This headland is at the southern end of the National Park that share's its name. Cape Arid lies on the shore of the south coast from the eastern end of the Rechereche Archipelago. The first European to discover the area was the French Admiral Bruni D'Entrecasteaux in 1792 and he named it Cap Aride; Matthew Flinders anglicized the name in 1802 and the park took its name from this feature.Pioneer graziers arrived in the area in the 1870s and the
ruins of homesteads, dams and buildings as
well as gravesites can be found near
Pine Hill and Thomas Fishery.Bay whaling was conducted by Thomas Sherratt at Barrier
Anchorage in the 1870s.
John Thomas also seems to have had a bay whaling operation in the 1860s at Thomas's Fishery.