Djiralay

Djiralay belongs to the Mandurah country of southwestern Australia, where the Mandurah Estuary opens as an outlet for Peel Inlet and Harvey Estuary. The name Mandurah comes from the Noongar word mandjar, commonly translated as “meeting place” or “trading place.” That meaning points to an estuary whose channels, shallows and adjoining shores joined communities and routes rather than merely separating land from the Indian Ocean. Water, fish and abundant birdlife gave the wetlands a significance that reached beyond the narrow passage to the sea.

British settlement reached the area soon after the Swan River Colony was founded in 1829. Thomas Peel arrived that December with workmen, equipment and stores, although his original land grant had been forfeited because he missed the arrival deadline. He founded the settlement of Clarence and then led its remaining settlers south to the future Mandurah, where the Hall, Tuckey and Eacott families also took up land. Only a handful of households lived on the estuary in the 1830s.