Bremer Bay is a coastal town situated on the south coast of

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...

in the Great Southern region between Albany and Esperance, at the mouth of the Bremer River. Bremer Bay is southeast of the state capital,

Perth Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth is ...

, and east of Albany.

Demographics

In 2016 the townsite had a population of 231. Over the 2018 Christmas and New Year holiday period the town's population reached almost 6,500.

History

The bay was named by

John Septimus Roe John Septimus Roe (8 May 1797 – 28 May 1878) was the first Surveyor-General of Western Australia. He was a renowned explorer, a member of Western Australia's legislative and executive councils for nearly 40 years, but also a participant in t ...

, who visited the area in 1831, after Sir

James Bremer Sir James John Gordon Bremer (26 September 1786 – 14 February 1850) was a Royal Navy officer. He served in the Napoleonic Wars, First Anglo-Burmese War, and First Anglo-Chinese War. In China, he served twice as commander-in-chief of British ...

, captain of , under whom he served as a lieutenant from 1824 to 1827. The area was originally settled in the 1850s with the first homestead, the ''Wellstead homestead'' being built in 1857 and the first

telegraph Telegraphy is the long-distance transmission of messages where the sender uses symbolic codes, known to the recipient, rather than a physical exchange of an object bearing the message. Thus flag semaphore is a method of telegraphy, whereas p ...

station being built in 1875. A second telegraph station was built of stone in 1896 to replace the first one. The town was originally included in the township of Wellstead until a local petition in 1951 favoured a change to the current name, which was approved and gazetted in 1962. In 2012, the town was menaced by a

bushfire A wildfire, forest fire, bushfire, wildland fire or rural fire is an unplanned, uncontrolled and unpredictable fire in an area of combustible vegetation. Depending on the type of vegetation present, a wildfire may be more specifically identif ...

that burnt for five days after being started by

lightning Lightning is a naturally occurring electrostatic discharge during which two electric charge, electrically charged regions, both in the atmosphere or with one on the land, ground, temporarily neutralize themselves, causing the instantaneous ...

. The fire burnt out of farmland and bushland, requiring 120 fire-fighters to bring it under control just outside the town.

Amenities

Bremer Bay is known for its beautiful beaches; the main beach is only 10 minutes walk from town. A marina at Fishery Beach offers full boating facilities. The

Bremer Marine Park Bremer Marine Park is a marine park extending out from Bremer Bay on the south coast of Western Australia. It has an area of and reaches depths of . It is zoned by the Australian government under the 'South West Marine Parks Management plan 20 ...

lies offshore. Electricity is generated by a wind-diesel hybrid system.

References

External links

Bremer Bay Community Resource Centre
{{authority control Great Southern (Western Australia) Coastal towns in Western Australia Bays of Western Australia South coast of Western Australia