Whaling in Western Australia

Whaling was one of the first viable industries established in the Swan River Colony following the 1829 arrival of British settlers to Western Australia.

An account of the incident is given by George Fletcher Moore in his book Diary of Ten Years Eventful Life of an Early Settler in Western Australia: This day will be memorable in the annals of the Colony for the killing of the first whale.

At Perth, great firing was heard in the direction of Fremantle and it was supposed that a ship had arrived, but a messenger came in breathless haste to say that boats had struck a whale and were engaged with it.

This was all that was known when I came away but everyone was running about elated with the news; I went to Fremantle on Thursday with the Governor and others, to examine a jetty and proposed tunnel which has been projected to be cut through a hill there giving easy access from the beach to the main street.

The plan is quite practicable and not very expensive for the distance is only eighty yards and the rock is soft limestone.The Fremantle Whaling Company had been established in February of that year.

In the first years of the colony, large numbers of the Yankee Whalers, as well as French vessels, frequently operated close inshore including inside Cockburn Sound, causing conflicts with Western Australian-based whale chasers.

[4] It is estimated that in 1845 there were approximately 300 American, French, British and Australian whaling ships operating off the south coast of Australia with numerous shore stations.

An improvement in commodity prices in 1843 saw operations recommence, and in 1844 whaling products comprised nearly 40% of the total value of the state's exports.

Major work on the history and archaeology of the early whaling industry in Western Australia, as well as relations between colonists and American pelagic whalers, and between both groups and coastal Aboriginal peoples, has been undertaken by Martin Gibbs of the University of Sydney.

[1] A poor whaling season in 1916 amid pressures brought on by World War I, forced the company to close down.

In the early 1930s, the station at Point Cloates began servicing Norwegian whaling ships again, but again, closure was brought on by the start of World War II.

Cheynes Beach struggled commercially for several years prior to its closure in 1978 because of increased fuel costs and uncertain buyers in Europe.