Western Australia

Western Australia is the largest state of Australia. The first inhabitants of Australia arrived from the north about 40,000 to 60,000 years ago. Over thousands of years they eventually spread across the whole landmass. These Indigenous Australians were long established throughout Western Australia by the time European explorers began to arrive in the early 17th century. The first Europeans to visit Western Australia belonged to the Dutch Dirk Hartog expedition, who visited the Western Australian coast in 1616.

The first permanent European settlement of Western Australia occurred following the landing by Major Edmund Lockyer on 26 December 1826 of an expedition on behalf of the New South Wales colonial government, although Wiebbe Hayes Stone Fort—the oldest surviving European building in Australia—was built 197 years prior in 1629 on West Wallabi Island in Western Australia by survivors of the Batavia shipwreck and massacre. Lockyer established a convict-supported military garrison at King George III Sound, at present-day Albany, and on 21 January 1827 formally took possession for the British Crown of the western part of the continent that was not already claimed by the British Crown. This was followed by the establishment of the Swan River Colony in 1829, and York – the first inland settlement in Western Australia on 16 September 1831.

Western Australia achieved responsible government in 1890 and federated with the other British colonies in Australia in 1901.