Here's why:
* Indigenous Australians: The area has been inhabited by Aboriginal people for tens of thousands of years. They would have known about Wave Rock long before any European explorers.
* European records: The earliest known European record of Wave Rock is from 1896, when a photographer named Frederick George William ("Frank") Hann captured an image of it.
* No official "discovery": The formation was likely known to local settlers and Aboriginal people long before Hann's photograph.
Therefore, it's impossible to pinpoint a specific date of "discovery." However, 1896 marks the earliest known documentation of Wave Rock by Europeans.