's 1818 sketch of Oyster Harbour in 1801 March 2016 and seaweed The first reported visit to King George Sound by a European was in 1791 by the English explorer Captain
George Vancouver. Vancouver named it ''King George the Third's Sound'' after the reigning monarch. The next Europeans to visit the sound were Captain Dennis of the
Kingston, and Captain Dixson of the
Elligood.
Kingston and
Elligood were
whalers and while there caught three whales. Dixson left an inscribed piece of copper plate behind.
Matthew Flinders anchored in the sound from 8 December 1801 to 5 January 1802 and explored the area. While he was there, his men found the copper plate Dixson had left. During this time
Robert Brown (ship's botanist) and
Peter Good (ship's gardener) collected samples of over 500 plant species.
Nicolas Baudin arrived in the sound in February 1803 aboard to rendezvous with
Louis de Freycinet aboard the before doing further exploration of the Western Australian coastline. During the course of their stay the ship's naturalist
François Péron, collected 1060 new species of shellfish and a large number of starfish from the sound.
Phillip Parker King visited the sound in 1818 aboard the cutter while en route to conduct a nautical survey of the North West Cape, and Frenchman
Dumont d'Urville visited it in 1826 aboard the
Astrolabe. On 25 December 1826, the
New South Wales colonial government
brig Amity, under the command of Major
Edmund Lockyer, arrived at King George Sound to establish a possessory military and penal settlement. The expedition from Sydney consisted of a detachment of twenty troops from the
39th Regiment, three women and twenty-three convicts to assist in establishing the settlement, and six months provisions. On 30 December, 1826 the troops and prisoners were disembarked, setting up camp and landing stores, as well as gathering materials to set up temporary huts. As instructed by the Colonial Secretary, the Union Jack was raised and a "Feu de Joie" fired by the troops on 21 January, 1827, formally annexing the territory and Lockyer named his settlement
Frederick Town after
George III's second son,
Prince Frederick, Duke of York and Albany, but this name never gained wide acceptance. Instead the settlement and surrounding locality were usually referred to as King George's Sound. The settlement of King George's Sound was part of
New South Walesa
semi-exclave of New South Walesfrom its establishment until 7 March 1831. It then was made part of the
Swan River Colony, which from 1833 has been known as Western Australia. In 1832,
Governor of Western Australia Captain (later Admiral)
James Stirling declared the settlement a town and renamed it
Albany, but the broader locality continued to be referred to as King George's Sound for many years. In 1834
Robert Dale published in London a
panorama print of the view from Mount Clarence accompanied by a
pamphlet describing the sound and the geography, geology, flora, fauna and native inhabitants of the immediate region. On 8 March 1836,
HMS Beagle visited King George Sound and anchored there for eight days. On board was the young naturalist
Charles Darwin, who collected specimens on shore.
Beagle was on the homeward leg of her celebrated circumnavigation of the world, having already stopped off at
Sydney. Until the construction of
Fremantle Harbour in 1897, King George Sound contained the only deepwater port in Western Australia, and so was the favoured location for delivery of mail and supplies from abroad to Western Australia. These were then transported to Perth and Fremantle by road or coastal shipping until the early 1890s, when the completion of the
Great Southern Railway provided a quicker service.
Albany Port is located on the north shore of Princess Royal Harbour adjacent to the city of
Albany. The port was first established in 1826 and has been expanded regularly since. The port now has five berths able to cater to
panamax class vessels. The port typically caters for loading of about 120 vessels per annum. In 1914, King George Sound was the last Australian anchorage for the fleet taking the first Australian and New Zealand soldiers, later to become known as
Anzacs, to Egypt. A memorial to the Anzacs of the
Desert Mounted Corps has been established on top of
Mount Clarence. Albany was where the first commemorative dawn service was held on
Anzac Day, 25 April 1923. The contribution of
Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, president of Turkey from 1923 until 1938 is recognised by naming the entrance into Princess Royal Harbour as
Atatürk Entrance. There is evidence that shore-based bay whaling was carried out in Barker Bay, by James Daniels, as early as 1849. Whaling ships from Hobart also visited the area in the 2nd half of the 19th century. The
Cheyne Beach Whaling Company began operating out of Frenchman Bay, located within the sound, in 1952 with a small quota of 50 humpback whales that was eventually increased to 175. At the peak of the whaling activity in the sound the company was taking between 900 and 1100
sperm and
humpback whales in a year. Humpback whaling was banned in 1963 which in turn decreased the viability of the operation. In 1978 the Cheynes Beach Whaling Company closed down after increasing environmental lobby group pressure. It was Australia's last coastal whaling company. Installation of a
shark barrier was commenced and completed in March 2016 at
Middleton Beach at the north western end of the sound. The sound was dual named by the City of Albany and Landgate. == Flora ==