French Island - VIC

French Island, located in the middle of Western Port, is considered the jewel in the crown of the Mornington Peninsula and Western Port Biosphere Reserve. It is the largest island in the bay, approximately 170 square kilometres in area and reaching a maximum height of 96 metres above seal level at Mt Wellington, near its centre. Due to its isolation, history and the work of conservationists over the last 40 years, French Island remains a relatively undisturbed environment, less than 70km from the heart of the thriving city of Melbourne.History Prior to European settlement, French Island was used as a hunting ground by the Aborigines of the Bunurong tribe. They lived on the mainland and travelled to French Island to collect shellfish and swan eggs. There are several registered sites on the island of the shell middens and stone scatters they left behind.The island was named in 1802 by a French scientific expedition on board the ship, L'Naturaliste, led by Pierre Bernard Milius. This team circumnavigated the island and named it Isle des Francais. English settlers called it French Island.The first European settlers arrived about 1850 and the population grew sporadically over the following years, encouraged at times by governments offering incentives to unemployed folk in times of depression. Early exports from the island included (with varying degrees of success) salt, chicory, meat, milk, vegetables and seaweed. Due to the harsh, isolated conditions many settlers returned to the mainland. However, French Island is still home to descendants of those early pioneers.The island also became home to a prison in 1916. It operated a self-sustaining farm until it closed in 1975.