There is debate over whether the Pieman River was named after Alexander Pearce or Thomas Kent. Alexander Pearce, “the Pieman”, was a convict transported to Macquarie Harbour, who escaped, and killed and ate his companions to survive. Thomas Kent of Southampton, was a pastry-cook nicknamed the Pieman, who was transported to Van Diemen’s Land in 1816.
Both men had escapes that led to the Pieman area as far as many stories are concerned. The Pieman River has a long history. The river was originally called the Retreat and was renamed the Pieman in 1823 by Captain James Kelly. The coastal transect on the wild west coast between Granville Harbour and Pieman Head presents a wild coastal system seen by very few people in the world.
There was a time when schooners laden with Huon Pine left the river through the Heads, and when steamships, not much bigger than the Arcadia II, came up the river and discharged their cargoes at Corinna and the nearby Donaldson’s Landing.