Its boundaries were created in March 2002 while its name was derived from the Willson River, a river which flows through the locality and which itself was named in 1885 after the Willson family who have resided in what is now the locality prior to 1885 and as recently as 1996.[1][10]
The main land uses within the locality are agriculture and conservation. The former land use includes an area of privately owned land having protected status due to being subject to native vegetation heritage agreements while the latter use includes land adjoining the coastline which has additional statutory constraints to “conserve the natural features of the coast.”[11][1][12]
^For the 2011 census, the State Suburb of Island Beach covered the full extent of the Dudley Peninsula with the exception of Penneshaw - refer Dudley Peninsula#Demographics for more information