Francois Peron National Park is a national park on the Peron Peninsula in Western Australia, 726 km north of Perth, and located within the boundary of the Shark Bay World Heritage area. The nearest towns to the park are Denham, which is found on the southern edge of the park and Carnarvon which is found about 80 kilometres (50 mi) to the north.
Names and earlier uses
Aboriginal 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.[2]
It is named after the French naturalist and explorer François Péron who was the zoologist aboard Nicolas 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.
^Map 4, and page 7 of Hancock, Sue, Brown, Paul and Stephens, Burke (2000) Shark Bay Terrestrial Reserves Management Plan 2000- 2009 Perth, Western Australia. Department of Conservation and Land Management for the National Parks and Nature Conservation Authority ISBN0-7307-5510-X
Further reading
Edward DuykerFrançois Péron: An Impetuous Life: Naturalist and Voyager, Miegunyah/MUP, Melb., 2006, pp. 349, ISBN978-0-522-85260-8 [winner Frank Broeze Maritime History Prize, 2007].