Two Peoples Bay Nature Reserve, Nature reserve in Albany, Australia

Two Peoples Bay Nature Reserve covers 4,744.7 hectares about 35 km east of Albany, Western Australia. Its main 4,510-hectare section holds Mount Gardner, Lake Gardner, Moates Lake, granite headlands, Sinkers Reef, Little Beach and Waterfall Beach, plus mobile dunes; a separate 89-hectare part lies 2 km north around Angove Lake and the Angove River, and four islands (Coffin Island, Black Rock, Inner Island, Rock Dunder) lie offshore.

The reserve was declared in 1967 to protect the noisy scrub-bird, rediscovered in 1961 after being thought extinct. Its name comes from a 1803 meeting in the bay between a French expedition led by Nicholas Baudin and an American whaling ship. Gilbert's potoroo, named after naturalist John Gilbert who surveyed the area in the 1840s, was rediscovered here in 1994. A November 2015 fire burnt 1,200 hectares and killed about 15 of the 20 potoroos in the reserve.

The name comes from a 1803 meeting in the sheltered bay between an American whaling ship and a French expedition led by Nicholas Baudin, who called it Baie Des Deux Peuples, bay of two nations. Whaling was carried on in the bay in the mid-19th century. Naturalist John Gilbert surveyed the area in the 1840s and gave his name to Gilbert's potoroo.

Two Peoples Bay Nature Reserve lies 35 km east of Albany and is reachable by 2WD vehicle. Paths lead from the car parks to Little Beach and Waterfall Beach for swimming, fishing and snorkelling. The bay faces due east and is sheltered from the Southern Ocean by the granite massif of Mount Gardner.

Gilbert's potoroo was not seen for about a century after John Gilbert collected the first specimens in the 1840s, and was presumed extinct until a population was found at Two Peoples Bay in 1994. Fewer than 40 were estimated in the wild in 2007. A fire in November 2015 burned 1,200 hectares and killed about 15 of the roughly 20 potoroos in the reserve.