Cossack - WA

Cossack was established in 1863 and was first known as Tien Tsin Harbour after the barque on which Walter Padbury, the district's first settler, sailed to the site. It was the first port established in north-west Western Australia. The name Cossack was adopted in 1871 to pay tribute to the HMS 'Cossack', the ship used by Governor Frederick Weld to travel to the area.

The townsite and port at Cossack were declared in 1872. Cossack became a municipality in 1887, which was also the year that a horse drawn tramway was constructed between the port and the town of Roebourne, 12 kilometres away.

Cossack's early development was as a port for the region's pastoral produce.Pearl divers were also operating from Cossack from the 1860s. The industry peaked during the 1870s, during which time labourers from China, Malaysia, Japan and the Philippines all worked on pearling luggers operating off the coast.The Asian pearl divers used Cossack as their winter base and a number of Japanese headstones remain in the Cossack cemetery's Asian section today.

The centre of the pearling industry relocated to Broome in the 1880s, however it was in this decade that gold was discovered in the Pilbara and Cossack became an entry port for the goldfields.