Esperance, Western Australia

European history of the region dates back to 1627 when the Dutch vessel Gulden Zeepaert, skippered by François Thijssen, passed through waters off the Esperance coast and continued across the Great Australian Bight.[3]

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,[4] commanded by Jean-Michel Huon de Kermadec. Espérance 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 and pirates followed, as did pastoralists 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.[5] The Dempster brothers, Charles, Edward, Andrew and James, were granted 304,000 acres (123,000 ha) 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. They built Esperance's first landing, but only one ship made the Adelaide to Esperance voyage in the first year.[6]

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.[7] A telegraph station was opened in 1876, although the formal gazettal of the townsite did not occur until 1893.[8]

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."[9]

The population of the town was 985 (623 males and 362 females) in 1898.[10]

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 merchants via the Esperance port, Norseman was connected by rail to the Goldfields and Fremantle, but the line was not extended to Esperance.[11] A railway line between Coolgardie and Esperance was eventually completed in 1927.[12]

The Mallee area approximately 100 km (60 mi) north of the town began grain production in the 1920s, and by 1935 the construction of a second jetty, tankers jetty, was completed.[13] After a rail link had been established between Salmon Gums and the Esperance port in 1925, the wheat harvest rose from 1471 tons that year to 4376 tons in 1929 and more than 15,608 tons two years later.[14]

Large-scale agriculture was introduced to the Esperance sand plain by an American syndicate, in partnership with the state government, in the 1960s following the discovery that adding superphosphate fertilisers containing trace elements to the poor soils made them suitable for cropping and pastoral activity.[15] Despite early difficulties, the project eventually became a success and large areas of land were cleared during this time.[16]

The population of the town in 1968 was approximately 2,700.[12]

In 1979, pieces of the space station Skylab crashed onto Esperance after the craft broke up over the Indian Ocean. The municipality fined the United States $400 for littering.[17] 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.[18] 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 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.[19]

In January 2007 Esperance experienced a storm with wind gusts of up to 110 km/h (68 mph) which brought 155 mm (6 in) of rainfall within 24 hours, causing significant flooding. More than 100 homes were damaged, several boats were destroyed, trees were felled, 35 m (115 ft) of bridge on the South Coast Highway, (the main road linking Esperance to Perth), was washed away, and power was cut from thousands of homes. The Western Australian Government declared the area a "natural disaster zone".[20] At least 37,000 sheep were killed in the storm.[21]

Esperance experiences a Mediterranean climate (Köppen climate classification Csb) with warm, dry summers and cool, 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 85.5 clear days.

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.[29]

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.[30]

South Regional TAFE also has a campus in the town.

Esperance is at the southern end of the Coolgardie–Esperance Highway and the eastern end of the South Coast Highway, both highways forming a part of Australia's Highway 1.

The town is connected by public transport to Perth, Albany and Kalgoorlie via Transwa coach services GE1, GE2, GE3 and GE4.

Regional Express Airlines has daily flights to/from Perth, arriving and departing from Esperance Airport. The Esperance-Perth route was previously serviced by Virgin Australia Regional Airlines 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 and the Eastern Goldfields Railway. This is a freight-only railway and no passenger services currently run.

A locally-printed lifestyle, entertainment and news magazine, Esperance Tide,[31] was first published in 2016 and is currently the only print publication in Esperance. It is published monthly, on the first Friday of the month.

The local newspaper for the Esperance region is The Esperance Express, published by Fairfax Media. It is closed, indefinitely.[32]

• Beatles guitarist George Harrison visited a property at Condingup, a farming region near Esperance[33]
• West Coast Eagles 2006 Premiership player Quinten Lynch lives in Grass Patch, a farming region of Esperance.
• Former Neighbours actor Dan Paris was raised in Esperance and works as a photographer and helps with the harvest season in surrounding farms.

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