History of Bunbury Western Australia

The first registered sighting of Bunbury was by French explorer Captain Louis de Freycinet from his ship the Casuarina in 1803. He named the area Port Leschenault after the expedition's botanist, Leschenault de la Tour. The bay was named Geographe after another ship in the fleet.

In 1829, Dr Alexander Collie and Lieutenant Preston explored the area of Bunbury on land. Later Lieutenant Governor Sir James Stirling visited the area and a military post was established. The area was renamed Bunbury by the Governor in recognition of Lieutenant Henry William St. Pierre Bunbury (1812–75), who developed the very difficult inland route from Pinjarra to Bunbury.

The first Baron Forrest of Bunbury, (Lord Forrest) was to be the title bestowed on Bunbury born John Forrest, who was the first Premier of Western Australia, explorer and surveyor of Western Australia. Leading three expeditions the first in search of Ludwig Leichhardt, two expeditions to Adelaide the first surveying the route of Edward John Eyreacross the Nullarbor Plain, the second from Geraldton to the overland telegraph line between Adelaide and Darwin in search of pastoral land in the interior of Western Australia.

In 1890 when Western Australia gained rite to self rule from Britain, Forrest was elected unopposed to the seat of Bunbury in the Legislative Council and was appointed as the first Premier of Western Australia. Forrest government embarked on a large scale public works expansion under the direction of engineer C. Y. O'Connor including the building of Fremantle harbour and the Goldfields Water Supply Scheme. On 13 February 1901 Forrest resigned as Premier of Western Australia and member for Bunbury so he could contest the seat of Swan in the first federal election. On 29 March 1901 Forrest was elected to first Australian Parliament where he remained until he resigned due to cancer in March 1918.

On 6 February 1918, Forrest was informed that he was to be raised to the British peerage as Baron Forrest of Bunbury in the Commonwealth of Australia and of Forret in Fife in the United Kingdom. Forrest died 2 September 1918 while travelling to London, to receive treatment and hoping to take his seat in the House of Lords. However no Letters patentwere issued before his death, so the peerage was not officially created. According to Rubinstein (1991), "his peerage is not mentioned or included in Burke's Peerage, The New Extinct Peerage, the Complete Peerage, or any other standard reference work on the subject."

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