Denmark, Western Australia

Denmark
Western Australia

Denmark - Western Australia

Denmark

Coordinates

34°57′36″S 117°21′11″E / 34.96000°S 117.35306°ECoordinates: 34°57′36″S 117°21′11″E / 34.96000°S 117.35306°E

Population

2,280 (2011 census)

Established

1895

6333

Mean max temp	Mean min temp	Annual rainfall
20.5 °C ^{69 °F}	9.8 °C ^{50 °F}	998.4 mm ^{39.3 in}

Denmark is a coastal town located on Wilson Inlet in the Great Southern region of Western Australia, 423 kilometres (263 mi) south-south-east of the state capital of Perth. At the 2011 census, Denmark had a population of 2,280; however, the population can be several times the base population during tourist seasons.

't Landt van de Leeuwin (Leeuwin's Land) was the original Dutch name for the area from King George Sound to the Swan River. It was named after the Dutch East Indiaman Leeuwin, which sighted the coast from Hamelin Bay to Point D'Entrecasteaux in 1622. The coastline of the Denmark area was observed for the first time in 1627 by the Dutchman François Thijssen, captain of the ship 't Gulden Zeepaert (The Golden Seahorse), who sailed to the east as far as Ceduna in South Australia and back. Captain Thijssen had discovered the south coast of Australia and charted about 1,800 kilometres (1,100 mi) of it between Cape Leeuwin and the Nuyts Archipelago.

Two centuries later, when the first Europeans entered the lands around the present Denmark, the area was inhabited by the Noongar. Aborigines called the river and the inlet Kwoorabup, which means 'place of the black wallaby' (kwoor).

The Denmark River was named in December 1829 by naval ship's surgeon Thomas Braidwood Wilson after his mentor, naval surgeon Alexander Denmark, Physician of the Fleet, Resident Physician at the Royal Hospital Haslar, and past-Physician to the Mediterranean Fleet. Wilson discovered the river while exploring the area in company with the Noongar Mokare from King George Sound, John Kent (officer in charge of the Commissariat at Frederick Town, King George Sound), two convicts and Private William Gough of the 39th Regiment, while his ship the Governor Phillip was being repaired at King George Sound.

...
Wikipedia