Western Australia, about Wikt:south-southeast of Perth, Western Australia, the capital of Western Australia....
local government area.

city centre of Albany is located between the hills of Mount Melville and Mount Clarence which look down into Princess Royal Harbour.

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Encyclopedia

Albany is located in the Great Southern region of Western Australia

Western Australia

City of Albany

Geography

The city centre of Albany is located between the hills of Mount Melville and Mount Clarence which look down into Princess Royal Harbour. There are many beaches surrounding Albany, with Middleton Beach being the closest to the town centre. Popular beaches include Middleton Beach, Frenchman's Bay and Muttonbird Island.

It is south-southeast of the state capital, Perth

Perth, Western Australia

Perth is the List of Australian capital cities and largest city of the Australian States and territories of Australia of Western Australia. With a population of 1,554,769 , Perth ranks fourth amongst the nation's cities, with a growth rate consistently above the national average....
, to which it is linked by the Albany Highway

Albany Highway

Albany Highway is a generally northwest-southeast highway in the south of Western Australia which links the state's capital Perth, Western Australia with its oldest settlement, Albany, Western Australia....
.

History

Albany was the home of the Menang Noongar

Noongar

The Noongar , are an indigenous Australian people who live in the south-west corner of Western Australia from Geraldton, Western Australia on the west coast to Esperance, Western Australia on the south coast....
people, who made use of the coastal waters of the area over the summer months. They called the area Kinjarling which means “the place of rain”. Fish traps found at Emu Point suggest that the area held a significant population of Aboriginal people. Albany is also the oldest continuous European settlement in Western Australia

Western Australia

Western Australia is a States and territories of Australia occupying the entire western third of the Australia . The nation's largest state and the second largest subnational entity in the world, it has 2.1 million inhabitants , 85% of whom live in the south-west corner of the state....
, and was founded in 1826, three years before the state capital of Perth

Perth, Western Australia

King George Sound

King George Sound is the name of a sound on the south coast of Western Australia. Located at , it is the site of the city of Albany, Western Australia....
settlement was a hastily-dispatched British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom , the UK or Britain,is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe....
military outpost, intended to forestall any plans by France

France

France , officially the French Republic , is a country whose Metropolitan France is located in Western Europe and that also comprises various Overseas departments and territories of France....
for settlements in Western Australia.

The first European explorers to visit the area around Albany were on the Dutch

Netherlands

The Netherlands is a country that is part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It is a parliamentary democratic constitutional monarchy. The Netherlands is located in North-West Europe, and bordered by the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east....
ship Gulden Zeepaert (Golden Seahorse) skippered by Francois Thijssen

François Thijssen

Fran?ois Thijssen or Frans Thijsz was a Netherlands exploration who is famous because of his travel along the South coast of Australia....
in 1626. They sailed along the south coast towards South Australia

South Australia

South Australia is a States and territories of Australia of Australia in the southern central part of the country. It covers some of the most arid parts of the continent; with a total land area of , it is the fourth largest of Australia's six states and two territories....
.

Many years later in 1791, English explorer George Vancouver

George Vancouver

Captain George Vancouver Royal Navy was an officer in the Royal Navy, best known for his Vancouver Expedition, including the shores of the modern day Alaska, British Columbia, Washington and Oregon....
explored the south coast including entering and naming King George Sound. Albany was the site at which on 26 September 1791, Vancouver took possession of New Holland for the British Crown. Vancouver went out of his way to establish good relations with the local Aboriginal people. In 1792, Frenchman Bruni d'Entrecasteaux

Bruni d'Entrecasteaux

Antoine Raymond Joseph de Bruni d'Entrecasteaux was a French navigator who explored the Australian coast in 1792 while seeking traces of the lost expedition of Jean Francois de Galaup....
in charge of the Recherche and L'Esperance reached Cape Leeuwin on 5 December and explored eastward along the southern coast. The expedition did not enter King George Sound due to bad weather.

In 1801, Matthew Flinders

Matthew Flinders

Captain Matthew Flinders, Royal Navy was one of the most successful navigators and cartography of his age. In a career that spanned just over twenty years, he sailed with Captain William Bligh, circumnavigated Australia and encouraged the use of that name for the continent....
entered King George Sound and stayed about a month before charting the rest of the southern Australian coastline. By 1806 he had completed the first circumnavigation of Australia

Australia

Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the southern hemisphere comprising the Australia of the world's smallest continent, the major island of Tasmania, and numerous list of islands of Australia in the Indian Ocean and Pacific Oceans....
.

Australian-born explorer Phillip Parker King visited King George Sound in 1822 on the Bathurst.

On 26 October 1826 Frenchman Dumont d'Urville in the L'Astrolabe visited King George Sound before sailing along the south coast to Port Jackson.

Later in 1826, on Christmas Day, a British Army

British Army

The British Army is the Army branch of the British Armed Forces. It came into being with the unification of the Kingdoms of Kingdom of England and Kingdom of Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707....
expedition, led by Major Edmund Lockyer

Edmund Lockyer

Edmund Lockyer, 21 January 1784-10 June 1860, was a United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland soldier and Exploration of Australia.Born in Plymouth, Devon, Lockyer was a Major in the 57th Regiment of Foot, when he arrived at Sydney, capital of the British New South Wales in May 1825....
arrived on the Amity, from Sydney, and founded a military base. Lockyer rescued Aboriginal women from offshore islands, who had been kidnapped by sealers operating in the Great Australian Bight as sexual slaves, and apprehended the culprits sending them east to stand trial. As a result the local Minang Noongar

Noongar

Corroboree

A corroboree is a ceremonial meeting of Australian Aborigines. The word was coined by the European settlers of Australia in imitation of the Aboriginal word caribberie....
in his honour, cementing the good relations established earlier between local Aboriginal groups of the area and European explorers.

Albany was officially named by Governor Stirling

James Stirling (Australian governor)

Admiral Sir James Stirling Royal Navy was a British marine officer and colonial administrator. He was the first Governor of Western Australia of Western Australia and on his own initiative signed Britain's first limited Anglo-Japanese Friendship Treaty in 1854....
at the beginning of 1832, at the time that political authority passed to the Swan River colony

Swan River Colony

The Swan River Colony was a United Kingdom settlement established at the Swan River on the west coast of Australia in 1829. Strictly speaking, the Swan River Colony existed only from 1829 until 1832, and encompassed only the lands around and to the south of the Swan River....
. It is named after Prince Frederick, Duke of York and Albany

Prince Frederick, Duke of York and Albany

The Prince Frederick, Duke of York and Albany was a member of the Kingdom of Hanover and British Royal Family, the second eldest child, and second son, of George III of the United Kingdom....
, and son of King George III.

Albany was also the final destination in 1841 of explorer Edward John Eyre

Edward John Eyre

Edward John Eyre was an England land explorer of the Australian continent, colonial administrator, and a controversial Governor of Jamaica.South Australia's Lake Eyre, Eyre Peninsula, Eyre Creek, South Australia, Eyre Highway , and the Eyre Hotel in Whyalla are named in his honour, as are the villages of Eyreton and West Eyreton in Canterb...
, after being the first person to reach Western Australia by land from the east (Adelaide).

Until the opening of the Port of Fremantle

Fremantle, Western Australia

Fremantle is a port city in Western Australia, located southwest of Perth, Western Australia, the state capital, at the mouth of the Swan River on Australia's western coast....
in 1900, Albany was also home to the only deepwater port in Western Australia, Princess Royal Harbour, which is the largest natural harbour in Western Australia and also on the entire south coast of the Australia

Australia

Melbourne

Melbourne is the more common name for the geographic region and Census in Australia of the Greater Melbourne metropolitan area. It is the second List of cities in Australia by population in Australia, with a population of approximately 3.8 million and serves as the List of Australian capital cities of Victoria ....
. This facility meant that for many years, the first port of call for the mail from England was Albany. This put Albany in a privileged position over Perth and it remained that way until C. Y. O'Connor

C. Y. O'Connor

C. Y. O'Connor Order of St Michael and St George , full name Charles Yelverton O'Connor, was an Ireland engineer who is best-known for his work in Australia, especially the Goldfields Water Supply Scheme....
used dynamite on the reef blocking the entrance into the Swan River in Fremantle.

Since that time, Albany has become popular with retirees, with inhabitants enjoying the fresh air, clean beaches, and fine views over the Southern Ocean, while still proving a thriving regional centre.

World War I

Ships carrying the Australian Imperial Force

First Australian Imperial Force

The First Australian Imperial Force was the main Expeditionary warfare of the Australian Army during World War I. It was formed from August 15, 1914, following United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland's declaration of war on German Empire....
and the New Zealand Expeditionary Force

New Zealand Expeditionary Force

The New Zealand Expeditionary warfare was the title of the military forces sent from New Zealand to fight for United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland during World War I and World War II....
(later know collectively as ANZAC

Anzac

ANZAC is an acronym for Australian and New Zealand Army Corps, an army corps that fought at the Battle of Gallipoli in World War I and was disbanded in 1916....
s) to Europe to join World War I

World War I

World War I, or the First World War , was a global military conflict which involved the Great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies of World War I and the Central Powers....
gathered at Albany in October 1914. They departed in convoy on 1 November 1914.

There is a memorial to the Desert Mounted Corps

Desert Mounted Corps

The Desert Mounted Corps was a World War I Allies of World War I army corps that operated in the Middle East during 1917 and 1918. Originally formed as the Desert Column in February 1917 under the command of General Sir Philip W....
on top of Mount Clarence

Mount Clarence, Western Australia

Mount Clarence is an inner suburb of Albany, Western Australia, Western Australia, between the Albany city centre and Middleton Beach, Western Australia....
. The memorial consists of a statue of an Australian mounted soldier

Mounted infantry

Mounted infantry were soldiers who rode horses instead of marching, but actually fought on foot in the modern era with muskets or rifles, but before that with spears and bows....
assisting a New Zealand

New Zealand

New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses , and numerous Islands of New Zealand, most notably Stewart Island/Rakiura and the Chatham Islands....
soldier whose horse has been wounded and a wall bearing the words "Lest We Forget". A dawn service has been held ever since and currently around several thousand people participate each year. The contribution of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk

Mustafa Kemal Atatürk

Mustafa Kemal Atat?rk was a Turkish people army officer, revolutionary statesman, and Father of the Nation Turkey as well as its List of Presidents of Turkey....
, president of Turkey from 1923 until 1938, is recognised by naming the entrance into Princess Royal Harbour as Atatürk Channel.

Industry

The main industries of Albany consist of tourism, fishing and agriculture, although before the 1950s whaling

Whaling

Whaling is the hunting of whales and dates back to at least 4,000 BC. The evolution of traditional Arctic whaling developed with increasing rapidity with early organized fleets in the 17th century; competitive national whaling industries in the 18th and 19th centuries; and the introduction of factory ships along with the concept of whale "har...
was one of the major sources of income and employment for the population. The Whaling Station, which closed operations in 1979, has now been converted to a museum of whaling, and features one of the 'Cheynes' whale chasers that were used for whaling in Albany. The station was the last operating whaling station in the Southern Hemisphere at the time of closing.

The Western Power Wind Farm

Albany Wind Farm, Western Australia

Albany Wind Farm is a wind power station near Albany, Western Australia, Western Australia. It has 12 wind turbines, with a generating capacity of 21 Megawatt of electricity....
in Albany is the largest and newest in Australia. Its 12 turbines, driven by strong southerly winds, can generate up to 75% of the city's electricity usage.

Albany also has a number of historic tourist sites including the Museum, Albany Convict Gaol, The Princess Royal Fortress (commonly known as The Forts), Patrick Taylor Cottage, ("is the oldest dwelling in Western Australia, c1832"). Albany has a great deal of historical significance to Western Australia.

Natural sights are also numerous, especially the rugged coast which includes the Natural Bridge and the Gap. The beaches have pristine white sand. The HMAS Perth was sunk in King George Sound in 2001 as a dive wreck

Wreck diving

Wreck diving is a type of recreational diving where shipwrecks are explored. Although most wreck dive sites are at shipwrecks, there is an increasing trend to Sinking ships for wreck diving sites....
. Albany is also close to two mountain ranges, the Porongurups

Porongurup, Western Australia

Porongurup is the name of a small mountain range in the Shire of Plantagenet in Western Australia and also of a small village on the northern slopes of the range....
and Stirling Range

Stirling Range

The Stirling Range or Koikyennuruff is a range of mountains and hills in the Great Southern region of Western Australia, 337 km south-east of Perth, Western Australia....
s.

Albany is also the southern terminus of the Bibbulmun Track

Bibbulmun Track

The Bibbulmun Track is a long distance walk trail in Western Australia. It runs from Kalamunda, east of Perth, Western Australia to Albany, Western Australia and is almost 1000 km long....
walking trail.

Albany is home to HMAS Albany (based in Darwin) and the adopted home port of the Royal Australian Navy frigate HMAS Anzac

HMAS Anzac (FFH 150)

HMAS Anzac is the lead ship of the Anzac class frigate frigates in use with the Royal Australian Navy ....
. Albany is frequently visited by other warships.

Climate

Albany has a Mediterranean-type climate with generally warm summers and cool, wet winters. The city is situated on what is promoted as the “Rainbow Coast” which is an appropriate title given the significant frequency of cool cloudy days with drizzle or showers.

July is the wettest month, with a long-term average of over 140 mm, whilst rain occurs on two days out of every three during an average winter. The driest month is February with a mean of about 23 mm and in summer it rains on average about one day in every four.

Albany received a record amount of rain on November 20 2008 when violent storms swept across the Great Southern

Great Southern

Great Southern can refer to any of the following:*Great Southern , a region in Western Australia.*Great Southern , the backing band for American rock guitarist Dickey Betts....
. The town was flooded after of rain

Rain

Rain is liquid precipitation . On Earth, it is the condensation of atmospheric water vapor into droplet heavy enough to fall, often making it to the surface....
fell in a 24 hour period, the highest amount recorded since records began in 1877.

Coastline

The Albany region is notorious for people being lost from waves washing people off rocks, which may or may not be associated with freak wave

Freak wave

Rogue waves are relatively large and spontaneous ocean surface waves that are a threat even to large ships and ocean liners. In oceanography, they are more precisely defined as waves whose wave height is more than twice the significant wave height , which is itself defined as the mean of the largest third of waves in a wave record....
s or similar phenomenon. On the otherwise picturesque coastline there are many beaches that are safe and usable:

Emu Beach
Emu Point
Middleton Beach
Frenchman Bay Beach
Gull Rock / Boiler Beach
Betty's Beach
Shelley Beach
Two Peoples Bay, including Little Beach and Waterfall Beach
Nanarup
Muttonbird Beach
Cosy Corner

Albany, Western Australia

Geography

History

World War I

Industry

Climate

Coastline

Localities

See also

External links