In the early 1800s a number of French explorers visited the south west coast of Australia. The British, who were at war with the French at that time, became concerned that a French presence in the south west of the continent could endanger trade with the eastern colonies. In 1819 Phillip Parker King and his crew patrolled the southwest, although it was not until his second voyage in 1822 that they made landfall on "Rottenest".
Settlement of the Swan River Colony began in 1829, and interest was shown almost immediately in Rottnest as a secure place with the potential for salt harvesting, farming and fishing. Rottnest was surveyed with provision for a town in 1830, and in 1831 William Clarke and Robert Thomson took up town lots and pasture land. Thomson, for whom Thomson Bay is named, took up residence on the Island in 1837.
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