Beagle Bay can be found 129 km north of Broome and 2,453 km northeast of Perth via Highway One. The town is a tiny First Nations settlement that is inland from the Kimberley coast and on the main road from Broome to Cape Leveque.
Before Europeans came to the area, the Nyul Nyul First Nations people were the first inhabitants. Captain Read's trip on the Cygnet in 1688 along the Kimberley coast with William Dampier was the first European exploration of the area. Dampier later wrote about his experiences in "A New Voyage Round the World." In 1770, Dampier returned aboard the Roebuck, and there was a tragic encounter when they tried to get water supplies in the Broome area. They ended up shooting and killing an Aboriginal person.
Other explorers followed, like Nicolas Baudin in 1801 and Phillip Parker King in 1821. In 1838, John Clements Wickham surveyed the coast and named Beagle Bay after HMS Beagle.
In the 1870s, pearling facilities were built in Roebuck Bay, which is now Broome. However, significant European settlement didn't begin until 1879, when Alexander Forrest gave positive reports about Derby's surrounding area. Governor Sir Frederick Napier Broome formalized Broome's establishment in November 1883.
George Canler Rose arrived at Beagle Bay in the late 1800s, and Father Duncan McNab and French Trappist monks established the mission Notre Dame du Sacre Coeur in 1890. The mission expanded with baptisms, brick-making, and various cyclone-related adversities. German Pallottines took over in 1901, enduring calamities, rebuilding efforts, and adding St John of God sisters to their ranks.
Catastrophic cyclones in 1910, 1935, and 1957 ravaged Beagle Bay, along with wartime events like the Japanese invasion in 1942 and the internment of German Pallottine missionaries in 1940. The community persevered, constructing the church, establishing connections, and enduring multiple challenges over the years. The final Pallottine missionary left in 2000, and in 2001, the tower of the Sacred Heart Church tragically collapsed.
Origin of the Name
During his coastal survey on January 24, 1838, John Clements Wickham named Beagle Bay after the survey ship he was commanding, the HMS Beagle. This was the same ship that Charles Darwin had sailed on from 1831 to 1836. The name used by the local First Nations people for the mission is Ngarlun Burr.
Beagle Bay Sacred Heart Church
The Sacred Heart Church was built with the help of the local First Nations people, who made 60,000 bricks in a homemade kiln. The church was designed to seat 200 and had an altar made of shells and pearl shells. The original floor tiles were laid out in squares divided by illustrations of bush fruits, animals, and weapons. The building was completed in 1917, and a team of Aboriginal women decorated the interior with mother of pearl, cowrie, volute, and olive snail shells.
The main attractions of the church are the central altar and the two side altars of Mary and Joseph. The St Joseph's side altar features a pearling lugger on wild seas. Of particular interest are the fourteen Stations of the Cross, which were painted on aluminium sheets by a German nun, Sister Roswina, in Munich. They were all framed by shells on picture frames made by Br. Franz Hanke.
Fr. Creagh and Fr. Bachmair dedicated the new church to the Feast of Assumption on 15 August 1918.
Cape Leveque
Cape Leveque is a remote wilderness camp owned and run by the Indigenous Bardi Jawi Communities. It's located 90 km up a dirt road, only accessible to 4WD vehicles. Guests can enjoy activities such as snorkelling with tropical fish, swimming in crystal clear waters, fishing, beachcombing, mud crabbing, learning about bush tucker, scenic flights, charter boat trips, whale watching, bird spotting, and more. It's an area of exceptional beauty with white sands, blood-red cliffs, and blue seas and skies.
Cape Leveque Lighthouse
The Cape Leveque Lighthouse is located on a rocky outcrop and was built in 1911. It's one of ten lighthouses built on the West Australian coast between 1900 and 1913. The tower is 13.1m high and was designed as a prefabricated cast iron structure. It was fitted with a third-order, dioptric triple flashing white light, visible for 18 nautical miles. During World War II, the RAAF had a base near the lighthouse, and an airstrip was built nearby in 1955. The lighthouse was modernized in 1965/66 with a new light and two steel-framed residences. In 1985, it was converted to solar power and automated with a new light.
Distance from Perth: 2,453 NNE of Perth
Population: 307
Postcode: 6725
Founded: 1890