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The first record of Garden Island

The first record of Garden Island appeared on a Dutch map of 1700 after Willian Vlamingh's three ship flotilla visited nearby Rottnest Island some four years before. A french scientific expedition of 1801 to 1802 under the command of Captain Nicholas Baudin named the island " isle of Buache " after the then hydrographer of the French Navy. Captain Strirling renamed the island in March 1827.

The idea of a naval facility in Cockburn Sound is not new. In 1911, after the completion of a report by Admiral Henderson, RN, construction began on a naval base on the mainland near Woodman Point.The project was abandoned after World War 1.
Garden Island has long had a military presence with the Australian Army occuping the island during World War 1, and again in World War II when numerous coastal gun batteries were deployed around the island as part of the fixed defences for the Port of Fremantle. During the second world conflict the island was also the home of the seaborne arm of Z Force where top secret submersibles and midget submarines carried out training.

Between 1945 to 1956, Careening Bay today the site of Stirling, was the home of the Fremantle Detachment of the Royal Australian Navy's Reserve Fleet. As many as eleven warships and their support vessels were laid up in the bay. Garden Island was for many years a popular holiday destination with cottages and shacks scattered along its shores, the main area being around Careening Bay.

Information collected from the information leaflet's handed out at the Rockingham Mussel Fest on march the 7th 2004.

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