Esperance WA

30th April - 2nd May 2011

Esperance is a lovely place - it was discovered in 1792 by the french, two of their ships-L'esperance and Recherche when they were forced to seek shelter from a storm.

In Mathew Flinders sailed through and carefully mapped the south coast.Sealers from Van Diemans land penal settlement,American and French whalers were also inhabitants.

1841 Edward John Eyre explored enroute to Albany.

1863 Andrew Dempster drove sheep ,cattle and horses from Northam -he was the first to take up land holding ,he was granted 100,000 acres in 1866.

1895 Fortune seekers from all around the world came on their way to find gold in Dundas, Coolgardie and Kalgoorlie.

1912 began farming wheat

1914/1915Drought and realised too much salt in the soil

for farming.By 1935 it was considered a costly and wasteful failure.In later years 1949 + after much research, it was found that by supplementing the light soils with superphosphate and a few trace elements such as zinc and copper it enhanced its potential for farming.