Doctors Gully takes its name from Dr Robert Peel, surgeon with Surveyor General GW Goyder's first survey team, who discovered water in a gully between Fort Point and Point Emery in 1869. That discovery — Peel's Well — is a natural freshwater spring that still exists today, nestled in the rainforest directly behind Aquascene.

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Historians believe this spring was the primary attraction for Doctors Gully's earliest occupants, with evidence of habitation stretching back centuries. The gully soon became a key landing point for livestock and a safe beach for careening ships, shaping the early development of Darwin's harbour.

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Today the waters of Doctors Gully are a protected marine sanctuary under the Commonwealth Government — a living reminder of the area's remarkable natural and colonial history.