THIS year marks the 150th anniversary of the death of Thomas Peel, the man responsible for European settlement in Mandurah.
Peel was not always set to establish settlement in Mandurah; it was only after a series of setbacks he would bring a group south to the Murray River and to the area now known as Mandurah.
Mandurah Community Museum development officer Nicholas Rey-nolds said Peel headed to Western Australia after hearing news of the prospective Swan River Settlement in 1828.
The 34-year-old Eng-lishman was inspired to bring a number of workmen, equipment and supplies to WA in exchange for a grant of land.
Peel initially planned to settle the southern banks of the Swan and Canning Rivers, but missed a stipulated deadline with the Colonial Office with his land already occupied when he arrived six weeks late in December, 1829.
“It seemed [Captain James] Stirling was more interested in giving land near the Swan River to his friends,” Mr Reynolds said.
Peel was forced to head south and constructed a settlement called Clare-nce on what is now Woodman’s Point, about 10 kilometres south of Fremantle, while he awaited further supplies.
Malnutrition and disease plagued the emigrants at Clarence and Peel himself became ill from a gun wound.
Mr Reynolds said the reasons behind the gunshot wound were debatable.
“Some say it was a hunting accident; others less friendly to him say he got shot in a duel with the ship captain of the Rockingham [a ship that was wrecked off Garden Island],” he said.
“He lost the use of his right arm from the shot.”
Peel’s settlers soon became dissatisfied with both the conditions and a lack of payment with many seeking employment elsewhere.
“He was known to be vindictive and money grubbing,” Mr Reynolds said.
“One story is about a man constructing a building, and if he came down from the ladder before he had finished the building Peel would be able to take control of it. So Peel went down and asked the man to come down but the man knew it was a trick and stayed up the ladder.”
With the Clarence settlement a failure by the end of the 1820s, Peel and the remaining loyal settlers, the Tuckey family and the Eacott family, headed south in 1830 to the Murray River and the area known today as Mandurah.
At that time Mandurah seemed a lot further from Perth than it does today.
The settlement was a day’s journey by sea and two or more days by horse and cart, travelling across very rough country. The area remained isolated until 1841 when a road was built and a ferry punt constructed (1843) across the estuary.
Peel eventually died at the age of 72 in 1865 from a suspected heart attack.
“Peel was expecting a shipment to arrive and heard that ships had been sighted, he ran up the sand dune to see and became breathless; he went back inside, gulped down a glass of red wine and collapsed,” Mr Reynolds said.
His grave stone is at the Anglican Church on the corner of Pinjarra Road and Sholl Street; Peel’s house was originally located on Mandurah Terrace where Thai Wah is located today.
More information about Thomas Peel and the early settlers can be found at Mandurah’s Community Museum at 3 Pinjarra Road, Mandurah.
The museum is open Tuesday to Friday from 10am-4pm and Saturday and Sunday from 11am-3pm.
