History:
The first European to visit King Sound, on which Derby is situated, was William Dampier in 1688. However, it was not until after 1879, when Alexander Forrest led a land expedition to the north of WA, that the pastoral industry was established.
The land, prior to European settlement, had been occupied by the Worrorra people. There was conflict between the Aborigines and Europeans during the 1880s, when the outlaw ‘Pigeon’ terrorised the countryside. A heritage trail, telling Pigeon’s story, begins in Derby and finishes in Windjana Gorge National Park and the caves of Tunnel Creek.
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