Esperance, Western Australia
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Esperance is a town in the Goldfields–Esperance 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 ...
, on the
Southern Ocean The Southern Ocean, also known as the Antarctic Ocean, comprises the southernmost waters of the World Ocean, generally taken to be south of 60° S latitude and encircling Antarctica. With a size of , it is regarded as the second-small ...
coastline approximately east-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 ...
. The urban population of Esperance was 12,145 at June 2018. Its major industries are tourism, agriculture, and
fishing Fishing is the activity of trying to catch fish. Fish are often caught as wildlife from the natural environment, but may also be caught from stocked bodies of water such as ponds, canals, park wetlands and reservoirs. Fishing techniques inclu ...
.


History

European history of the region dates back to 1627 when the Dutch vessel ''Gulden Zeepaert'', skippered by
François Thijssen François Thijssen or Frans Thijsz (died 13 October 1638?) was a Dutch-French explorer who explored the southern coast of Australia. He was the captain of the ship t Gulden Zeepaerdt'' (''The Golden Seahorse'') when sailing from Cape of Good Ho ...
, passed through waters off the Esperance coast and continued across the
Great Australian Bight The Great Australian Bight is a large oceanic bight, or open bay, off the central and western portions of the southern coastline of mainland Australia. Extent Two definitions of the extent are in use – one used by the International Hydrog ...
. French explorers are credited with making the first landfall near the present day town, naming it and other local landmarks while sheltering from a storm in this area in 1792. The town itself was named after a French ship, the ''Espérance'', commanded by
Jean-Michel Huon de Kermadec Jean-Michel Huon de Kermadec (12 September 1748 – 6 May 1793) was a French Navy officer. He took part in voyages of exploration in the Pacific Ocean under Bruni d'Entrecasteaux, looking for the lost expedition of Jean-François de La Pérouse ...
. fr , Espérance , label=none is French for "hope". In 1802, British navigator Matthew Flinders sailed the Bay of Isles, discovering and naming places such as Lucky Bay and Thistle Cove. Whalers,
sealers Sealer may refer either to a person or ship engaged in seal hunting, or to a sealant; associated terms include: Seal hunting * Sealer Hill, South Shetland Islands, Antarctica * Sealers' Oven, bread oven of mud and stone built by sealers around 18 ...
and
pirate Piracy is an act of robbery or criminal violence by ship or boat-borne attackers upon another ship or a coastal area, typically with the goal of stealing cargo and other valuable goods. Those who conduct acts of piracy are called pirates, v ...
s followed, as did
pastoralists Pastoralism is a form of animal husbandry where domesticated animals (known as "livestock") are released onto large vegetated outdoor lands (pastures) for grazing, historically by nomadic people who moved around with their herds. The animal s ...
and miners, keen to exploit the free land and cash in on the gold boom in the gold fields to the north. The first European settlement of the Esperance townsite area was by the Dempsters, a pioneer family of Scottish descent, in the 1860s. The Dempster brothers, Charles, Edward, Andrew and James, were granted of land in the area, first settling in 1864. They initially brought sheep, cattle and horses overland from Northam, but in 1866 they shipped stock to the Esperance area from
South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories ...
. They built Esperance's first landing, but only one ship made the
Adelaide Adelaide ( ) is the capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater Adelaide (including the Adelaide Hills) or the Adelaide city centre. The dem ...
to Esperance voyage in the first year. Once other settlers started taking up land on the Esperance coastal plain, a small settlement developed, serving as an important link in the Overland Telegraph between Albany and Eucla. A telegraph station was opened in 1876, although the formal gazettal of the townsite did not occur until 1893. The town jetty was also built through the 1890s, following the discovery of gold in the eastern goldfields region. At this point, Esperance became the "gateway to the Goldfields." The population of the town was 985 (623 males and 362 females) in 1898. After visiting the town in 1898, Western Australian Premier John Forrest pledged to construct a railway line between Esperance and the Goldfields. However, due to a perceived threat that Adelaide merchants would take Goldfields trade away from
Fremantle Fremantle () () is a port city in Western Australia, located at the mouth of the Swan River in the metropolitan area of Perth, the state capital. Fremantle Harbour serves as the port of Perth. The Western Australian vernacular diminutive for ...
merchants via the Esperance port, Norseman was connected by rail to the Goldfields and Fremantle, but the line was not extended to Esperance. A railway line between Coolgardie and Esperance was eventually completed in 1927. The Mallee area approximately north of the town began grain production in the 1920s, and by 1935 the construction of a second jetty, tankers jetty, was completed. After a rail link had been established between Salmon Gums and the Esperance port in 1925, the wheat harvest rose from that year to in 1929 and more than two years later. Large-scale agriculture was introduced to the Esperance sand plain by an American syndicate, in partnership with the
state government A state government is the government that controls a subdivision of a country in a federal form of government, which shares political power with the federal or national government. A state government may have some level of political autonomy, or ...
, in the 1960s following the discovery that adding
superphosphate Triple superphosphate is a component of fertilizer that primarily consists of monocalcium phosphate, Ca(H2PO4)2. Triple superphosphate is obtained by treating phosphate rock with phosphoric acid. Traditional routes for extraction of phosphate roc ...
fertilisers containing
trace element __NOTOC__ A trace element, also called minor element, is a chemical element whose concentration (or other measure of amount) is very low (a "trace amount"). They are classified into two groups: essential and non-essential. Essential trace elements ...
s to the poor soils made them suitable for cropping and pastoral activity. Despite early difficulties, the project eventually became a success and large areas of land were cleared during this time. The population of the town in 1968 was approximately 2,700. In 1979, pieces of the
space station A space station is a spacecraft capable of supporting a human crew in orbit for an extended period of time, and is therefore a type of space habitat. It lacks major propulsion or landing systems. An orbital station or an orbital space station i ...
Skylab Skylab was the first United States space station, launched by NASA, occupied for about 24 weeks between May 1973 and February 1974. It was operated by three separate three-astronaut crews: Skylab 2, Skylab 3, and Skylab 4. Major operations in ...
crashed onto Esperance after the craft broke up over the Indian Ocean. The municipality fined the United States $400 for littering. The fine was paid in April 2009, when radio show host Scott Barley of Highway Radio raised the funds from his morning show listeners, and paid the fine on behalf of NASA. Skylab's demise was an international media event, with merchandising, wagering on time and place of re-entry, and nightly news reports. ''
The San Francisco Examiner The ''San Francisco Examiner'' is a newspaper distributed in and around San Francisco, California, and published since 1863. Once self-dubbed the "Monarch of the Dailies" by then-owner William Randolph Hearst, and flagship of the Hearst Corporat ...
'' offered a $10,000 prize for the first piece of Skylab to be delivered to their offices. Seventeen-year-old Stan Thornton scooped a few pieces of Skylab off the roof of his home in Esperance, caught the first flight to San Francisco, and collected the prize. On 14 February 1991, the bulk carrier ''
Sanko Harvest ''Sanko Harvest'' was a 32,502 DWT dry bulk carrier that sank off Esperance, Western Australia after striking a charted reef on 14 February 1991. The Korean-crewed Japanese-owned ship was long and was carrying a cargo of 32,790 tonnes of phosp ...
'' sank off Esperance, leaking of bunker oil and of fertiliser into the surrounding waters near the
Recherche Archipelago The Archipelago of the Recherche, known locally as the Bay of Isles, is a group of 105 islands, and over 1200 "obstacles to shipping", off the south coast of Western Australia. The islands stretch from east to west and to off-shore encom ...
; the wreck later became a marine sanctuary and dive site. In January 2007 Esperance experienced a storm with wind gusts of up to which brought of rainfall within 24 hours, causing significant flooding. More than 100 homes were damaged, several boats were destroyed, trees were felled, of bridge on the
South Coast Highway South Coast Highway is a Western Australian highway. It is a part of the Highway 1 network. With a length of , it runs from Esperance to Walpole roughly in parallel to Western Australia's south coast. Even then the journey is pretty much in ...
, (the main road linking Esperance to
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 ...
), was washed away, and power was cut from thousands of homes. The
Western Australian Government The Government of Western Australia, formally referred to as His Majesty's Government of Western Australia, is the Australian state democratic administrative authority of Western Australia. It is also commonly referred to as the WA Government o ...
declared the area a "natural disaster zone". At least 37,000 sheep were killed in the storm.


Climate

Esperance experiences a
Mediterranean climate A Mediterranean climate (also called a dry summer temperate climate ''Cs'') is a temperate climate sub-type, generally characterized by warm, dry summers and mild, fairly wet winters; these weather conditions are typically experienced in the ...
(
Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by German-Russian climatologist Wladimir Köppen (1846–1940) in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen, notabl ...
''Csb'') with warm, dry summers and mild, wet winters. It is subject to wide variations in the weather, from hot summer days when northerly winds arrive from the interior of the state, to cold, wet winter days with southerly winds from the Great Southern Ocean. Annually, the town has 95.5 clear days.


Economy


Esperance Port

Esperance has the only port in the south-east of Western Australiathe Esperance Port Authority completed an A$54 million upgrade in 2002. The upgrade made the port one of the deepest in southern Australia, capable of handling Cape-class vessels of up to , and fully loaded Panamax-class vessels of up to . Exports for the year ending June 2005 were , including of grain, and of iron ore which is railed from
Koolyanobbing Koolyanobbing is located north-northeast of the town of Southern Cross, Western Australia. A subsidiary of Cleveland-Cliffs of Cleveland, Ohio mines Iron ore here. The ore is railed to the port at Esperance for export. Current operations commen ...
.


Lead and nickel contamination

In 2007, the deaths of thousands of wild birds alerted residents to a toxicity hazard which was found to be the unsafe transport by truck and rail of lead ore from Wiluna for export by ship. When elevated levels of lead were measured in a number of adults and children, as well as in water tanks, a multimillion-dollar cleanup was paid for by the state government. The miner,
Magellan Metals Rosslyn Hill Mining Pty Ltd (formerly known as Magellan Metals Pty Ltd) operates Paroo Station Mine (formerly Magellan Mine) at Wiluna in Western Australia. Rosslyn Hill Mining is wholly owned by and the principal operating asset of Canadian ...
, was banned from exporting lead through the port. A parliamentary inquiry presented its report in November 2007. Before long, additional concerns were raised about pollution caused by nickel dust escaping from exported ore. In October 2008, the Esperance Port Authority banned the export of nickel after emission targets were exceeded twice, but the ban, which threatened Western Australia's $8 billion nickel industry, was overturned by the newly elected
Premier of Western Australia The premier of Western Australia is the head of government of the state of Western Australia. The role of premier at a state level is similar to the role of the prime minister of Australia at a federal level. The premier leads the executive bra ...
,
Colin Barnett Colin James Barnett (born 15 July 1950) is a former Australian politician who was the 29th Premier of Western Australia. He concurrently served as the state's Treasurer at several points during his tenure and had previously held various other po ...
.


Tourism

Near the town itself are numerous beaches, offering
surfing Surfing is a surface water sport in which an individual, a surfer (or two in tandem surfing), uses a board to ride on the forward section, or face, of a moving wave of water, which usually carries the surfer towards the shore. Waves suitabl ...
,
scuba diving Scuba diving is a mode of underwater diving whereby divers use breathing equipment that is completely independent of a surface air supply. The name "scuba", an acronym for "Self-Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus", was coined by Chris ...
, and swimming. Also nearby are a number of salt lakes, including
Pink Lake A pink lake is a lake that has a red or pink colour. This is often caused by the presence of salt-tolerant algae that produces carotenoids, such as ''Dunaliella salina'', usually in conjunction with specific bacteria, which may vary from lake ...
which, despite its name, is rarely pink in colour. Esperance is also home to the Cyclops wave, said to be the world's heaviest wave with massive amounts of water unloading on shallow reef. Cyclops is featured in the surfing films ''
Billabong Billabong ( ) is an Australian term for an oxbow lake, an isolated pond left behind after a river changes course. Billabongs are usually formed when the path of a creek or river changes, leaving the former branch with a dead end. As a result ...
Odyssey'', and the ''
Bra Boys The Bra Boys are a gang centred on surf culture, founded and based in Maroubra, an eastern suburb of Sydney, New South Wales in the 1990s. The gang has gained notoriety through violence and alleged links to organised crime, as well as some comm ...
'' documentary. There are five major
national park A national park is a nature park, natural park in use for conservation (ethic), conservation purposes, created and protected by national governments. Often it is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a sovereign state dec ...
s near the town. A major nearby tourist attraction, 20 minutes away from the town centre, is the
Cape Le Grand National Park Cape Le Grand National Park is a national park in Western Australia, south-east of Perth and east of Esperance. The park covers an area of The area is an ancient landscape which has been above sea level for well over 200 million years and ...
, which offers a picturesque coast of largely
granite Granite () is a coarse-grained (phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies undergro ...
terrain and sheltered white sand beaches. The park is a popular spot for
recreational fishing Recreational fishing, also called sport fishing or game fishing, is fishing for leisure, exercise or competition. It can be contrasted with commercial fishing, which is professional fishing for profit; or subsistence fishing, which is fishing ...
, as well as
four wheel drive Four-wheel drive, also called 4×4 ("four by four") or 4WD, refers to a two-axled vehicle drivetrain capable of providing torque to all of its wheels simultaneously. It may be full-time or on-demand, and is typically linked via a transfer case ...
enthusiasts and
hikers Hiking is a long, vigorous walk, usually on trails or footpaths in the countryside. Walking for pleasure developed in Europe during the eighteenth century.AMATO, JOSEPH A. "Mind over Foot: Romantic Walking and Rambling." In ''On Foot: A Hist ...
. Esperance also has a number of
wind turbine A wind turbine is a device that converts the kinetic energy of wind into electrical energy. Hundreds of thousands of large turbines, in installations known as wind farms, now generate over 650 gigawatts of power, with 60 GW added each yea ...
s supplying electricity to the town. Esperance had the first electrical wind farm in Australia, built at Salmon Beach as a research facility in 1987. In late 2007, a television advertisement promoting one of the newer
Ferrari Ferrari S.p.A. (; ) is an Italian luxury sports car manufacturer based in Maranello, Italy. Founded by Enzo Ferrari (1898–1988) in 1939 from the Alfa Romeo racing division as ''Auto Avio Costruzioni'', the company built its first car in ...
cars was filmed on Esperance's foreshore, to be shown overseas. In October 2020, a surfer who was a member of the local community in Esperance was killed by a shark at Wylie Bay near the town.


Cooper Reef

Cooper Reef is a purpose-built artificial reef located approximately five kilometres from the Bandy Creek Boat Harbour. Named after its driving force, Mr Graham Cooper, The reef was built to attract fish and enhance
fish stocks Fish stocks are subpopulations of a particular species of fish, for which intrinsic parameters (growth, recruitment, mortality and fishing mortality) are traditionally regarded as the significant factors determining the stock's population dyn ...
, creating new fishing and recreation opportunities for tourists, anglers and local families. The reef's geographic coordinates are 33°52′15″S 121°58′50″E.


Education

There are five primary schools in the region: Our Lady Star of the Sea Catholic Primary School, Castletown Primary School, Esperance Primary School, Nulsen Primary School and Esperance Christian Primary School. There are also two secondary schools: Esperance Senior High School and Esperance Anglican Community School. The Anglican school won an appeal in December 2009 against a State Government condition that limited it to grades 8–10; the school can now educate years 8–12.
South Regional TAFE South Regional TAFE is a State Training Provider providing a range of vocational education located in southern regional Western Australia. On 11 April 2016,http://www.dtwd.wa.gov.au/trainingproviders/training-sector-reform-project/Documents/Change ...
also has a campus in the town, with a major redevelopment completed in 2021.


Transport

Esperance is at the southern end of the
Coolgardie–Esperance Highway Coolgardie–Esperance Highway is a Western Australian highway between Coolgardie and Esperance. It runs in a north–south direction linking the state's Eastern Goldfields to the coast. The Coolgardie–Norseman stretch ( National Highway ...
and the eastern end of the
South Coast Highway South Coast Highway is a Western Australian highway. It is a part of the Highway 1 network. With a length of , it runs from Esperance to Walpole roughly in parallel to Western Australia's south coast. Even then the journey is pretty much in ...
, both highways forming a part of Australia's Highway 1. The town is connected by public transport to Perth, Albany and
Kalgoorlie Kalgoorlie is a city in the Goldfields–Esperance region of Western Australia, located east-northeast of Perth at the end of the Great Eastern Highway. It is sometimes referred to as Kalgoorlie–Boulder, as the surrounding urban area includ ...
via
Transwa Transwa is Western Australia's regional public transport provider, linking 240 destinations, from Kalbarri in the north to Augusta in the south west to Esperance in the south east. The Transwa system provides transport to the major regional ...
coach services GE1, GE2, GE3 and GE4.
Regional Express Airlines Regional Express Pty. Ltd., trading as Rex Airlines (and as Regional Express Airlines on regional routes), is an Australian airline based in Mascot, New South Wales. It operates scheduled regional and domestic services. It is Australia's large ...
has daily flights to/from Perth, arriving and departing from
Esperance Airport Esperance Airport is an airport in Esperance, Western Australia. The airport is northwest of the city, near the locality of Gibson. Airlines and destinations Qantas and Virgin Australia Regional Airlines previously operated flights fro ...
. The Esperance-Perth route was previously serviced by
Virgin Australia Regional Airlines Virgin Australia Regional Airlines is an Australian regional airline based in Perth, servicing key towns in the state of Western Australia. The airline also flies interstate to destinations such as Adelaide, Darwin, Melbourne and Alice Spring ...
and Skywest Airlines. The Esperance airport is also used for general aviation. The Esperance Branch Railway is a standard gauge railway line from Kalgoorlie to Esperance, linking the region to the
Trans-Australian Railway The Trans-Australian Railway, opened in 1917, runs from Port Augusta in South Australia to Kalgoorlie in Western Australia, crossing the Nullarbor Plain in the process. As the only rail freight corridor between Western Australia and the east ...
and the
Eastern Goldfields Railway The Eastern Goldfields Railway was built in the 1890s by the Western Australian Government Railways to connect Perth with the Eastern Goldfields at Coolgardie, Western Australia, Coolgardie and Kalgoorlie. History The Eastern Railway, Wester ...
. This is a freight-only railway and no passenger services currently run.


Media

A locally-printed lifestyle, entertainment and news magazine, Esperance Tide, was first published in 2016. It is published monthly, on the first Friday of the month. The local newspaper for the Esperance region is ''
The Esperance Express ''The'' () is a grammatical Article (grammar), article in English language, English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite ...
'', published by
Fairfax Media Fairfax Media was a media company in Australia and New Zealand, with investments in newspaper, magazines, radio and digital properties. The company was founded by John Fairfax as John Fairfax and Sons, who purchased ''The Sydney Morning Herald' ...
. It is closed, indefinitely.Home page
''The Esperance Express'', Fairfax Regional Media.
ABC Esperance is the local ABC station in Esperance, servicing the entire region. It broadcasts a local breakfast show and a co-produced local morning show each weekday from studios at 80B Windich Street in the city. ABC Esperance also has a local news service, produced by local journalists. As well as rural reports, ABC Esperance broadcasts national programs like AM, Conversations, The World Today, PM, Nightlife, Overnights, Grandstand, Saturday Night Country, and Australia All Over, along with a WA-centred weekend early morning and breakfast show, broadcast from either Perth, Albany or Kalgoorlie. Other national ABC services that are available in Esperance on separate FM frequencies include
Triple J Triple J (stylised in all lowercase) is a government-funded, national Australian radio station intended to appeal to listeners of alternative music, which began broadcasting in January 1975. The station also places a greater emphasis on broad ...
, RN,
ABC Classic ABC Classic, formerly ABC-FM (also ABC Fine Music), and then ABC Classic FM, is an Australian classical music radio station available in Australia and internationally. Its website features classical music news, features and listening guides. I ...
FM and
ABC NewsRadio ABC NewsRadio, since 2017 broadcast under the ABC News brand and for a short time known as ABC News on Radio, is a 24-hour news radio service broadcast by the Australian public broadcaster, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). ABC ...
.


Notable residents

*
West Coast Eagles The West Coast Eagles are a professional Australian rules football club based in Perth, Western Australia. The club was founded in 1986 as one of two expansion teams in the Australian Football League (AFL), then known as the Victorian Football L ...
2006 Premiership player
Quinten Lynch Quinten Peter Lynch (born 24 January 1983) is a former Australian rules footballer who played with the Collingwood Football Club and the West Coast Eagles in the Australian Football League (AFL). Originally from Grass Patch, a rural farming co ...
lives in Grass Patch, a farming region of Esperance. * Former ''
Neighbours ''Neighbours'' is an Australian television soap opera, which has aired since 18 March 1985. It was created by television executive Reg Watson. The Seven Network commissioned the show following the success of Watson's earlier soap '' Sons an ...
'' actor
Dan Paris Daniel Paris (born 15 June 1973) is an Australian actor and photographer. He is best known for playing the role of Drew Kirk in the Australian soap opera ''Neighbours''. Personal life Paris was born in Perth, Western Australia and was raised ...
was raised in Esperance and works as a photographer and helps with the harvest season in surrounding farms.


Twin town

* Saint-Martin-de-Ré,
Charente-Maritime Charente-Maritime () is a department in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region on the southwestern coast of France. Named after the river Charente, its prefecture is La Rochelle. As of 2019, it had a population of 651,358 with an area of 6,864 square kil ...


See also

*
Recherche Archipelago The Archipelago of the Recherche, known locally as the Bay of Isles, is a group of 105 islands, and over 1200 "obstacles to shipping", off the south coast of Western Australia. The islands stretch from east to west and to off-shore encom ...


References


External links


Shire of Esperance official website

Esperance Visitor Centre

Esperance Port Authority


{{Authority control Coastal towns in Western Australia Shire of Esperance Grain receival points of Western Australia Port cities in Western Australia Fishing communities in Australia