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Geraldton

Latitude : 28 47 S Longitude : 114 37 E

The largest city in Western Australia north of Perth, Geraldton is located on the coast 424 km north north west of Perth. The city is located on Champion Bay, discovered by Commander D Dring in the colonial schooner "Champion" in January 1840. The bay was named by the Royal Navy hydrographic surveyor, J L Stokes, who surveyed it later in 1840.

The Geraldton area was first explored by George Grey in 1839. In 1848 copper and lead were discovered on the Murchison River, and later that same year the Governor, Charles Fitzgerald, inspected the mineral deposits himself. On this trip he was speared in the leg by local Aborigines. The first exports of ore from the Murchison mines was made from Champion Bay in 1849, and soon after in 1850 surveyor Augustus Gregory was instructed to survey a townsite at this place.

By March 1850 Gregory had surveyed 40 half acre allotments , and on June 3 1851 the townsite of Geraldton was declared. The name was most probably given by Surveyor General J.S. Roe, and honours the colony's Governor at that time, Captain Charles Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald was born in Ireland in 1791, and joined the Royal Navy in 1809. He rose to the rank of Captain in 1840 , and was Governor of Western Australia from 1848 to 1855.

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