Carnac Island

Carnac Island is a 19ha, A Class, island nature reserve about 10km south-west of Fremantle in Western Australia.HistoryCarnac Island is aeolianite limestone remnant of Pleistocene dunes. It is called Ngooloormayup ("place of little brother") in the language of the Whadjuk Noongar people.In 1803, French explorer Louis de Freycinet, captain of the Casuarina, named the island Île Pelée (Bald Island). It was also known as Île Lévilian and later Île Berthelot. In 1827, James Stirling changed its name to Pulo Carnac Island in honour of John Rivett Carnac, Second Lieutenant on his ship HMS Success. "Pulo" is Malay for "Island"; it is not known why Stirling included the term, and it was soon dropped.From 1836 /1837, the island served as a whaling station. The whalers transported Perth's first church to the island to be used as a storehouse. It was abandoned within a few years.From October to November 1838, the island was declared by the Swan River Colony colonial government to be a prison for indigenous Australians. The prison consisted of two guards, an overseer named RM Lyon, and three prisoners named Yagan, Danmera, and Ningina. The solitary conditions resulted in the soldiers assisting the prisoners' escape in a stolen government stores boat.