Captain James Stirling makes his first visit of exploration to the Swan River. He travels up the Swan River to the confluence of a brook, which he named Ellen(s) Brook after his wife Ellen, and the Swan River (the river bank below the present All Saints Church, Henley Brook)

Captain Stirling named the waters between the mouth of the Swan River and Rottnest Gage Roads after Rear Admiral W. Gage, who was Commander-in-Chief of the Royal Navy's East Indies station at the time of Stirling's visit.