King Family achievements – Bill King ‘48

Bill King ’48 has recently finished his extensive family history research for the State Library of Western Australia. Bill’s ancestors were early settlers in the Swan River Colony and heavily contributed to the development of the colony in its infancy. Previous to the completion of the family history, Bill also concluded the history on the settlement of the North West Cape and Gascoyne Goldfields for the shire of Exmouth library. The Kings were the first permanent settlers in the region at the turn of the 20th century when they established Exmouth Gulf Station and prospected the Eldorado goldmine in the 1920’s. “When Val and I retired in 1998 we headed off to the west to research the achievements of the family, I’d travelled extensively through the Kimberley at work and did in fact open up the Gibb River road some 50 odd years ago.” The Gibb River road is a 660 km track right through the wild heart of the Kimberley and Is now on the bucket list for all serious 4X4 explorers as well as being one of the Kimberley’s main attractions. (Pictured: Left Bill atop of Mt Augustus Pictured Right Bill’s wife Val with her 19.5kg barramundi caught on the Roper River in the NT.)