The first formal claim of possession for Britain was made by Commander George Vancouver RN (later captain) on 29 September 1791 on the spot he named Possession Point, at the tip of the peninsula between the waters he also named -- King George III Sound and Princess Royal Harbour at Albany. The "third" (III) was dropped later.

In the early 1800s the British became concerned about the possibility of a French colony being established on the coast of Western Australia and thus, in 1826, the New South Wales governor Ralph Darling established a settlement at King George Sound. A penal settlement in the area was considered but rejected. Instead, a small detachment headed by Edmund Lockyer with 18 soldiers, one captain, one doctor, one storekeeper and 23 convicts were sent as a labour force.

Lockyer and company arrived in the infamous brig Amity.
The Amity was built in Canada in 1816 beginning it's ocean life as a trader across the Atlantic Ocean for the first seven years and then spent a period also as a trader in the Irish Sea. The brig was purchased by the Ralston family of Scotland in 1823 as transport for the purpose of migrating to Australia. The following year it was sold to the NSW Government. In June 1845 the Amity failed to navigate an uncharted sandbank in Bass Strait after spending approximately 14 years trading out of Hobart. A replica of the Amity now rests on the foreshore of Princess Royal Harbour only 200 meters from the original landing at Point Frederick.

After the formal declaration in 1829 of the Swan River Colony (some 410km to the North West), control of King George Sound was transferred from New South Wales to Western Australia and continued under a Government Resident. Captain James Stirling decreed that the settlement would be named "Albany" from 1832.

Albany was a coaling Port, prior to the establishment of the the Fremantle Harbour Port, servicing mail steamers on their United Kingdom route.
Until 1978 Humpback, and other species of whale, were hunted and processed at the whaling station in Frenchman Bay. Fortunately the practice of whale hunting was prohibited throughout Australia by the International Whaling Commission in 1963 and all whaling stations except Frenchman Bay ceased to operate. The old station is now a whale museum ("Whale World") where people can visit to learn about past practices and new understandings of these ocean bearing mammals. Whale watchers come to Albany from the four corners of the earth to view Humpback and Southern Right whales during their migrations.