Francois Peron National Park - Names and Earlier Uses

Names and Earlier Uses

Indigenous Australians were the initial inhabitants of the area and have been living there for over 26,000 years. The local peoples who speak the Malgana language call the area Wulyibidi.

It is named after the French naturalist and explorer François Péron who was the zoologist aboard Nicholas Baudin's 1801 and 1803 scientific expeditions to Western Australia, and is situated within the bounds of the earlier pastoral lease of the Peron Station.

Locations from the French exploration era include:

• Guichenault (east coast of the Peron Peninsula)
• Cape Lesueur (west coast of the Peron Peninsula)
• Lake Montbazin

A pearling camp was established on the peninsula at Herald Bight in the 1880s and the remains of the shells can still be found along the beach.

Used as a sheep station from the early 1900s onwards the station was sold to the state government in 1990.

It was gazetted on 8 January 1993 as a National Park - through the purchase of Peron Station (Pastoral Lease 3114/761) in 1990