About the Esperance District
The Esperance Education District is located in Noongar land from Wudjarri Country around the Gairdner River east to Port Malcolm, inland to the edge of the coastal slope about 50 miles at Kent, Ravensthorpe, Fanny Cove, Esperance and Cape Arid.
The Aboriginal name for Esperance derives from the Noongar words Kepa Kurl, which means "where the water lies like a boomerang".
Students may be interested in searching DOLA's history of country town names to see the origin of the name of their town, most of which are derived from Noongar words.
European Settlement of Esperance
An excellent source of information regarding how European settlement impacted Aboriginal people in this region is a book called "For Their Own Good" by Anna Haebich. The Esperance Town Library in Windich St is also a good place to find publications regarding Esperance European history.
Permanent European settlement of Esperance commenced with the arrival of the Dempster family from Northam in 1863. Accompanied by 500 sheep and 200 horses, the Dempster brothers were granted vast grazing leases encompassing all of present day Esperance. The Dempsters prospered and within a few years waves of pioneering graziers came flooding in, opening up the Salmon Gum country to the north, and later spilling over onto the arid lands of the Nullarbor.
Aboriginal Explorer: Tommy Windich
Tommy Windich (or Winditj) was a Noongar explorer who was a member of a number of groups exploring WA in the 1860s and 1870s. He was born around 1840 and died in 1876, and was buried at Dempster Head near Esperance.
More information on Tommy Windich is found in the "Nidja Noongar Boodjar Noonook Nyininy" package for teachers. It helps teachers to acknowledge local Aboriginal explorers and students will gain a knowledge and appreciation that Aboriginal people assisted with early exploration of the Esperance district.