Luma

Can someone tell me Western Australia's history in a nutshell.

I heard that they tried to break free of the rest of Australia - is that true and why?

Vash the Stampede

Click here.

No. You might be thinking of the self-proclaimed "Principality of Hutt River" (click here).

Luma

They haven't said what it has done to the human population :-(

"The infertility of most of the soils has required heavy inputs of chemical fertilisers, particularly superphosphate, insecticides and herbicides, which—with the ensuing damage to invertebrate and bacterial populations, and compaction of soils through heavy machinery and hoofed mammals—has done great damage to the fragile soils."

worzel

The secession debate I suspect. It reared its head again in the last couple of years due to the boom when we have been paying a lot more tax (net) to the Commonwealth that other states.

ozhappy981

What always amuses me, is that the colony was founded by free settlers. But they couldn't manage to keep it going and had to beg Queen Vicky to send 'em some convicts to build houses and the whole infrastructure (roads and public buildings).

Vash the Stampede

Why does that amuse you? Have you any idea how hard it was to create a colony from scratch in a foreign country with virtually no support?

They kept it running for 19 years without assistance. That's pretty impressive, considering what they were up against.

MartinLuther

I think they were a bit reticent about joining the federation in the first place (a bit like New Zealand who went with their gut and didn't join). I think the main reason for this is that it was a small state (population-wise) and thought that it would lose control of its destiny. Seeing as they never bothered waiting for the WA result on federation to come through before proceeding means they were probably right. (Note that in the last election they were calling the new government about the time the WA polls were closing, so it looks like nothing has changed.)

In the 30s there was a referendum to secede from the federation which passed. However it needed the approval of Britain who (not wishing to upset the Federal government) took the time honoured diplomatic action of not responding. The idea of separation comes up during the good years but is quietly ignored during the bad years.

mr mover

And sth Australia did it with no convict labour at all.............mm

ozhappy981

I think you misunderstood me. I wasn't trying to make light about how difficult it is to get a colony off the ground. But the original settlers in WA were somewhat inept. They even managed to run their ship, The Parmelia, aground and actually first "landed" at Garden Island.

Later, there was the pretence that the convicts had nothing to do with the success of the colony ...

It was only in recent time that the fact that the colony would have foundered without the convicts has been acknowledged. And these days a convict in the family history is considered "royalty".

"History" is always a changing story.