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Western Australia
Western Australia covers 2,529,880 square kilometres and is the largest state in Australia.
what cannot be denied is the remoteness of this state. It is separated from any other
centres of population by the Nullarbor Plain in the south, by deserts in the centre and by
rugged terrain in the north. Only in recent years has there been a sealed road from
Western Australia to anywhere at all. Prior to that, hundreds of kilometres of pot-holed
dirt had to be negotiated to enter or leave the state by road, although the railway has
provided a link for nearly a century now.
Probably Western Australia was the first part of this continent to be inhabited by humans.
The aborigines seem to have arrived in the north-west about 55,000 years ago and moved
gradually across the continent from there. The first Europeans to come here were the
Dutch. They discovered that the best route to Batavia ( Jakarta ) was to sail east from the
southern tip of Africa and then turn north. In 1616, Dirk Hartog sailed too far east before
turning north and found the northern part of what is now Western Australia.
He landed near Shark Bay at Cape Inscription and left a pewter plate nailed to a tree with
an inscription recording his visit. 81 years later, in 1697, Willem de Vlamingh was
skillful enough to be able to navigate to exactly the same place and retrieve the plate,
which is now in the Rijksmuseum in Holland, leaving another in its place, which is now
in the Maritime Museum in Fremantle.
The first Englishman to pass this way was William Dampier in 1688, but it was not until
1791 that Britain claimed this part of the continent, when Commander George Vancouver
hoisted the British flag at Possession Point, near Albany. The British were concerned that
the French might attempt to found a colony in this area, so in 1826, Darling, the
Governor of New South Wales, dispatched Major Lockyer to Albany in the brig Amity
with a total of 44 men, including 23 convicts, to establish a settlement and pre-empt any
similar French move.
In 1827, the Swan River was explored by Captain James Stirling and there was
discussion as to whether to establish the major settlement at Albany or on the Swan
River. Eventually the decision went in favour of the Swan River and on 2nd May 1829
Captain Charles Fremantle established the new Swan River Colony.
It was intended that this should be a state for free settlers, but the temptation to import
convicts to ease the burden of clearing land proved too great and transportation to
Western Australia started in 1850 and continued until 1868. 9,718 convicts were brought
to the colony, out of a total population in 1869 of 23,000.
It was the discovery of gold in the 1880s which changed the fortunes of Western
Australia. The first find was in Halls Creek in the far north, but soon further discoveries
were made in the south of the state, culminating in the gold rush in Kalgoorlie in 1893.
Kalgoorlie has been producing gold ever since. Other minerals are produced in Western
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