The first European explorer in the area was Surveyor General John Septimus Roe; Mount Marshall and Lake McDermott were named after early Swan River Colony settler Marshall McDermott, cashier of the Bank of Western Australia, magistrate, and a director of the Agricultural Society of Western Australia.The area was first settled by sandalwood collectors and graziers in 1868. Sandalwood was removed from this area from the 1880s until the 1920s. Permanent settlement and the development and clearing of the land for farms commenced around 1910.