Bremer Bay is a coastal town and locality in the Shire of Jerramungup, Great Southern region of

Western Australia Western Australia (WA) is the westernmost state of Australia. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east, and South Australia to the south-east. Western Aust ...

. It is situated on the south coast of the state, between Albany and Esperance, at the mouth of the Bremer River. Bremer Bay is southeast of the state capital,

Perth Perth () is the list of Australian capital cities, capital city of Western Australia. It is the list of cities in Australia by population, fourth-most-populous city in Australia, with a population of over 2.3 million within Greater Perth . The ...

, and east of Albany. It is on the lands of the Southern Noongar (sometimes known as the Koreng) people of the

Noongar The Noongar (, also spelt Noongah, Nyungar , Nyoongar, Nyoongah, Nyungah, Nyugah, and Yunga ) are Aboriginal Australian people who live in the South West, Western Australia, south-west corner of Western Australia, from Geraldton, Western Aus ...

nation. The claim for Native Title was made in September 2006.

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.

European settlement

After visiting the area in 1831, the bay was named after Sir Gordon Bremer by John Septimus Roe, captain of , onboard which he served as a lieutenant from 1824 to 1827. The area was first settled by Europeans in the 1850s; the Wellstead homestead, the area's first, was established in 1861. Originally, Bremer Bay was included in the township of Wellstead; a local petition, in 1951, favoured a change to the current name, which was approved and gazetted in 1962. In 2012, Bremer Bay was menaced for five days by a looming

bushfire A wildfire, forest fire, or a bushfire is an unplanned and uncontrolled fire in an area of Combustibility and flammability, combustible vegetation. Depending on the type of vegetation present, a wildfire may be more specifically identified as a ...

, just outside of town, which began when vegetation was ignited by

lightning Lightning is a natural phenomenon consisting of electrostatic discharges occurring through the atmosphere between two electrically charged regions. One or both regions are within the atmosphere, with the second region sometimes occurring on ...

. The fire burnt through nearly of agricultural property and

bushland In Australia, bushland is a blanket term for land which supports remnant natural area, remnant vegetation or land which is disturbed but still retains a predominance of the original floristics and structure. Human survival in bushland has a wh ...

and required 120

firefighter A firefighter (or fire fighter or fireman) is a first responder trained in specific emergency response such as firefighting, primarily to control and extinguish fires and respond to emergencies such as hazardous material incidents, medical in ...

s to contain it.

Bremer Bay Telegraph Station, 1875–

In 1874, Bremer Bay was identified as a site for a Repeater Station on the East–West Telegraph Line from Perth to Adelaide via Eucla. 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 ...

station was built in 1875 – it was a small timber building with a shingle roof. The Repeater Stations along the East-West LIne was staffed by a Station master, an assistant, linesmen and frequently Aboriginal workers. Personnel at Bremer Bay included: * Mary Wellstead (b. 1850, d. 1894), trained by James Coates Fleming, Superintendent of Telegraphy. Mary was the telegraph operator at Bremer Bay from 1875 to 1877, and served as an assistant until 1881 when she married John James Harris. * George Philip Stevens (c. 1861, d.1941 ), known as ''GPS'', arrived at Bremer Bay in late 1877. He would later be the Station Master at the Eucla Telegraph Station, and then Manager of Telegraphy in the Colony of Western Australia. He was still employed in government service in the 1930s. The original station, along with several others along the line, was replaced in 1896 with a larger stone building designed by George Temple Poole. The repeater station is still standing. Since 1986, it has been on the Register of the National Estat

It is currently a café and bakery.

Amenities

Bremer Bay is known for its beautiful beaches, and the main beach is only a ten-minute walk from town. A

marina A marina (from Spanish , Portuguese and Italian : "related to the sea") is a dock or basin with moorings and supplies for yachts and small boats. A marina differs from a port in that a marina does not handle large passenger ships or cargo ...

at Fishery Beach offers full boating facilities. The Bremer Marine Park lies offshore. Electricity is generated by a wind-diesel hybrid system.

References

External links

Bremer Bay Community Resource Centre
{{authority control Shire of Jerramungup Coastal towns in Western Australia Bays of Western Australia South coast of Western Australia