Traditional owners
The Capricorn Coast and indeed the area that comprises most of the Rockhampton Region is the traditional land of the Darumbal Aboriginal peoples. Offshore, the Keppel Bay Islands National Park is home to the Kanomi-Woppaburra people (The Keppel Islanders).
On the coast, alliances existed between tribes, and clans within tribes. The Kuinmurrburra nation had six allied tribes within it; the Kutuburra, Ristebura, Wanuburra, Wuruburra, Pukanburra, and Muinburra, which existed in relative harmony to allow for nature's swinging moods. The island natives did not interact with the mainland Darumbals, for they feared each other and spoke a much different dialect. With the settlement of Yeppoon in the late 1860s, the principal landholder on the Capricorn Coast, Robert Ross, removed the Kanomi population from North Keppel because they were disturbing his cattle.
The last of the Keppel Islanders were forceably removed by the Queensland Government in 1912. The Darumbal Dreamtime Centre in Rockhampton, adjacent to the Yeppoon turnoff, is the largest Aboriginal cultural centre in Australia.
European settlement
Discovery and exploration
The Capricorn Coast was first explored by James Cook in 1770. He did not make landing in the area however he named several islands and land forms; Cape Capricorn, Keppel Isles, Keppel Bay, Cape Many Fold (later Cape Manifold), and Shoal Water Bay (later Shoalwater Bay).
Matthew Flinders explored the Capricorn Coast in great detail in 1804. Flinders spent the best part of a month in the shallow bays, making landings at Curtis Island, Port Clinton, Shoalwater Bay and Percy Island. Matthew Flinders Drive, a scenic cliffside road that winds through Cooee Bay and up over the top of Wreck Point, is named in his honour.
Phillip Parker King followed in 1820 but encountered difficulties when his ship, the Mermaid, ran aground. In 1843, an extensive survey was carried
