History

Prior to the presence of non-Aboriginals and the Catholic Church, the land on which the community is now located, belonged to the Nyul Nyul people and in particular Ngoodingboor or Felix as he was named and his brother, Victor.

The community was established as a Catholic mission in the 1890s and by the 1940s had become an established settlement with a productive cattle farm, horticultural operation and other local enterprises; including a bakery and soft-drink factory that exported goods to Broome.

The modern history of Beagle Bay is representative of the experience of the Dampier Peninsula more generally. The broad phases of change to have affected people on the Peninsula in the last 200 years being pearling, missions, autonomy, homeland movement and the present situation.

The mission ceased to operate in the mid-1970s and the Beagle Bay community has been largely self-determined since this time. However, the community invited the Church to continue to provide priests and a school.