page_title: History of Albany, Western Australia
section_title: British settlement
hierarchical_section_title: History of Albany, Western Australia / British settlement
caption_attribution_description: English: LIGHT HORSE MEMORIAL BUILDING. THE LIGHT HORSE BRIGADES FIGURED PROMINENTLY IN THE CAMPAIGNS IN PALESTINE IN WORLD WAR I. THE BUILDING HOUSES A MUSEUM ON THE GROUNDS OF PRINCESS ROYAL FORTRESS on Mount Adelaide, Albany, Western Australia
context_page_description: The coastline of the Albany area was observed by Europeans for the first time in 1627 by the Dutchman François Thijssen, captain of the ship 't Gulden Zeepaert, who sailed to the east as far as Ceduna in South Australia and back. Captain Thijssen had discovered the south coast of Australia and charted about 1,768 kilometres of it between Cape Leeuwin and the Nuyts Archipelago.
  On 29 September 1791, explorer Captain George Vancouver while exploring the south coast on HMS Discovery, entered and named King George the Third's Sound and Princess Royal Harbour, and took possession of New Holland for the British Crown. Vancouver went out of his way to establish good relationships with the local Aboriginal people.
  In 1792, Frenchman Bruni d'Entrecasteaux, in charge of Recherche and L'Esperance, reached Cape Leeuwin on 5 December and explored eastward along the southern coast. The expedition did not enter King George Sound due to bad weather.
  In 1801, Matthew Flinders entered King George Sound and stayed for about a month before charting the rest of the southern Australian coastline. By 1806 he had completed the first circumnavigation of Australia.
context_section_description: In a letter dated 11 March 1826, Henry Bathurst, Secretary of State for War and the Colonies, instructed Governor of New South Wales Ralph Darling that if found suitable a settlement should be established at King George's Sound as it was located on the shipping route between Britain and Port Jackson.
  Major Edmund Lockyer was placed in command of the expedition by Governor Darling on 4 November 1826, and given instructions in case of an encounter with the French, that  Lockyer was to land troops to signify to the French that "the whole of New Holland is subject to His Britannic Majesty's Government, and that orders have been given for the Establishment at King George's Sound of a Settlement for the reception of Criminals accordingly".
  On 26 October 1826, Frenchman Dumont d'Urville in L'Astrolabe had visited King George Sound before sailing along the south coast to Port Jackson.
  Lockyer and his expedition left Sydney on 9 November 1826 aboard HM brig Amity, with a detachment of twenty troops from the 39th Regiment, twenty-three convicts to assist in establishing the settlement, and six months provisions.
  Arriving at King George's Sound on 25 December 1826, Lockyer landed ashore early the next day and commenced a survey of the area. On 30 December the troops and prisoners were disembarked, setting up camp and landing stores. On 21 January 1827, as instructed by the Colonial Secretary, the Union Jack was raised and a feu de joie fired by the troops, formally annexing the territory, in assertion of the first official claim by the Imperial Government to British possession over the whole continent of Australia. This was the first site of European settlement in Western Australia.
  Lockyer rescued Aboriginal women from offshore islands, who had been kidnapped by sealers operating in the Great Australian Bight as sexual slaves, and apprehended the culprits, sending them east to stand trial.  As a result, the local Minang Noongar organised a corroboree in his honour, cementing the good relationships established earlier between local Aboriginal groups of the area and European explorers.
  Lockyer left for Sydney on 3 April 1827, handing over command to Captain Joseph Wakefield. King George's Sound continued as a penal settlement for several years. Lieutenant George Sleeman took over as Commandant on 6 December 1828, followed by Captain Collett Barker on 3 December 1829.
  To the north at the Swan River, a new Colony, envisaged from the outset as a free settlement, was founded and proclaimed on 18 June 1829. Not only did the settlers of Swan River object to the presence of convicts within the Colony, but its commander James Stirling was unhappy having a military outpost within Western Australia under the command of the Governor of New South Wales. Given the inconvenience and expense of maintaining King George's Sound from Sydney, Governor Darling took the political opportunity and on 7 March 1831 the settlement was made part of the Swan River Colony and the convicts and military garrison were withdrawn to New South Wales.
  Albany was officially named by Lieutenant-Governor Stirling from 1 January 1832, after The Duke of York and Albany, second son of King George III.
  The settlement had a population of 180 in 1837. There were 45 houses scattered around Princess Royal Harbour extending around Mount Clarence to the Old Farm.
  In 1841 Albany was the final destination of explorer Edward John Eyre, the first European to reach Western Australia overland from the eastern colonies.
  The construction of St John's Anglican Church commenced in 1841 and was completed in 1844. The church was the first to be consecrated in Western Australia; the ceremony was conducted on 25 October 1848 by Bishop Augustus Short of Adelaide.
  The Albany Convict Gaol was established in 1852 for imperial convicts transported to Albany as skilled labourers.
  The first mayor of the town was William Finlay, elected in 1885.
  The Albany Advertiser was first published in 1888 as the Australian Advertiser. The paper is still in circulation and is the oldest continuous-running non-metr
caption: Light Horse memorial building at Princess Royal Fortress
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