What is the history of Kimberley Australia?

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1. Guest2996
   

   The Kimberley was one of the earliest settled parts of Australia, with the first arrivals landing about 40,000 years ago from the islands of what is now Indonesia. Alexander Forrest trekked across from the western coast to the Northern Territory in 1879. Forrest was the first European man to discover and name the Kimberley district, the Margaret and Ord Rivers, the King Leopold Ranges, and the fertile area between the Fitzroyand Ord River. He subsequently set himself up as a land agent specialising in the Kimberleys and was thus instrumental in the leasing of over 51,000,000 acres (210,000 km2) in the region during 1883.
   In 1881, Philip Saunders and Adam Johns, in the face of great difficulties and dangers found gold in various parts of the Kimberleys. Early in 1881 the first five graziers, who called themselves the Murray Squatting Company, took up 120,000 behind Beagle Bay and named it Yeeda Station. They became the first men to shear sheep in the southern Kimberleys in 1883. There was further European settlement in 1885, when cattle were driven across Australia from the eastern states in search of good pasture lands. Many other Europeans arrived soon after, when gold was discovered around Halls Creek.
   The only Japanese force which landed in Australia during the war was a small reconnaissance party which landed in the Kimberley on 19 January 1944 to investigate reports that the Allies were building large bases in the region. This party consisted of four Japanese officers on board a small fishing boat and it investigated the York Sound region for a day and a night before returning to Kupang in Timor on 20 January. When he returned to Japan in February, the junior officer who commanded the party suggested using 200 Japanese prison inmates to launch aguerrilla campaign in Australia. But nothing came of this and the officer was posted to other duties

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