The history of Esperance is filled with enthralling stories: shipwrecks, murders, feats of endurance and determination, gold and wealth, plagues and droughts, and even a bloodthirsty sealer who might have been a pirate. These stories, and many more, fill the pages of East of 121: Five Minute Histories from Esperance.

Before the first Europeans set foot on these shores, the Wudjari Nyungar people named this bay ‘Kepa Kurl’, the place where the waters lie like a boomerang. In 1792, a visiting French admiral named the same bay ‘Esperance’ after one of the two ships in his expedition. In 1863, the Western Australian colonial government began offering land leases in the ‘East District’, east of longitude 121°, drawing the first hopeful pastoralists to the region. This book traces the history of Esperance and the surrounding region from these early days through to today.

The stories in this book originally appeared as ‘Five Minute History’ articles in the beloved Esperance Tide magazine. Now revised and expanded, they comprise a wide-ranging history of Esperance, complete with photographs, maps, background information, and more. 

Karli Florisson grew up in Esperance, where she fell in love with the stories of triumph, tragedy, and resilience she encountered. A historian and freelance writer, she has been researching and writing about the history of this region for many years.