Cape Riche, Western Australia

Cape Riche is a cape and rural locality in the Great Southern region of Western Australia. By road, it is 525 km south-east of Perth and 123 km north-east of AlbanyFacilities in the locality include a boat launching ramp and a campground with flushing toilets and showers.HistoryCape Riche was named for Claude-Antoine-Gaspard Riche, a naturalist on Bruni d'Entrecasteaux's 1791 expedition who became lost for two days near Esperance.Matthew Flinders aboard the Investigator charted the area in 1802 as part of his circumnavigation of Australia.George Cheyne, a Scottish immigrant, took up land at Cape Riche in 1836, after arriving in Albany in 1831. He established a trading post which was often visited by American whalers. In about 1848, sandalwood cutters arrived in the area, The Surveyor-General of Western Australia, John Septimus Roe, visited the Cape in October 1848 as part of this 1848-49 expedition and reorganised his supplies while staying with the Cheyne family. He left 4 days later to make his way to the Russell Range.