Nickol Bay

{{Short description|Bay in Western Australia}}

{{Use Australian English|date=February 2019}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2019}}

Nickol Bay is a bay between the Burrup Peninsula and Dixon Island, on the Pilbara coast in Western Australia.

Once alternatively spelled "Nicol Bay", it was named by John Septimus Roe for a sailor who was lost overboard during an expedition.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article215000391 |title=Location Map |newspaper=Hamersley News |volume=VI |issue=13 |location=Western Australia |date=12 July 1973 |accessdate=19 July 2019 |page=6 |via=National Library of Australia}}

F. T. Gregory visited the bay a number of times in 1861.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article69136006 |title=Mr. F. T. Gregory's Expedition to the N. W. Coast of Australia. |newspaper=The Inquirer and Commercial News |volume=XXII |issue=1,087 |location=Western Australia |date=27 November 1861 |accessdate=17 February 2019 |page=2 |via=National Library of Australia}}{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article154848539 |title=Gregory's Last Expedition to the North-West Coast of Australia |newspaper=The Age |issue=2,237 |location=Victoria, Australia |date=26 December 1861 |accessdate=17 February 2019 |page=7 |via=National Library of Australia}}

When the tiny Forlorn Hope sailed around the Bay in June 1865, they landed several times but found no signs of European habitation,{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article207603570 |title=Voyage of the Forlorn Hope |newspaper=The Adelaide Express |volume=II |issue=529 |location=South Australia |date=24 August 1865 |accessdate=23 July 2019 |page=2 |via=National Library of Australia}} yet two years later a settlement named Roebourne had been established and the district's virtues for rearing sheep were being extolled widely.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article3751767 |title=Nickol Bay |newspaper=The Perth Gazette and West Australian Times |volume=4 |issue=12 |location=Western Australia |date=27 December 1867 |accessdate=17 February 2019 |page=2 |via=National Library of Australia}}{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article66031942 |title=Nickol Bay |newspaper=The Inquirer and Commercial News |volume=XXXI |issue=1569 |location=Western Australia |date=23 December 1868 |accessdate=17 February 2019 |page=3 |via=National Library of Australia}}