[4] With the support of the then Premier of Tasmania, Robert Cosgrove (in office from 1939), Australian journalist Critchley Parker proposed a Jewish settlement at Port Davey in 1941.

In the 1800s, a small piners (Huon pine lumberjacks)[6] settlement and boatyard was located on Payne Bay on Port Davey's north.

By the Victorian era, cartographers discontinued marking the settlement along with others such as Montgomery south of the Spero River, Cracroft on the Arthur Plains and Huntley in the Upper Florentine Forests west of Mount Field National Park.

[8][9][10] Catalina PBY 5 flying boat, serial number 292, VH-BDP was the first recorded civilian aircraft to land in Port Davey on 8 July 1947, flown by John Fraser (ex RAAF pilot).

[14] In 1941, Australian journalist Critchley Parker surveyed the remote areas of southwest Tasmanian wilderness in search of a land that could eventually become a new home for Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi Europe.

Critchley became positive that Tasmania was the best option for a Jewish settlement, in addition to writing many notes about it, describing the potential of industry and trade, and how it will become the "Paris of Australasia".

[17] According to Dr Hilary L. Rubinstein, a Jewish Australian writer, Parker "had all sorts of things in mind...gold, iron, tin, coal as well, and after those minerals had been exploited and revenue built up, the Jewish settlement could then go on to other industries...The next thing after mining would be fish canning and processing eels, crayfish, and extending even into whaling from Antarctic...Then they would go into whisky, textiles and carpet weaving...He also thought that the fashion industry could be built up with the help of French Jews.

Since the death of Deny King in 1991, the family retain a leasehold within the national park and is actively involved in conservation programs but is not permanently resident.

[19] Port Davey has a cool oceanic climate with mild summers and chilly winters, with moderate to high rainfall spread throughout the year.