The towns Norfolk pines, white sand beach and clear waters are alluring to visitors [10] Prior to European settlement starting in the 1820s, the Bungandidj people from the Mount Gambier region are the early settlers of this area.

The town was named on 23 May 1878 for the then British Secretary of State for the Colonies, Michael Hicks Beach, 1st Earl St Aldwyn.

On 12 July 1941, a local fisherman discovered and towed to Beachport a German sea mine, laid either by the raider Pinguin or the minelayer Passat.

A wool and grain store was built in 1879, served by the railway, thereby providing a facility to link the export trade by rail and sea.

The nearby Beachport Conservation Park, which includes 710 hectares (1,800 acres) of beaches, rocky headlands and boobialla scrub, overlaps with the much larger Lake Hawdon System Important Bird Area.