Cape Naturaliste is a headland in the south western region 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 ...

at the western edge of the

Geographe Bay Geographe Bay is in the south-west of Western Australia around 220 km southwest of Perth. The bay was named in May 1801 by French explorer Nicolas Baudin, after his ship, ''Géographe''. The bay is a wide curve of coastline extending from ...

. It is the northernmost point of the Leeuwin-Naturaliste Ridge which was named after the cape. Also the Leeuwin-Naturaliste National Park,

Cape Naturaliste Lighthouse Cape Naturaliste, in the south west of Western Australia, is the site of a lighthouse which was activated in 1904. It is a high cylindrical tower built of limestone that still uses its original first order Fresnel lens made by Chance Brothers. ...

and the Cape to Cape hiking track were named after this location.

Settlements

The nearest settlement is Bunker Bay – a community that evolved from holiday shacks to very expensive housing for wealthy residents as well as featuring a popular beach resort. Further east, across the Bay, is Dunsborough, a much older settlement. Busselton is located still further east from there.

History

The first peoples in Cape Naturaliste were the

Wardandi The Wadandi, also spelt Wardandi and other variants, are an Aboriginal people of south-western Western Australia, one of fourteen language groups of the Noongar peoples. Name There are at least three theories about the meaning of the tribal eth ...

Aboriginals, who called it "Kwirreejeenungup", meaning "the place with the beautiful view". In 1801, the French navigator

Nicolas Baudin Nicolas Thomas Baudin (; 17 February 1754 – 16 September 1803) was a French explorer, cartographer, naturalist and hydrographer, most notable for his explorations in Australia and the southern Pacific. Biography Early career Born a comm ...

stopped here on 30 May during his exploration of Australia. The French were mapping the coast of

New Holland (Australia) ''New Holland'' ( nl, Nieuw-Holland) is a historical European name for mainland Australia. The name was first applied to Australia in 1644 by the Dutch seafarer Abel Tasman. The name came for a time to be applied in most European maps to the ...

. Baudin named the bay they found Geographe Bay, after his flagship, '' Géographe''. Later, the cape was named after the expedition's second ship, ''

Naturaliste ''Naturaliste'' is the fifth studio album by the Australian indie pop trio, the Lucksmiths, which was released on 10 March 2003 via Candle Records (catalogue number LUCKY16). The band members Marty Donald on guitar, backing vocals and glockens ...

''.Fornasiero, ''et al.'', (20120), pp.44-45.

Citations and references

;Citations ;References * Fornasiero, F. Jean, Peter Monteath, & John West-Sooby (2004) ''Encountering Terra Australis: The Australian Voyages of Nicolas Baudin and Matthew Flinders''. (Wakefield Press). * Marchant, Leslie R. ''French Napoleonic Placenames of the South West Coast'', Greenwood, WA. R.I.C. Publications, 2004. *

External links

Lighthouse visiting information

Leeuwin-Naturaliste National Park Cape Naturaliste, Western Australia Cape to Cape Track {{AusplacesnamedbyFrench , state=expanded