Western Australia historical timeline

Origins

Aboriginal peoples have lived here for at least 50,000 years. The Murujuga petroglyphs on the Burrup Peninsula number over a million and constitute one of the most significant rock art assemblages on earth.

Turning points

The Swan River Colony was founded in 1829 as a free settlement, struggled badly, and requested convicts in 1850 to survive — the reverse of the eastern colonies' trajectory. Gold at Kalgoorlie in the 1890s transformed it, and the pipeline built to carry water 560 km inland to the goldfields remains an engineering landmark.

Influential people

Lang Hancock's discovery of vast Pilbara iron ore deposits in the 1950s set up the industry that now underwrites the state, and much of the national economy with it.

Cultural evolution

Western Australia voted to secede from the Commonwealth in a 1933 referendum, by two to one. Britain declined to act on it. The sense of distance from the east has not entirely faded.

Present-day significance

Iron ore, gas and gold dominate. The 2020 destruction of the 46,000-year-old Juukan Gorge rock shelters by a mining company caused a national reckoning over heritage law that is still working through.