Fish sign

The waters of the Peel-Harvey estuary provided a rich bounty for the region’s Aboriginal people, who would use mungah, or fish traps, to channel fish into small areas where they could catch them by hand. One of the few early references to Europeans fishing is of Aboriginal people teaching Henry Edward Hall to fish on the estuary. Europeans’ initial attempts at providing fish to market were unsuccessful as they lacked a way to keep fresh fish cool. This sparked the idea for the fish canning industry to follow. It wasn’t until the onset of refrigeration and road transport, after WWII, that Mandurah fishermen were able to supply fresh fish to markets in Perth and Fremantle.