Centenary of by Hon. J.W. Kirwan, M.L.C. CENTENARY OF WESTERN AUSTRALIA

LETTERS TO "THE TIMES" 11 APRIL 1929 AND ARTICLES WRITTEN BY THE HON. J.W. KIRWAN M.L.C. AND PUBLISHED IN "UNITED EMPIRE" AND "OVERSEAS" ON THE CENTENARY OF WESTERN AUSTRALIA IN JUNE 1929 \VESTERN A·USTRALIA.

A HUNDRED YEARS OF GR01VTH.

ATTRACTIONS FOR VISITORS. TO THE EDITOR OF THE THiES. Sir,-Practically no notice has been taken!l outside of Western Australia of the centenary of its settlement and foundation as a Colony. A hundred years ago practically no notice also was taken of the sailing from Spithead on February 6 of a vessel named the , of 449 tons register, with a batch of settlers for what was then generally known as New Holland. Yet that was the modest beginning of what is now the progressive and prosperous state of Western Australia, a state that covers one-third of the Australian continent and a vast territory that before the arrival of the Parrnelia did not contain a single white inhabitant. Both events separated by 100 years indicate the unos­ tent.at.ious growth of Britain's Colonial Empire. It should be remembered that "Vestern Aus­ tralia's colonization was quite distinct from that of the rest of Aust.ralia. Before the com- ' pletion of the Trans-Australian railway in 1916, Western Australia was separated by more than \ 1,000 miles of territory that had been traversed by only a few daring explorers. It was as isolated from the other Australian Colonies as if it were an island. In fact" it was in its isolation in much the'same relative position to them as New Zealand. The Parmelia reached her destination on June 1. The settlers landed on Garden Island, Iand it was not until about a fortnight later that : they transferred to the mainland and laid the i foundations of Frernantle and . They were but a handful of free, brave men who were determined to make homes for themselves and their families in the land of their choice. They had a long and severe struggle, especially during the first 20 years, At times they almost gave up hope and there was talk of abandoning the 'settlement., ' To-day 'Western Australia has a population of over 400,000, some 98-per cent. of whom are British. There are. few parts of the world, if any, that per inhabitant produce as much wealth in the form of wheat, wool, gold, timber, fruit, and other primary products. The ulti­ mate triumph of the settlers, far removed as they were from outside aid, is an achievement of which their race may well be proud. In Western Australia a programme of local centenary celebrations has been arranged. It extends over the whole of this year. Australian sports championships of various h-inds will be contested in the state, and there will be many official and other social functions. There will be pageants representing historic events, in­ cluding Vlaming's landing on Cottesloe beach in 1697, and his discovery of the Swan River, the visit of the French ships Geographeand Naturaliste in 1801, the annexation by the British in 1829. and Captain Frernantle hoisting ! the flag at and the foundation of Perth. Unfortunately a great many persons visiting ! Australia only call at Fremantle on their way , to the eastern states. At. any time there is much of considerable interest to be Eleen in , Western Austrulia, but this year a. visit should prove exceptionally interesting; In addition to centenary commemorations. they will see. a part of the Empire with inexhaustible resources, a temperate climate, and magnificent, scenery, and capable of supporting in affluence a popula­ tion vastly greater than that of the British Isles.' Yours faithfully, JOHN W. KIRWAN, President of the Legislative Council of Western Australia. Empire Pnrtia.rrr-ntnrv Roorns, Westminster Hall, Parliament Houses. 'Western Australia has the particular claim Western Australia. on the regard of Great Britain that no State has surpassed it in the steady welcome it has given MR. JOHN KIRWAN'S letter calls attention to­ to British immigrants. The spirit of eager ~3 day to th'e fact that tills year is being kept experiment which has been so strongly marked the hundredth birthday of Western Australia, in Western Australian history has been par- whose Governor, SIR VVILLLAj\I CAJ.'ll'ION, leaves I ticularly active in reoent years in devising these shores to-day. The centenary cele­ means by which a vast territory may become brations are going on throughout the increasingly productive. A generation ago there year, They began in January with a were many Western Australians who turned to gath~r. skifi race, an all-Australian Boy Soout wheat and wool and timber because it rio longer ina and the Australasian Chess Championship, paid them to look for gold. But to-day these and they include every kind of sport, oompeti­ , great farming industries have, established them­ tion," and pageant, culminating in the Royal selves as the best and most inexhaustible gold , Showan.I 'Western Australian Industries Exhibi­ mine of the State. Last year eclipsed al! records tion in October, There is something appropri­ alike in trade and in the harvest. The sheep ate in this wide range of activities and in the increased by nearly 1,000,000 head in 1928 ; the long period they will cover, Noone date ~an, be .duirying industry is growing very rapidly. fixed beyond controversy for the real begwnmg Immense deposits await the infant coal of the Colony, and, when the first colonists had industry. Western Australia is thus justified in finally established themselves, the succeeding entering upon its second century in a spirit of years brought an extreme variety of experiences, optimism. That optimism, which is vigorous as MR. KrnWAN himself has related afresh and ar-ticulate, is the more infectious because ~t in the ourrent issue of the Nineteenth is tempered by experience. In the great busi­ Century. The most important event was the ness of bringing in' new settlers no State has discovery of "gold, and it is to gold more pursued a steadier policy, shared alike by both than to anything else that the Colony owes its political parties, of State management for present population of 400,000. Forty years ago, immigration. The State Governments through­ at the time when responsible government was out Australia tend, at least in times of Labour granted,therewere fewer than 50,000 inhabitants administrations, to be lukewarm towards in 3 State which is in area one-third of the schemes of immigration as attempts to force [I whole Australian continent. The gold industry pace which will depress the standard of life. fell on less prosperous days soon after the turn Yet Western Australia, which suffers like the rest of the century, but it had by then brought into of the oountry from having too high a propor­ the Colony a large number of active and . tion of its citizens in one town, has gone to pioneering colonists. Great numbers of them I, great expense in the last few years in its bold came from the other States of Australia, and ~ attempt to find a new method of settlement it was their presence that determined Western Lwhich would enable whole families to be settled Australia in ,favour_of entering the Common­ i near together on virgin land. The Group wealth in 1900. At that time no trans­ Settlement Scheme has, been found In Australian railway ran between Perth and 'ten years to be too expensive for the Adelaide, and it needed great faith in the future resources of the State, but the experience, for Western Australia to enter into a permanent' though costly, is still an asset of great value. partnership with States several days' sailing If the last ten years have not yielded the results away, knowing that it oould never hope to be hoped for there isplenty to put to the credit side anything but a minority. There has been a of the ledger. Access to the lands of the South­ certain amount of dissatisfaction sinoe then, W~st has been opened up. under tl:m. impetus of and a natural feeling .that the primary a large St~te soheme, -a~dth;;~nderfulinitia-\ producers of Western Australia have been tive of the Kingsley Fairbridge Farm Sohools heavily taxed through the tariff for the has shown how English ohildren, drawn from ~ benefit of the eastern towns. N evert.he­ the poorest quarters of our great cities, may be less. the. conviction was general that on the oonverted betimes into healthy young Aus­ w hole the Colony did right to make sacrifices tralians" Organized settlement under' modern . for. the sake of a United- Australia and the conditions is a new branch of statesmanship, advantages of a central government. A large which can only proceed by 'experiment, and part 'of the centenary programme is appropri- Western Australia is in the vanguard of this d ,a..teoI.7l ,...•.evo.te.d. to .aU-Austraiian., contests and to pew learning. A hundred years ago Hrs annual' fixtures of Australian bodies which are MAJESTY'S Government, while anxious for to he held this year'inPerth as a oompliment tJ colonization, was adamant in refusing financial I. the Western State in its centenary year. . , . ~ help. Not the least of the many contrasts a centenary year suggests is that between the old

d~tached attitude of Government. towards the ·1 pioneer settler and the many offers of help .' which it holds out to him to-day. Extract from «)IJ~ ~itt~t~

LONDON Date. 11 JUN29

A Forgotten Record: rf:, '~' _ 1;fl~ present generut.ion is suspected of keeping few diaries, but it is richly appreciative of the diaries that its ancestors were, thoughtful' enough to keep. Those who went Iiome last night from the 'N~stern Australian dinner, and fell asleep without entering in their logbooks' any record of the speeches they had heard at .what was in effect e.-centcnary banquet, may be part.ioularly and somewhat humbly grateful to ADMIRAL SIR . CAl'TAIN FREiYIANTLE, as he was in 1829, though belong: ing to a service,traditionally laconic, had the forethought to keep a record of the historic first settlement on the west coast of Australia exactly a hundred years ago. The diary has'[ lately been brought to light by the pious :\. industry of his great-nephew LORD COTTESLOE, ' the present head of the Fremantle family. It has a very special interest on' account of the oerrtenary celebrations whioh are being carried on in the State throughout most of this year, and .we print an account of it, with some extraots, this morning. The story that' CAPTAIN FREMANTLJ;; tells illustrates from yet another side how slow and diffi­ oult were the first beginnings'of a Colony which was eventually to become one of the most important of British settlements. The small frigate in which CAPTAIN FRK1';IANTLE spent the months from April to August, 1829, was the forerunner of ships from England bringing the first settlers. It was his task to take formal possession for the KING, to choose the sites for settlement, and to put up the first buildings in the Colony. Under his proteotion the first settlers landed, and laid the foundations of Perth and Fremantle, in June, 1829. The early years were full' of privations, and the Fremantle diary gives fresh sidelights on the hardships that were endured, for CAPTAIN FREMANTLE was able to revisit the some three years later, in 1832, to see how matters had gone. In spite of the set­ backs and obstacles, he found good ground for

I optimism, and the concluding references that he rnak.es, to Western Australia are remarks upon its delightful climate and the healthy countenances of its settlers which might be used to-day as an advertisement for the State. There must be still living men who remember him, for he. lived till 1869, and his nephew and flag lieutenant, ADMIRAL SIR EDMUND FREJ\1ANTLE, died only in February of this

I year.' ,Yet ,the years that have elapsed since the sails of his frigate first appeared in Cock­ burn Sound have been sufficient to build from nothing 11 State whose 400,000 people produce an abundance of wealth in wheat and wool, crold, timber, and fruit, which entitles them to ~ proud place among the pioneer countries of the world. IYh.at "ill be the result oE the reduction in the quota of immigrants whom the Unrted States hence lorward will, admit from the Irish Free State? Duringrecent years the flight from the Trish countryside 'has continued' apace, anclemlgration to the United-Stntes .has been limited ouly by the regulations of' the Ametican authorities. Thera is no ~ign of abate­ ment in tl;e emigration habit, and-woe may I assume, therefore, that Free ,state!

imrn.igrunts to the States for years to come I will riutubar 17,853 ]JCI' all'num-the, figure at which the new quota stands. 'Yhat, however, will happen to the seven I,.thousand young people who would become

II immigrants every year if the dd quota had continued in force? Will they swallow ! their disappointment at being denied jobs in the mines, of Perinsylvania and the kitchens of Hoboken? Will they settle down to the life upon the land that was tilled by their forbears? Most' of them probably could find employment at home if an agricultural" polity were held in re­ sped and they were ready tuwork at home as hard as abroad. Nevertheless, some' of them still of necessity will emigrate, and some-if not all-V:,iJI not be satisfied save by, adventuring to new lands. An Irish­ man who lias risen to eminence in, Australia-the Hon, John W. Kirwan" President of tha Legislative Council (If' West Australia-states the claim of one great, rising land Ior consideration by intending migrants. Writing' in The Nineteenth Cent;'ry and A'[ier; he t~ns how Western Australia received its first settlersIrom t!lese islands exactly one hundred years ago, and how, by patient 'and heroic toil, a prosperous community has been established. At 'the end of 1829, there were 850 colonists in that vast ,region. In those 'days of sailing sl;lips and , slow communiciitio~;, they, were almost isoluted .from the familiar world. Many of the settlers 'were'gentle folk on _whom the rough work - of pioneers,' told with especial hardship.' ThB enmity of', the natives added to, the, rigours of nature. ,Iri twenty years. the European 'population I increased to .5,000, flit' tl;enWes~el'ri Australln was made a penal settlement and, receivetllarg~ numbers o] settlers of a new: kind'. In the 'sixties convicted-Fenians were transported thither. Amon'g them was JOhl~ l3o:yl~ O'H~i1ly.whoSB story, ,"':1!oo!1 d;}'nB Joe "-\vhich' still is read­ , t~lltl\iD'-ed II prophetic suggestion of the ~ ¥:,'~~,tgoid ~eposit~.that later were dis­ r;e-C1ve~~~?,~' Tlio gold fields' bro~gJit'bosts of l t '~.~,C~~rS~.i~the 'eighties: and ,'nineties'. 9f." b<~,.~c::;-.,-lIpover. now. ~resiaent of the ,,:,,@<.l,Stlltes, spent thrEle J:ears"there as ;,,~,~f,~~~ e~gilleEll'~The: go!d.~I~y' cIii~fly , ~)~,':·~~~~:f~e~!!.: regions" 'aIlc!' the work 'of gitlJ'!g~n~,J9,11.:,::~~er~b~)le)vregi~n8;'e;emade, r:;lDW!n~:,,;wfl8;: ca~,~'!ed,;..out .'bY' an hish f,t)'J~I,~~e~r':l\Ir, c; ·~Y. O'Connor, the con­ i~i~~r!;'~J011;i.?f.. the harbour at Fl'emantle. / ,o/(jll¥:,~.{1-l:lin five of the European popu- ,

, .... I.IL.•,.. i..I.,n...,!... I, now lIurlibering 40g,OOq souls, is of I. Irh~"bh,t~oi deHC('lIt, u.~ ~~., I 313

. WESTERN AUSTRALIA'S FIRST CENTURY. By The HON. J. W. KIRWAN, M.L.C. (President of the Legislative Council of Western Australia.) THE handful of settlers who, with their wives and families early in June, 1829, landed from England near the mouth of the Swan River on the coast of what was then known as New Holland, must have had stout hearts. Of their own free will they had decided to undertake the stupendous task of pioneers and endeavour to carve out homes for themselves in what was an unexplored wilderness. They cannot have failed to realize that they were certain to experience trials, difficulties and dangers, that they would have to toil from daylight to dark, and that even if the colony was a success it was unlikely that they themselves would enjoy the full fruits of their labours. Each of them must have been conscious of the knowledge that prompted the writer of the lines :- " Others, I doubt not, if not we-- The fruits of all our toils will see, And we forgotten or unknown. Young children gather as their own The harvest that the dead hath sown." By the work, the sacrifices and the perseverance of those settlers, there has been preserved for the Empire, the western third of the Australian continent, an area nearly one million square miles in extent and capable of supporting in affluence a European population many times larger than that of the British Isles. The centenary of a bold and successful venture that has had such far-reaching consequences deserves notice. In 1829 the Swan River and, indeed, the whole of the area that now comprises Western Australia was extremely remote from civilization. The country had not a single European resident and the nearest white settlements were at Sydney and Hobart, places that could only be reached by a boisterous sea journey of over 1,500 miles. The" Pamelia," the sailing vessel which carried the settlers from England, was but 449 tons register. The voyage occupied four months. Captain (afterwards Sir James) Stirling was on board as Lieut.-Governor of the proposed colony, and with him were various officials. A warship, H.M:S. "Sulphur," accompanied the " Pamelia" with .a detachment of soldiers for the protection of the new colony. The settlement was promoted by the Imperial authorities mainly because it was feared that the French might annex a portion of the western part of Australia. It was thought that the isolated settlements of Sydney and Hobart on the eastern side, might not constitute what would be, regarded as an effective occupation of the whole continent. The troubles of the settlers began almost as soon as they sighted the land of their choice. Owing to ignorance of the waters of the coast, the " Pamelia" ran aground. She was in peril, the weather became threatening and to ensure the safety of the women and children they had to be taken off. Subsequently she floated off the sandbank. On landing on the beach the settlers found themselves amidst novel surroundings. The trees, the undergrowth, the fauna and the climate were new and strange. They had to rely on their own resources and make the best of the materials at hand to provide themselves with shelter, first in tents and then in hastily. constructed huts. Many of them were gentle folk unaccustomed to manual labour, but they had grit and determination. Some weeks were spent by the settlers on Garden Island before 314 ·WESTERN AUSTRALIA'S FIRST CENTl'RY. they established themselves on the mainland. They had.to find supplies of fresh water and they had to search for the best land for gardens and farms. They laid the foundations of the towns of Frernantle and Perth. Other ships arrived with additional settlers and stores, and at the beginning of October the number of settlers, including women and children from England, was 150, making the whole party at Swan River about .300. The struggle for existence was severe. They were unacquainted with the possibilities of the soil. They had to cut tracks through the forest. They had to clear ground of heavy timber. They had to build river boats. They had to erect fences to prevent such stock as they brought with them from straying into swamps and getting lost. They had to protect their families and themselves, their crops and their stock from aborigines who became troublesome and treacherous. Admiral Fremantle, describing a visit to the colony in 1832, writes: " It is laughable to see a shepherd with a musket instead of a crook, and every flock has to have two if not three men to guard it." For the first few years the settlers were busy at the hundred and one tasks that engage the attention of pioneers in a new country. Then fewer ships and fewer settlers carne from England. Outside markets were inaccessible and there was practically no local market for settlers' produce. For a period the place ultimately became a sort of sleepy hollow, "the world forgetting and by the world forgot." Admiral Fremantle who, on behalf of King George the Fourth had taken formal possession of the country before the arrival of the settlers in 1829, revisited the place early in September, 1832. The population had grown to 2,000. He states in his diary that he was disappointed with Perth, the capital, "very few houses having been built and many of these being scarcely worthy of the name, being mostly of wood and very small." On the other hand, the port of Fremantle, which was "mostly occupied by persons keeping stores," had "many pretty tolerable houses and several are in progress." The Admiral visited many farms. The state of the settlement three years and three months after its establishment is thus described by him :- " I was pleased to see that the settlers had brought so much land into cultivation. This year it is expected that half as much wheat as is required will be grown for the colony and next year there will be an abundance. Provisions were very difficult to get and the settlers were badly off, the Government from their scanty means having been obliged to stop the supplies to all excepting Government officers. Mutton was 2s. per lb. and kangaroo Is. 3d. I fear some poor people were very badly off and had not tasted a piece of even salt meat for many weeks. Vegetables were abundant and crops and potatoes large and good. The soil appears particularly adapted for them and even the sand about Fremantle produces as fine as can be seen in any part of the world. Capt. Stirling had returned to England at the request of the settlers generally to represent to the Government the state of the colony and to request that they might not be left to their own resources in the desolate manner they are atpresent. The fact is there is no money in the colony, those who had money having expended it, and there being no Government expenditure, I see no means of their extricating themselves from their difficulties. The salaries of the officers were so low that it was quite impossible they can live on them. The Governor £300 a year and Colonial Secretary £400, and mutton at 2s. per lb., flour at 10d., butter at 5s., it is .diffioult to make ends meet. Labour is, of course, most expensive arid difficult to be got, an artificer receiving lOs. 6d. a day and then only working when they think proper. I am of opinion the best thing that can bB done for the colony is tornake it a penal settlement. The labour of the convicts would be most valua.ble as there is now everything to do and no means of completing anything." Other accounts of the colony written at ,a later date than that of Admiral Fremantle, were even more depressing. The suggestion was made in many quarters that convicts should be sent to the settlement, but it was strongly opposed by the settlers. I WESTERN AUSTRALIA'S FIRST CENTURY. 315

One of the conditions of the foundation of the colony was that it was not to suffer from the taint of the convict system, and unquestionably that condition was an important factor in inducing many settlers with wives and families to go there. The difficulties arising from the scarcity of labour and other circumstances gradually brought about a change of opinion and finally a petition from the colonists, who then numbered some 6,000, that convicts be sent to the country was granted. The first convicts arrived in 1850. They were employed on public works and in other ways and their presence meant the expenditure of money to the advantage of the general community. There was a cessation of transportation to Western Australia in 1868 when the population had grown to 22,700. The fears that the presence of convicts would have tainted the community have proved utterly groundless. To-day no part of the Empire is ~ more moral or law abiding. The discovery of gold at Coolgardie, in 1892, and the opening up later at Kalgoorlie of the wealth of the Golden Mile, ushered in an era of progress and prosperity. The population, which in 1891 was 53,000, rose quickly, and in 1900 it was 180,000, whilst in the same period the yearly revenue of the Government advanced from £500,000 to nearly £3,000,000. ~ The immense capabilities of Western Australia as one of the world's great wheat producing countries, were only realized some ten or eleven years ago. In 1908 the acreage under wheat was only 279,000 acres, but to-day it is almost 3,000,000 acres, and vast areas remain to be opened up. It is expected that next season's crop will be in the neighbourhood of 50,000,000 bushels. The wool produced amounts to some 50,000,000 lbs. annually and the number of sheep is increasing. Fruit growing is rapidly creating a large export market and other industries are also advancing. To-day the annual revenue amounts to some £10,000,000 apart from what is collected by the Federal authorities, and the population is over 405,000. There is, perhaps, no more progressive or prosperous part of the Empire. A contrast may well be made between the prospects of migrants who went to Western Australia 100 years ago and those who go there to-day. The new arrival nowadays would find the harbour at Fremantle crowded with shipping. Perth, with a population of 190,000, is one of the most picturesque and up-to-date cities of the Empire. INhere there were not even tracks a century ago, there are now no less than 4,000 miles of railways open for traffic. There is one motor vehicle for every 15 of the population and there is an excellent airways service between Perth in the south and Wyndham in the north. An east-west aviation service across the continent is just being inaugurated. Roads and bridges have been made even in the most remote and least populated areas; . forests have been felled and bush lands cleared, though many millions of acres yet remain to be cultivated; the Agricultural Bank lends money to new settlers to tide them over the Initial years of struggle; agriculturists have the assistance of expert scientists who are paid by the Government; schools exist everywhere and in some districts where the children are scattered over wide areas they are driven to and from school at the expense of the State; education is free and no fees are charged even at the University of Western Australia. The path has been made smooth indeed for fresh arrivals, and it has been made so by the courage and labours of those pioneers who left England 100 years ago to establish a colony in an unknown wilderness. . ~ OVERSEAS ~

The Centenary of Western Australia By The Hon. J. W. Kirwan, M.L.C. (President of the Legislatice Council of lVestern Australia) HIS year Western Australia commemorates the centenary of its settlement. The first settlers were a small band of Tcolonists from England, who had bravely determined to carve out homes for themselves in a land that was then an unexplored wilderness inhabited by a few thousand almost naked savages. The story of Western Australia from its discovery has been crowded with romance. The country was visited by Dirk Hartog in 1616. He recorded his visit on a tin plate that he left on a post erected on the north end of the island that bears his name. Some eighty years later another voyaging explorer, Von Vlaming, took the plate away, and it is now in the Amster­ dam National Museum. In place of the plate Von VIaming left on the island another plate on which was copied the inscription on the former plate and particulars were added regarding his own visit. The second plate was removed by Freycinet in 1818, and its whereabouts is now unknown. Dampier, the English adventurer, half-buccaneer and yet a keen scientist, visited Western Australia first in 1688 and secondly in 1699. He wrote a graphic description of what he saw and of its people, whom he referred to as the" miser­ ablest" in the world. In 1629, when the Batavia was wrecked on the Abrollos Islands, there was enacted what was perhaps one of the most sensational dramas of the sea. She was a Dutch vessel bound for Java with hundreds of persons on board, including passen­ gers, soldiers and crew. Most of those on board safely reached the islands. Food supplies and other stores were salvaged from the wreck. A mutiny broke out amongst the castaways, a republic was proclaimed and fierce battles were waged between the disaffected and a minority who remained loyal. Soon after the wreck, and before the mutiny broke out, the Batavia's captain, Pelsart, left in an open boat for Batavia, and after an absence of three months he returned in a relief ship. The mutineers surrendered. Their leaders were executed. Two. of the mutineers were marooned on the mainland, and were never heard of subsequently. They were probably the first white men to end their days in New Holland, as 'Western Australia was then called. A hundred years ago there was not a European resident in 19 F ii: OVERS EAS ~ @',~ CENTENARY OF WESTERN AUSTRALIA ~ the territory now comprising ·Western Australia. New South ·Wales had been founded in 1788, and Tasmania was first settled in 1803, but the total population of both colonies a century ago was less than 60,000. Far-seeing men realised that these two isolated settlements on the eastern shores of Australia might not be regarded by foreign powers as establishing an effective occupation of the vast Australian continent. France cast covetous eyes on the great empty land, the true value and resources of which were beginning to be recognised. Napoleon had ambitions in that direction, and part of the southern portion of what is now Western Australia was named Terre Napoleon on French maps. French warships were in Australian waters. Captain James Stirling, who explored the Swan River, con­ stantly pointed out to the British Government the danger of French occupation and urged that a settlement should be estab­ lished on the west coast. A number of soldiers and convicts were sent from.Sydney in 1826 to occupy King George's Sound (now Albany), but the settlement was abandoned later. Finally a Government came into office in London that listened to the pleadings of Captain Stirling. He was officially authorised to proceed with a scheme of settlement, and after some months he sailed from Plymouth - the exact date was Feb­ ruary 6th, 1829-in the Parmelia, a vessel of 449 tons, with a number of settlers, including men, women and chil­ dren. Some of the descendants of these first settlers are to-day amongst the leading ,people in Western Australia. Capt a i n (afterwards Sir James) Stirling was appointed Lieutenant-Governor of the infant colony. H.M.S. Sulphur, with a detachment of the 63rd Regiment, left Perth, Western Australia: St. George's with the Parmelia for Terrace, looking west. the protection of the 20 .Q c2YR}?~:S§R~U~§A!W colonists. Other vessels at a later date brought additional colonists, but at the end of the year the permanent residents only numbered 850. Within a few weeks of the arrival of the first batch of settlers the foundations were laid of two towns-Fremantle, the chief port, and Perth, some twelve miles inland, the capital. The settlers had a terrific struggle for existence. They had to endure severe hardships. They knew little or nothing about the climate; the flora and fauna were strange to them; they had no knowledge of what the land was capable of producing; they had to build their own homes; they had to clear dense under­ growth and fell giant trees; they had to penetrate and examine unknown territory; they had to protect themselves, their families and their homes, from aborigines, who after a time became troublesome and treacherous; they had to make roads through the bush; they had to erect fences to prevent their stock from wandering into inaccessible swamps, and they had to carryon the hundreds of other tasks required of pioneers. At times the colonists were near starvation. Some of them talked of abandoning the settlement, but happily the majority had stout hearts. They left their homes in Britain of their own free will and were determined to succeed in the country of their choice. Many had private means, were members of English county families, and were people of education and culture. Most of them were ill-fitted for the rough work of settlers in a new land. In several cases families had brought their servants from Britain, but labour was so scarce, and there

L South Perth, Western Australia. 21 OVERSEAS . CENTENARY OF WESTERN AUSTRALIA was so much work to do, that immediately from arrival masters and mistresses, as well as servants, had to engage in hard physical toil from daylight until dark. Even children had to do their share of work. The struggle continued for years and years and there was but slight improvement apparent from the outlook of the settlers. They hated the idea of the colony becoming a penal settlement. Finally, after a struggle extending over some twenty years, they petitioned the British Government for con­ victs. The petition was granted, and convicts arrived and were employed in the construction of useful public works. For the next twenty years Western Australia was a penal settlement, but no injurious results have followed. Western Australia to-day is remarkably law-abiding and the moral tone is high. In 1868 transportation to the colony was stopped; in 1870 the population numbered 25,000 and representative government was granted; and in 1890, when the population had increased to 46,000, responsible Government was inaugurated. The next great event was in 1892, when gold was discovered: at Coolgardie, The next year the auriferous wealth of Kalgoorlie with its wonderful Golden Mile was revealed. Attracted by the dazzling richness of the mines, thousands of enterprising spirits flocked to Western Australia from all parts of the world. By 1900 the population had risen to almost 180,000. During recent years Western Australia has advanced rapidly as a wheat producer. Millions of acres have been found to be excellent wheat-growing land, and many tens of millions of acres yet remain to be cleared and cultivated. For the last couple of years the State's wheat production each year was 35 million bushels, and it is hoped that the yield for the centenary year will be 50 million bushels. In addition to gold and wheat, Western Australia has over eight million sheep. The country also grows vast supplies of excellent fruit, and exports a con­ siderable quantity of timber. It has valuable coal mines, has a rapidly expanding dairying industry, and produces numerous other commodities of great commercial value. To-day Perth, with some 185,000 inhabitants, is a most up-to-date and beau­ tiful city, picturesquely situated at the foot of Mount Eliza with the Darling Range as a background, and facing a spacious lake­ like expansion of the Swan River. Western Australia covers one-third of the Australian continent. Its progress during the past 100 years is certain in the years to come to seem compara­ tively small as compared with its progress during the next 100 years, for prosperous as the State now is, it is becoming more and more prosperous as. new natural wealth is being discovered and opened up throughout its immense territory. 22