DAMPIER history

Indigenous Australians have occupied the Dampier Archipelago and Burrup Peninsula for tens of thousands of years as evident by the shell middens, rock art (petroglyphs), artefact scatters and stone arrangements found in and around the town of Dampier.

Englishman William Dampier made the first recorded European visit to the Archipelago in 1688, spending nine weeks on the North West Western Australian coastline and returning in 1699 when he named Rosemary Island.

The town of Dampier was established between 1966 and 1968 to provide housing for the workers of the then Hamersley Iron (HI) owned and managed port facilities at Parker Point and East Intercourse Island. It was a closed mining town, meaning only HI employees lived in Dampier. During the mid-1980s, HI introduced their home ownership scheme where employees could buy their homes over a period of 15 years. In early 2000 the first houses in Dampier came onto the open market, paving the way for people from a range of employers to move into town.

The town of Dampier is currently in the process of being ‘normalised’ meaning that services and facilities historically run by HI, and now Rio Tinto, are gradually being handed over to government agencies, such as the City of Karratha.