The ill-fated Sheep Island settlement

Just offshore from Camden Harbour in the southern Kimberley lies Sheep Island, a small, remote island with a surprisingly significant place in Western Australia’s history. Today, it is a quiet, windswept landscape of rocky shores and bushland, but in the 1860s it was connected to an ambitious attempt to establish a European settlement in the Kimberley.

In 1864, the Camden Harbour Pastoral Association established a settlement at Camden Harbour, hoping to develop the region for pastoralism. The settlers arrived with cattle, sheep and supplies, but the harsh conditions quickly proved difficult. The tropical climate, unfamiliar environment, isolation and lack of reliable water made life extremely challenging.

The settlement was short-lived. Within a few years, the Camden Harbour venture had been abandoned, leaving behind traces of the people who had attempted to establish a new life on this remote coast.

Sheep Island contains some of the most tangible reminders of that period. Among the island’s bushland are the graves of early settlers, including Mary Jane Pascoe, whose grave is one of the historic sites visited by some Kimberley expedition cruises. The island’s cemetery and surrounding archaeological remains provide a glimpse into the realities of life during the failed settlement.

Today, reaching Sheep Island is an entirely different experience. Expedition vessels can anchor nearby and passengers may go ashore to explore the island and its historic sites, plus its oysters!

Delicious rock oysters abound here.

Opposite is Augustus Island, which at 17,950 hectares, is the largest island on the Kimberley coast.

For Kimberley travellers, Sheep Island offers something different from the region’s waterfalls, rock art and spectacular tidal phenomena. Its significance lies in the stories held within the landscape – a remote place where the remains of a short-lived settlement have survived for more than 150 years.