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What is History? What makes history so important? | History for Kids

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Primary and Secondary Sources Short Tutorial

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What are Primary and Secondary Resources

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A to Z of Convicts (Life) in Van Diemen's Land

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Shortly after his arrival in Sydney, Oxley began to explore. He led his first expedition in 1817 into the land beyond Bathurst in east-central New South Wales. The expedition, which included George William Evans, followed the Lachlan River for more than two months. They then traveled northward and followed the Macquarie River back to Bathurst.

The following year Oxley led another expedition from Bathurst. During this journey the explorers, including Evans, followed the Macquarie River and found the Castlereagh, Peel, and Hastings rivers. They also came upon the Liverpool Plains, which proved to be good land for grazing sheep. After his return, Oxley wrote Two Expeditions into the Interior of New South Wales (1820). It was the first written description of the area he had explored.

Oxley also surveyed more of the Australian coast. He charted, or mapped, Port Macquarie (off the coast of northern New South Wales) and sailed as far north as Port Curtis (off the coast of southern Queensland). He explored Moreton Bay and 50 miles (80 kilometers) up the Brisbane River. Oxley's positive reports of these areas resulted in settlements being established there.

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Shortly after his arrival in Sydney, Oxley began to explore. He led his first expedition in 1817 into the land beyond Bathurst in east-central New South Wales. The expedition, which included George William Evans, followed the Lachlan River for more than two months. They then traveled northward and followed the Macquarie River back to Bathurst.

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John Oxley (1785 - 1828) was born in England and sailed to Australia as a surveyor with the Royal Navy in 1801. He was appointed Surveyor-General of New South Wales in 1812.

Oxley's First expedition

Ordered to do so by Governor Macquarie in 1817, Oxley, with explorer George Evans as second in command, led an expedition to follow the Lachlan River. Oxley surveyed and mapped the river and discovered good grazing land west of Bathurst. When swamps blocked his way Oxley led the explorers north and returned to Bathurst, following the Macquarie River.

Oxley's Second expedition

In 1818, Oxley (again with George Evans as second in command) led another expedition to trace the course of the Macquarie River. As before on the Lachlan River he was blocked by swamps and marshes. Oxley led his men north-east and explored the Castlereagh River (George Evans had discovered a portion of the Lachlan River west of Bathurst in 1815) and the fertile lands of the Liverpool Plains. Travelling east, the explorers crossed the Great Dividing Range, discovered the Hastings River and followed it to its mouth on the coast. Oxley named the coastal area Port Macquarie, after the governor, and then returned to Sydney.

Oxley's Third expedition

By the 1820s it was decided that a new place needed to be found to house convicts. In 1823, under orders from Governor Brisbane, Oxley sailed up the coast and into Moreton Bay. He was shown the mouth of a large river and guided upstream by some escaped convicts who had been shipwrecked earlier and who had been living with local Aboriginal people. Oxley explored the river for about 20 kilometres and named it the Brisbane River after the governor.

On his return to Sydney, Oxley recommended Moreton Bay as the place for a convict settlement. The penal settlement was established on the bay at Redcliffe in 1824. Later the colony was moved south to a site on the Brisbane River at North Quay, where there was a more reliable water supply. This area became the city of Brisbane.

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Australian Explorer - John Oxley - kidcyber

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John Oxley (1785 - 1828) was born in England and sailed to Australia as a surveyor with the Royal Navy in 1801. He was appointed Surveyor-General of New South Wales in 1812. Ordered to do so by Governor Macquarie in 1817, Oxley, with explorer George Evans as second in command, led an expedition to follow the Lachlan River.

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John Oxley: Exploring the Untamed Land | Explorer Biography | Explorer

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He played a big part in starting the city we now know as Melbourne! What did he do?

In 1835, John Batman travelled to Port Phillip Bay (now Melbourne) to find land for farming.

He wrote in his diary: “This will be the place for a village.”

This is why some people say he helped found Melbourne.

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Brisbane is the capital of the Australian state of Queensland. It is the third largest city in Australia. Cityscape Brisbane is located in the southeastern corner of the...

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Kids in Brisbane, Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast | KOTC | Things to do with Kids in Brisbane, Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast

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Look to the stars at Sir Thomas Brisbane Planetarium

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Get ready for lift off! With engaging and educational shows, Sir Thomas Brisbane Planetarium is the perfect place to be introduced to astronomy.

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John Batman (21 January 1801 - 6 May 1839) was an Australian grazier, entrepreneur and explorer, best known for his role in the founding of Melbourne.

Born and raised in the then-British colony of New South Wales, Batman settled in Van Diemen's Land (modern-day Tasmania) in the 1820s, where he rose to prominence for hunting bushrangers and as a participant in the Black War. He later co-founded the Port Phillip Association and led an expedition which explored the Port Phillip area on the Australian mainland with the goal of establishing a new settlement. In 1835, Batman negotiated a treaty with local Aboriginal peoples by offering them tools, blankets and food in exchange for thousands of hectares of land. The treaty resulted in the founding of Batmania, a settlement on the Yarra River which became Melbourne, eventual capital of Victoria and one of Australia's largest and most important cities. Batman moved there with his convict wife, Elizabeth Callaghan, and their seven daughters, settling on what is now known as Batman's Hill. He died of syphilis shortly afterwards at the age of 38.

Batman's treaty was a matter of controversy in his day, and the colonial government in New South Wales refused to recognise it as legitimate. Batman's treaty stands as the only attempt by a European to engage Australian Aboriginal people in a treaty or transaction rather than simply claiming land outright. It remains an event of great historical interest and debate.

Batman's English parents, William and Mary Bat(e)man, came to Sydney in 1797 aboard the ship the Ganges. William had been transported to the Colony of New South Wales for receiving stolen saltpetre (a precursor ingredient for making gunpowder), but Mary accompanied him as a free passenger, along with their children Maria and Robert. John, the couple's second son, was born on January 21, 1801 at Rosehill, Parramatta, now a suburb of Sydney, but at the time one of the early farming settlements of the fledgling colony.

After obtaining his ticket-of-leave, William started a timber-yard business that prospered, and he owned several properties and the licence for the Duke of Wellington hotel in Church Street, Paramatta. In 1810, William changed the family's surname from Bateman, perhaps to avoid convict stigma. William died in 1834, and Mary in 1840.

Move to Tasmania

In 1821 John (aged 20 years) and his younger brother Henry journeyed to Van Diemen's Land (now known as Tasmania) to settle on land in the north-east near Ben Lomond. He acquired 'Kingston', a property said to be "...large in acreage and poor agriculturally,...".

In early 1826, Batman captured the bushranger Matthew Brady, resulting in an additional grant of land by the government. Brady had been wounded in the leg in a conflict with the authorities, but got away safely. Batman went out unarmed on his own in search of Brady, and found him quite accidentally. He saw a man limping in the bush near a shallow creek, and hastened forward to him. It was Brady. He induced Brady to surrender and return with him. The outlaw was ill and suffering much pain, and did as he was asked. Brady was duly handed over to authorities at Launceston Gaol and later sentenced to death. He was hanged at Hobart.

Batman became a grazier. He participated in the capture of Tasmanian Aborigines in 1829. He employed mainland Aboriginal people hired in Sydney, New South Wales, for 'roving parties' hunting Tasmanians. Between 1828 and 1830, Tasmanians in this region were shot or rounded up by bounty hunters like Batman.

As Tasmanian Colonial Governor, George Arthur, observed, Batman "...had much slaughter to account for". Closer examination of this quote from Governor Arthur reveals a more complex picture of Batman's motives and actions on behalf of the government in these so-called "roving parties". For example, in September 1829, Batman (aged 28), with the assistance of several "Sydney blacks" he brought to Tasmania, led an attack on an Aboriginal family group together numbering 60 to 70 men, women and children in the Ben Lomond district of north-east Tasmania. Waiting until 11pm that night before attacking, he "...ordered the men to fire upon them..." as their 40-odd dogs raised the alarm and the Aboriginal people ran away into thick scrub, killing an estimated 15 people. The next morning, he left the place for his farm, with two badly wounded Tasmanian men, a woman and her two-year-old boy, all of whom he captured. However, he "...found it impossible that the two former [the men] could walk, and after trying them by every means in my power, for some time, found I could not get them on I was obliged to shoot them." The captured woman, named Luggenemenener, was later sent to Campbell Town gaol and separated from her two-year-old son, Rolepana, "...whom she had faced death to protect." Batman reported afterwards to British Colonial Secretary, John Burnett, in a letter of 7 September 1829, that he kept the child because he wanted "...to rear it...". Luggenemenener died on 21 March 1837 as an inmate at the Flinders Island settlement.

Later, Rolepana (aged 8 years), travelled with him as part of the founding party of Melbourne in 1835. After Batman's death in 1839, Rolepana would have been 12 years old. Boyce notes that Rolepana was employed by colonist George Ware at 12 pounds a year with board on Batman's death, "...but what became of him after this is also unknown." However, Haebich records Rolepana as having died in Melbourne in 1842 (he would have been about 15 years). She also says that:

Batman openly defied Governor Arthur and [George Augustus] Robinson by refusing to hand over two Aboriginal boys in his employ: Rolepana (or Benny Ben Lomond) and Lurnerminer (John or Jack Allen), captured by Batman in 1828. He claimed the boys were there with the consent of their parents,....He also demonstrated a strong proprietorial interest in the boys, when he told Robinson they were 'as much his property as his farm and that he had as much right to keep them as the government'. Indeed Batman was convinced that the best plan was to leave the children with the colonists, who clothed and fed them at no expense to the government and raised them to become 'useful members of society'. In a series of letters to Governor Arthur, he 'pleaded hard for the retention of youths educated by settlers and devoted to their service'.

Batman rose to prominence during the time of the Black War of 1830 (aged 29), during which he participated in the Black Line-the formation of a "human chain" across the island to drive Tasmanian Aborigines from their lands into a 'manageable' area.

In February 1830, Batman wrote to the British Colonial Secretary, John Burnett, about his difficulty in 'coming up' with [i.e., capturing] the Tasmanian Aborigines. In the same letter, he asked in explaining his difficulty in capturing Tasmanians in the bush, "...if he could follow known [Aboriginal] offenders once they had made it 'to their own ground'.

The 19th-century artist, John Glover, captioned one of his Tasmanian paintings Batman's Lookout, Benn Lomond (1835) "...on account of Mr Batman frequenting this spot to entrap the Natives." Batman's neighbour in Van Diemen's Land, Glover said that he was "a rogue, thief, cheat and liar, a murderer of blacks and the vilest man I have ever known".

By 1835, Batman's property, "...Kingston [near Ben Lomond], covered more than 7,000 acres (2,800 ha), had appropriate animals and buildings, and numerous hands; but it was too rugged to be highly productive."

Foundation of Melbourne and Batman's Treaty

Batman sought land grants in the Western Port area, but the New South Wales colonial authorities rejected this. So, in 1835, as a leading member of the Port Phillip Association he sailed for the mainland in the schooner Rebecca and explored much of Port Phillip.

When he found the current site of central Melbourne, he noted in his diary of 8 June 1835, "This will be the place for a village." and declared the land "Batmania".

Batman's Treaty negotiations with Kulin peoples (Aboriginal peoples of now central Victoria) took place in June 1835 on the banks of the Merri Creek in present-day Northcote (an inner suburb of Melbourne), "...using legal advice from the former Van Diemen's Land attorney-general, Joseph Gellibrand, and with the support of his Aboriginal companions from New South Wales and Van Diemen's Land."

However, Batman did not visit the colonial camp that was later set up on the Yarra River (i.e., Melbourne) until November 1835. Debate has continued for more than a century over this moment in the birth of Melbourne. Batman writes in his diary on Monday, 8 June 1835 that "... the boat went up the river I have spoken of, which comes from the east, and I am glad to state, about six miles up found the river all good water and very deep. This will be the place for a village. The natives on shore." The previous day Batman and his party had returned from their meeting with the Kulin Elders along the hills bordering the northern banks of the Yarra. It remains quite unclear whether the party saw the 'place for a village' by the 'Falls'-a long-used homesite for the local peoples, and similarly unclear whether Batman was in the boat that explored the Yarra on the 8th. But the site has already been noted for its virtues by numerous Britons including John Helder Wedge and Batman's Parramatta friend Hamilton Hume."

Batman negotiated a treaty (now known as Batman's Treaty but also known as the Dutigulla Treaty, Dutigulla Deed, Melbourne Treaty or Melbourne Deed), with Kulin peoples to rent their land on an annual basis for 40 blankets, 30 axes, 100 knives, 50 scissors, 30 mirrors, 200 handkerchiefs, 100 pounds of flour and 6 shirts. It is unlikely that Kulin people would have understood this as a transfer of land or agreed to it if they had, but, as Percival Serle wrote, "No doubt the blankets, knives, tomahawks, etc., that he gave them were very welcome". In any case, Governor Bourke deemed such a treaty invalid as the land was claimed by the Crown rather than the Kulin peoples and other colonists including the rival party of John Pascoe Fawkner arrived to settle Melbourne.

Batman and his family settled at what became known as Batman's Hill at the western end of Collins Street. Having sold his property "Kingston" in Tasmania and brought his wife, former convict Elizabeth Callaghan, and their seven daughters to Melbourne, he built a house at the base of the hill in April 1836. His son, John, was born in November 1837.

However, Batman's health quickly declined after 1835 leaving him in constant pain. By the end of 1837 he was unable to walk and was forced to give up squatting and move into trading and investment, but he greatly overstretched his finances and was left vulnerable by his reliance on delegating work to others. As the disease eroded his nose, forcing him to wear a bandage to conceal his ruined face, he became estranged from his wife. In his last months of his life Batman was cared for by his Aboriginal servants, who carried him around in a wicker perambulator.

Following Batman's death on 6 May 1839, his widow and family moved from the house at Batman's Hill and the house was requisitioned by the government for administrative offices. Batman's will, made in 1837, was out of date at his death as many of the assets bequeathed to his children had already been sold. Years of legal wrangling followed his death, led by Eliza Batman, who had remarried in 1841 to Batman's former clerk, William Willoughby, and had only been left £5 in the will by her embittered first husband. The case dragged on, even after Batman's heir-at-law, his son John, drowned in the Yarra River in 1845, and its costs absorbed what was left of Batman's estate.

Batman was buried in the Old Melbourne Cemetery but was exhumed and re-buried in the Fawkner Cemetery, a cemetery named after his fellow colonist (and rival), John Pascoe Fawkner. A bluestone obelisk was constructed in 1922 which was later moved to Batman Avenue before being returned to the Queen Victoria Market site in 1992. The obelisk is inscribed with the Latin "circumspice" meaning "look around", the entire city of Melbourne being his legacy. The obelisk also states that Melbourne was "unoccupied" prior to John Batman's arrival in 1835.

Australian sprinter Daniel Batman claimed to be a direct descendant of John Batman, although this claim is dubious, given that Batman's only son, John Charles Batman, died aged just 8 or 9 years old by drowning in at Yarra Falls on 11 January 1845.

Batman's legacy has been challenged in recent years, and most criticism has focused on his killings of Indigenous people in Tasmania. In 2016, Darebin Council voted unanimously to change the name of Batman Park in Northcote. It is now called Gumbri Park, after Gumbri (Jessie Hunter), great-niece of Wurundjeri leader William Barak and the last girl born on the Coranderrk Aboriginal Reserve in Healesville.

The Victorian electoral Division of Batman was abolished in 2018 and renamed the Division of Cooper after Aboriginal political activist William Cooper.

Places named after John Batman

Batman Bridge (Tasmania)

Division of Batman (Victorian electoral division; now known as the Division of Cooper)

Batman Park (Melbourne CBD)

Batman Park (Northcote, Victoria) - now renamed as Gumbri Park

Batman's Hill (Melbourne CBD)

Batman railway station (North Coburg, Melbourne, Victoria)

Batman Avenue, Melbourne

Batman Avenue, Keilor Park

Batman Avenue, Sunbury

Batman Avenue, Hurstbridge

Batman Avenue, Shepparton

Batman Close, Thornton, New South Wales

Batman Lane, Surry Hills, New South Wales

Batman Road, Eltham

Batman Road, Indented Head - the original landing site of John Batman in Port Phillip Bay

Batman Street, Burnside Heights

Batman Street, Footscray

Batman Street, Altona Meadows

Batman Street, Aberfeldie

Batman Street, Fitzroy North

Batman Street, Portarlington

Batman Walk, Parramatta

John Batman Drive, Melton West

John Batman Gardens, Sandringham

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John Batman (21 January 1801 - 6 May 1839) was an Australian grazier, entrepreneur and explorer, best known for his role in the founding of Melbourne. Born and raised in the then-British colony of New South Wales, Batman settled in Van Diemen's Land (modern-day Tasmania) in the 1820s, where he rose to prominence for hunting bushrangers and as a participant in the Black War.

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The Batman Treaty was the first and only attempt by a European to make a deal with Aboriginal people for land.

Melbourne was once going to be called Batmania!

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The human history of Western Australia commenced between 40,000 and 60,000 years ago with the arrival of Indigenous Australians on the northwest coast. The first inhabitants expanded the range of their settlement to the east and south of the continent. The first recorded European contact was in 1616, when Dutch explorer Dirk Hartog landed on the west coast.

Although many expeditions visited the coast during the next 200 years, there was no lasting attempt at establishment of a permanent settlement until December 1826 when an expedition on behalf of the New South Wales colonial government, led by Major Edmund Lockyer, landed at King George Sound. On 21 January 1827 Lockyer formally took possession of the western third of the continent of Australia for the British Crown. This was followed by the establishment of the Swan River Colony in 1829, including the site of the present-day capital, Perth. The harsh conditions faced by the settlers resulted in population growth being minimal until the discovery of gold in the 1880s. Since the gold rush, the population of the state has risen steadily, with substantial growth in the period since World War II.

Western Australia gained the right of self-government in 1890, and joined with the five other states to form the Commonwealth of Australia in 1901. The desire of Western Australians to revert to complete self-governance, separate from the Commonwealth, culminated in 1933 with a successful referendum for secession supported by 68% of electors. In 1935 the British parliament declined to act since secession would require the assent of the Australian parliament, and the movement lapsed with an improving economy and generous federal grants.

Aboriginal settlement

When Australia's first inhabitants arrived on the northwest coast 40,000 to 60,000 years ago the sea levels were much lower. The Kimberley coast at one time was only about 90 km from Timor, which itself was the last in a line of closely spaced islands for humans to travel across. Therefore, this was a possible (even probable) location for which Australia's first immigrants could arrive via some primitive boat. Other possible immigration routes were via islands further north and then through New Guinea.

Over the next tens of thousands of years these Indigenous Australians slowly moved southward and eastward across the landmass. The Aborigines were well established throughout Western Australia by the time European ships started accidentally arriving en route to Batavia (now Jakarta) in the early 17th century.

Early visits by Europeans

The first European to sight Western Australia was the Dutch explorer, Dirk Hartog, who on 26 October 1616 landed at what is now known as Cape Inscription, Dirk Hartog Island. Before departing, Hartog left behind a pewter plate affixed to a post. The plate was subsequently discovered, replaced and repatriated to the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.

The first English vessel to visit was the Tryall, an East India Company-owned East Indiaman under the command of John Brooke who in 1622 sighted Point Cloates before later on 25 May wrecking on Tryal Rocks, off the northwest coast of Australia. The crew remained on the Monte Bello Islands for 7 days, during that time sighting Barrow Island, before sailing to Batavia in a longboat. The Tryall is Australia's oldest known shipwreck.

A later English visitor was William Dampier, who in 1699 sailed down the western coast of Australia. He noted the lack of water and in his description of Shark Bay in his account "A Voyage to New Holland", he expressed his frustration:

as the 7th of August when we came into Shark's Bay; in which we Anchored at three several Places, and stay'd at the first of them (on the W. side of the Bay) till the 11th. During which time we searched about, as I said, for fresh Water, digging Wells, but to no purpose.

A number of sections of the Western Australian coastline were given names which did not last past the exploratory era in names of features - such as Eendrachtsland. However some names, such as ' t Landt van de Leeuwin (Leeuwin's Land), materialised at a later date as Cape Leeuwin.

Timeline of European discovery and exploration

Below is a timeline of significant events from the 1616 landfall of Dirk Hartog until the eventual settlement of the Swan River Colony in 1829:

1616 - Dirk Hartog in the Eendracht arrived at Cape Inscription and left a pewter plate. Coastal region in the vicinity is shown on Hartog's maps as Eendrachtsland. Believed to be first landfall on Western Australian soil by Europeans. (An earlier 1606 encounter on the northern coast of Australia near Papua New Guinea by Willem Janszoon on the Duyfken is credited as being the first Australian visit by European explorers.)

1618 - Dutch East India Company supercargo Willem Janszoon on Mauritius landed on North West Cape - although sighting footprints, they did not meet the natives.

1618 - The Zeewulf made landfall north of Eendrachtsland.

1619 - Frederick de Houtman in two ships bound for Batavia encountered dangerous shoals which were subsequently named Houtman Abrolhos. Following successful navigation of the Abrolhos, Houtman made landfall in the region Hartog had encountered.

1622 - Leeuwin landed south of Abrolhos.

1622 - English ship Tryall was wrecked on Tryal Rocks off the northwest coast; survivors spent a week on Monte Bello Islands before sailing to Batavia in a longboat.

1626 to 1627 - Gulden Zeepaert skippered by François Thijssen sailed along south coast towards Great Australian Bight.

1629 - struck a reef of the Abrolhos. Skipper Francisco Pelsaert sailed the ship's small boat to Batavia for rescue. After returning 3 months later found evidence of mutiny and many previous survivors murdered.

1656 - The Vergulde Draeck (Gilt Dragon) en route to Batavia was shipwrecked only 107 km north of the Swan River near Ledge Point

1658 - Three Dutch ships visited south coast searching for the Vergulde Draeck: Waekende Boey under Captain S. Volckertszoon, the Elburg under Captain J. Peereboom and the Emeloort under Captain A. Joncke.

1681 - English navigator John Daniel on the New London charted part of the west coast of Australia, including Rottnest Island and the Wallabi Group of Houtman Abrolhos.

1688 and 1699 - William Dampier in the Cygnet explored the northwest coastline and sailed down the coast.

1697 - Willem de Vlamingh found Hartog's plate and replaced it with his own. He also explored the Swan River area.

1712 - The Zuytdorp with 286 on board was shipwrecked near Kalbarri. The Dutch did not send a search party probably because no survivors were able to report the disaster. The crew were never heard from again, though it is probable that many initially survived because a campsite was found near the wreck.

1714 - Jean Pierre Purry proposed a Dutch East India Company settlement of Nuyts, Leeuwin and Edels Lands.

1772 - On 30 March, Frenchman Louis Aleno de St Aloüarn landed at Turtle Bay at the northern end of Dirk Hartog Island and claimed the island for France. [1]

1786 - King Gustav III of Sweden makes a contract with William Bolts to establish a colony at the Swan River.

1791 - George Vancouver made formal claim at Possession Point, King George Sound, Albany.

1792 - Frenchman Bruni d'Entrecasteaux in charge of the Recherche and L'Esperance reached Cape Leeuwin on 5 December and explored eastward along the southern coast.

1801 - The French ships Geographe and Naturaliste under Nicolas Baudin and Emmanuel Hamelin, explored much of the coast north from Cape Leeuwin, including the Swan River. They discovered de Vlamingh's plate.

1801 - Matthew Flinders sighted Cape Leeuwin en route to charting of southern Australian coastline.

1803 - Matthew Flinders completed the first circumnavigation of Australia

1803 - The Geographe and another French ship Casuarina followed much of the same coastline again on the way back to France.

1818 - Louis de Freycinet found de Vlamingh's plate and removed it to France.

1826 - On 26 October, Frenchman Dumont d'Urville in the Astrolabe visited King George Sound before sailing along the south coast to Port Jackson.

1826 - On 26 December, a military garrison was established on behalf of New South Wales at King George Sound with the arrival of Major Edmund Lockyer on the .

1827 - On 21 January, Lockyer formally annexed the western portion of Australia, now Western Australia, in a ceremony at King George Sound.

1829 - James Stirling explored the Swan River area. Captain Charles Fremantle again took possession of the western side of New Holland for the British crown on 2 May.

Colonial era

King George Sound

Main page: King George Sound

The first formal claim of possession for Great Britain was made on 29 September 1791 by Commander (later Captain) George Vancouver RN, on a spot he named Possession Point, at the tip of the peninsula between the waters he also named Princess Royal Harbour and King George the Third's Sound at Albany ("the Third" was dropped from the name in 1826).

In the early 19th century the British became concerned about the possibility of a French colony being established on the west coast of Australia. In 1826 the Governor of New South Wales, Ralph Darling, ordered the establishment of a settlement at King George's Sound. An army detachment was sent from Sydney headed by Major Edmund Lockyer with eighteen soldiers, one captain, one doctor, one storekeeper and twenty-three convicts.

On 21 January 1827 the whole of Australia was finally claimed as British territory when Major Lockyer formally annexed the western portion of the continent in a ceremony on King George Sound.

In March 1831 the penal settlement was withdrawn, and the control of King George's Sound was transferred from New South Wales to the Swan River Colony. Captain James Stirling decreed that the settlement would be named " Albany" from 1 January 1832.

The Swan River Colony

The first significant European settlements were established on the Swan River by James Stirling in 1829. The colonists first sighted land on 1 June, an official Proclamation was made on 18 June and the foundation of the colony took place on 12 August. As Lieutenant Governor, Stirling had sole authority to draft laws and decide day-to-day affairs.

By 1859, all the other Australian colonies had their own parliaments and colonists in Western Australia began pushing for the right to govern themselves. The British Colonial Office opposed this because of the slow rate of growth and the presence by then of convicts. Petitions asking for some of the positions in the Legislative Council to be filled by popularly elected colonists were presented to London in 1865 and 1869. In 1870 this was granted, although the Governor could still veto the Council's decisions.

Major towns of the colony developed slowly into the port city of Fremantle and the main settlement, 20 miles (30 km) up river, at Perth.

Expansion 1829-1850

Much of the land around the Swan River Colony was unsuitable for agriculture and it was inevitable that the colony would have to expand beyond the Swan River area after the most fertile locations were quickly settled.

Sheep farming was the most successful early agricultural activity, and the basis of all expansion until the 1850s.

1829: A military outpost was founded at Bunbury.

1830: Area around Augusta settled.

1830: The first exploration over the Darling Range to search for suitable farming land occurred with the settlement of the Avon Valley and the foundation of the town of York in 1831.

1832

The main settlement is officially named Perth, after Sir George Murray's seat in Perthshire, Scotland.

First sitting of the Western Australian Legislative Council, consisting of four officials appointed by Stirling to assist him in decision-making.

1833: On 5 January, the first newspaper, the Perth Gazette was launched.

1833: Relations between the Europeans and Aborigines were not always amicable with many intercultural skirmishes. Yagan, a senior warrior of the local Aboriginal tribe near the Swan River was killed on 11 July of this year after a bounty was issued for his capture following the murder of a couple of settlers.

1834: Battle of Pinjarra (aka Pinjarra Massacre): This was the worst intercultural battle, happening on 28 October. Depending on the source, the death toll ranged from 10 to 150.

1836: settlement in the Toodyay region.

1837-39: George Grey explored the coasts of:

the North West (1837)

Gascoyne and Murchison (1839)

1839: another four members, drawn from the ranks of private settlers, were added to the official members of the Legislative Council.

1841: Explorer Edward John Eyre arrives in Albany walking across the Nullarbor Plain from the eastern states. In the Vasse District at Wonnerup, settler George Layman Sr of Wonnerup House was speared to death by a Wardandi elder.

1843: Census recorded the population of Western Australia as 3,842.

1844: A 15-year-old John Gavin was the first European legally hanged in the colony.

1848-1850: After 19 years of settlement, growth was very slow. The population of the area around Perth was still only about 1,400. In 1850 the population of the state as a whole had only increased to 5,886. This population had settled mainly around the southwestern coastline at Bunbury, Augusta and Albany.

1849: First discovery of gold occurred in the Jimperding-Toodyay area.

Convict era

Main page: Convict era of Western Australia

While Western Australia was initially a "free settlement", economic problems for settler capitalists led them to seek the transportation of British convicts. WA became a penal colony in 1850.

The Gregory brothers led major exploration expeditions to many parts of the colony, including:

1851: Augustus Gregory surveys the Greenough region near Geraldton and that area opens up to farming.

1861: Francis Gregory explores the interior of the Nickol Bay region (known later as the Pilbara).

By 1859, all the other Australian colonies had their own parliaments and colonists in Western Australia began pushing for the right to govern themselves. The British Colonial Office opposed this because of the slow rate of growth and the presence of convicts. Petitions asking for some of the positions in the Legislative Council to be filled by elected members were presented to London twice during the 1860s.

By 1868, over 9,000 convicts had been transported to Western Australia on 43 convict ship voyages.

Expansion 1861-1885

Wool production, usually on large stations, was also the basis of expansion further east and northward.

The first permanent settlements in the North West (later divided into the Pilbara and Kimberley regions) took place in the mid-1860s, initially at the Harding River, De Grey River and Roebourne (gazetted in 1867). Pearling also came to dominate the North West, initially in Nickol Bay, with a fleet at Tien Tsin Harbor (later renamed Cossack). In the North West, unlike southern WA, the labour force was dominated by indigenous Australians, often under harsh forms of unfree labour.

In 1870, some member of the Legislative Council were elected for the first time, although only male settlers with significant property could vote and the Governor could still veto the Council's decisions.

John Forrest led two major expeditions:

In 1872, controversial explorer Peter Egerton Warburton made a journey from Alice Springs to Western Australian coast.

Ernest Giles twice traversed the Gibson Desert between 1872 and 1876.

During the 1870s, the Murchison and Gascoyne regions were also settled by Europeans.

Other notable events

1877: The telegraph from Adelaide to Perth completed, considerably improving intracontinental communication

1883: Durack family settle around the Ord River in the East Kimberley.

Gold discoveries, 1885-1900

Main page: Gold mining in Western Australia

Until the 1880s the economy of the state was based largely on wool and wheat. A major change in the colony's fortunes occurred in 1885 when gold was discovered and prospectors by the tens of thousands swarmed across the land in a desperate attempt to discover new goldfields.

In 1887 a new constitution, including proposals for responsible government, was drafted and sent to London by Governor Broome for approval. It was argued that due to the increasing wealth being generated by gold rushes, Western Australia should become a self-governing colony. An Act granting self-government was passed by the British Parliament in 1890, giving the Colony independence from the UK in matters other than foreign policy, defence and "native affairs". Section 70 of the self-government act established an Aboriginal Protection Board, under the control of the British Parliament, not the Western Australian one. Governor Broome had earlier warned the British Colonial Office that the Western Australians were not to be trusted in matters relating to Aboriginal persons. A further clause to the constitution stated that 5,000 pounds or one percent of state revenues, whichever was the greater, was to be allocated to Aboriginal persons for their welfare and advancement. Many settlers resented these clauses, and Western Australia has never honoured this clause to its own constitution. A previous Governor, Sir William Robinson, was re-appointed to supervise the change. He travelled by train from Albany to Perth and towns en route lit bonfires and people gathered at railway sidings to celebrate his arrival and the new constitution. His arrival in Perth on 21 October 1890 saw the city decorated with elaborate floral arches spanning the city's main streets and buildings were decked with banners and flags.

In 1891 the rush to the Murchison goldfields began when Tom Cue discovered gold at the town which now bears his name. In the years that followed dozens of gold towns - Day Dawn, Nannine, Peak Hill, Garden Gully, Dead Finish, Pinnicles, Austin Island and Austin Mainland - flourished only to be abandoned when the seams were exhausted and the gold fever moved on.

The influx of miners from the eastern colonies and from overseas increased the presence of trade unions in Western Australia. The Trades and Labor Council, Perth was established in 1891 and Perth Trades Hall opened (1912). The first edition of the Westralian Worker appeared on 7 September 1900 and was followed shortly afterwards by the opening of the Kalgoorlie Trades Hall, the first such hall in Western Australia. A Trades Hall was opened in Fremantle in 1904.

An influx of people from Victoria, South Australia, and Tasmania led to Australian rules football becoming the dominant football code when several local rugby football clubs switched codes.

Sir John Forrest - the first Premier of Western Australia and its only premier as a Colony - clashed with Robinson over Section 70. While Forrest had argued that Western Australians should accept Section 70 in order to obtain self-government, by 1892 he was attempting to have it changed. William Traylen MP argued that "as our revenue is growing up now, and the natives can scarcely be said to be increasing in numbers, we shall be paying a very undue proportion of our income as a colony for the purpose of supporting the Aboriginal native race".

Discoveries at Coolgardie (1892) and Paddy Hannan's discovery at Kalgoorlie (1893) sparked true gold fever.

Gold inspired a new wave of exploration, including David Carnegie who, in 1896, led an epic expedition that traveled through the deserts north of Coolgardie, through the Gibson and Great Sandy Deserts to Halls Creek in the Kimberley, before returning to Coolgardie.

In the late 19th century there was talk of the gold-rich region around Kalgoorlie seceding from Western Australia, as a colony/state called "Auralia". This campaign coincided with the reluctance in Perth regarding Western Australia taking part in Australian federation.

In 1899, Forrest succeeded unilaterally passed the Constitution Amendment Act, taking control of Aboriginal Affairs without approval of the British House of Commons. Many Aboriginal people argue that the 1899 amendment was an illegal usurpation of British government power and one percent of accumulated Government revenues should be set aside for Aboriginal welfare, as intended.

Other notable events

1887: On 22 April, a cyclone struck the pearling fleet at Eighty Mile Beach near Broome claiming 140 lives. The storm was unexpected, being so late in the season.

1889: The Great Southern Railway was opened with subsequent economic growth to the regions along the line. The wheat industry did not really get going until construction of railways. A railway line had reached Coolgardie (from Perth) by 1896.

1895: Kings Park was officially opened on 10 August.

1897: Fremantle Inner Harbour was officially opened after dredging and construction under the supervision of C. Y. O'Connor.

State of Australia

On 1 January 1901, following a proclamation by Queen Victoria, Western Australia, along with the other five British colonies of New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania and Victoria, formed the federation of the Commonwealth of Australia, of which they each became component states. However, Western Australia was rather reluctant to join the union, doing so only after a railway line connecting the west coast to the east coast was offered.

Development during the early twentieth century

The wealth generated from gold soon disappeared and by the early years of the 20th century the economy was once again dependent on wool and wheat. This dependency meant that a dramatic fall in wool and wheat prices in the late 1920s - early 1930s saw the state's economy collapse. It was not to recover until after World War II when the Federal Government's postwar immigration policy saw a huge influx of migrants, nearly all of them from Europe, in the period 1947 to 1970.

Important events in Western Australia included the following:

1902: The Premier, George Leake died suddenly on 24 June aged only 45. Frederick Illingworth became the caretaker Premier for a week before Walter James formed a new ministry on 1 July. George Leake is the only Western Australian Premier to die in office.

1904: John Drayton is imprisoned under parliamentary privilege provisions in Western Australia for refusing to pay a fine. This is the first and, until 1995, only, time that an Australian parliament punished somebody under parliamentary privilege provisions.

1911: The University of Western Australia becomes Western Australia's first university. No teaching happens until 1913 though.[2] It wasn't until 1975 that Western Australia's second university, Murdoch University opened.

1912: A cyclone crossed the coast just west of Balla Balla near Port Hedland and claimed well over 150 lives. This was almost certainly Australia's worst weather-related maritime disaster of the 20th century with the loss of the coastal steamer Koombana.[3]

1917: The transcontinental railway is complete, fulfilling a promise by the Federal Government when the Colony of Western Australia voted to become a state of Australia at Federation in 1901. Construction of this last leg between Kalgoorlie and Port Augusta had begun in 1912.

1920: Edward, the Prince of Wales (the future King Edward VIII) was involved in a train derailment, in which his carriage overturned in the state's south west. Fortunately the train was moving at a low speed and he did not sustain any injuries.

1920: Western Australia passed legislation allowing women to stand for parliament, Edith Cowan was elected to the Legislative Assembly becoming the first woman elected to any Australian parliament.

1929: Western Australia Centenary.

1930: Perth is connected to Adelaide (and subsequently the rest of the eastern states) by a telephone line.

In a referendum in 1933, 68% of voters favoured secession. The Premier, Philip Collier, argued in London for secession but the British decided they could not grant it.

Main page: Secessionism in Western Australia

1935: The Lacepede Islands near Broome were struck by a cyclone, which sank 21 pearling luggers with 141 lives lost. This was Australia's second deadliest cyclone in the 20th century. [4]

World War II

Main page: Military history of Australia during World War II

Major events since 1945

1946: Over 800 Aboriginal workers took part in the 1946 Pilbara strike, the first such kind of action taken by Indigenous Australians.

1947: Western Australia enters the country's domestic cricket competition, the Sheffield Shield. Though Western Australia only entered on a probationary basis, it managed to win the shield in its first season.

1949: Douglas DC-3 Fitzroy crashed after take-off from Guildford aerodrome, killing all 18 people on board.

1950: The worst civil aircraft accident in Australian history occurred when all 29 people on board the Douglas DC-4 Amana died after it crashed near York on a flight from Perth to Adelaide.

1952: On 3 October the first nuclear bomb was exploded on Australian soil at the Montebello Islands. It was part of Operation Hurricane, Britain's first ever nuclear weapon test. [5]

1961: In arguably Western Australia's worst bushfires, many small communities were destroyed including 132 houses in Dwellingup. There were no fatalities, but 800 people were left homeless.

1961: Minerals boom begins with removal of iron ore export ban. The economy is bolstered over the next two decades by nickel mines around Kalgoorlie and iron ore mines in the north-west.

1964: On 31 December, Donald Campbell broke the world water speed record in the Bluebird K7 on Lake Dumbleyung. He reached 442 km/h. Campbell died in the same vehicle in 1967 in a later record attempt in England.

1967: Aboriginal people were recognized as Australian citizens with the right to vote

1968: On 14 October, the Meckering earthquake occurred with a moment magnitude of 6.5 and a maximum Mercalli intensity of IX (Violent).

1968: On 31 December, all 26 people on board MacRobertson Miller Airlines Flight 1750 from Perth to Port Hedland died when the aircraft, a Vickers Viscount, crashed near Port Hedland.

1970: The Indian Pacific train completed its first journey by rail across the continent from Sydney to Perth. Though the transcontinental railway had been complete since 1917, this is the first time one train could make the journey uninterrupted by gauge changes.

1979: The NASA space station Skylab crashed in the remote south eastern part of the state. Places like Rawlinna and Balladonia received international attention.

1979: On 2 June 1979 there was a significant earthquake just east of Cadoux.

1979: WAY 1979 and the publishing of the Sesquicentenary Celebrations Series (Western Australia) by the celebrations committee and Government.

1983: Beginnings of WA Inc. Government deals with private businessmen lead to the loss of $600 million in public money and eventually a Royal Commission.

1993: The Perth-Joondalup railway line completed to extend rail transport to Perth's northern suburbs.

2007: The Perth-Mandurah railway line completed.

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History of Western Australia Facts for Kids

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The human history of Western Australia commenced between 40,000 and 60,000 years ago with the arrival of Indigenous Australians on the northwest coast. The first inhabitants expanded the range of their settlement to the east and south of the continent. The first recorded European contact was in 1616, when Dutch explorer Dirk Hartog landed on the west coast.

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1.10 Transportation of Weathered Material