The state of Western Australia takes up more than one third of the Australian land mass and has a population of around 3 million people. It's major economic driver is the mining and resources industry, including iron ore, gold, and lithium, as well as oil and natural gas. WA is also a major grain and wine producer and they have a well developed tourism industry.
Evidence of human habitation in the area known today as Western Australia goes back over 60,000 years. Dutch explorers were shipwrecked along the coast during the 17th century, and the French tried to stake a claim to the region in the 18th, but Europeans did not begin to formally colonise the region until the early 19th century, when the Swan River colony was founded as a free settlement in 1829.
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Indigenous HistoryIndigenous History
Homo Sapiens have been living in the area now known as Western Australia for over 60,000 years. Today 5 major kinship groups are recognised:
- Noongar, from the South West of Western Australia
- Yamatji, from the Murchison, Gascoyne region
- Wangkatha, from the Goldfields and Nullarbor regions
- Kimberley peoples from the Kimberley region, and
- Ngaanyatjarra from the Central Desert region.
These nations are divided into smaller cultural and family groups. 191 Indigenous languages have been documented within the borders of Western Australia. Tragically, only 31 are still being spoken[1]
Genealogical Resources for Indigenous People in Western AustraliaGenealogical Resources for Indigenous People in Western Australia
Since Aboriginal culture is largely an oral tradition there are no records equivalent to European vital record registration available for aboriginal family history prior to European colonisation. However, cultural practices and traditions in many regions have been reclaimed by the community, despite the dispossession caused by colonisation.
Colonial and Post Colonial records relevant to indigenous family history research are held by a variety of institutions:
- IATSIS - host a range of resources to assist people with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander family history research, as well as West Australian specific resources
- National Archives of Australia (NAA) in Canberra - hold several records and resources including the Bringing Them Home Name Index - a searchable list of names and places created from NAA files about First Australians.
- Looking West : a guide to Aboriginal records in Western Australia - is a report written in response to Recommendation 23 of "Bringing them home: report of the National Inquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children from their Families". A Records Taskforce established by the Western Australian Government was tasked with identifying, locating and preserving records associated with Aboriginal people in the state. The Looking West report was released in 2004 and is available to view on the Trove web archive.
- The National Library of Australia (NLA) holds a large range of books, manuscripts, newspapers, photographs and oral histories. Some material is easily accessible online via Trove. Material such as Oral Histories may need to be accessed in the library. NLA has a comprehensive Family History Research Guide. If you need assistance you can contact the library via their Ask A Librarian.
- The Australian War Memorial holds information related to the military service of Indigenous Australians
- The Aboriginal History Research Services (AHRS) - at the Department of Creative Industries, Tourism and Sport (CITS) assists Aboriginal people to locate Western Australian state government records about themselves and their ancestors. Applications can be made via their website.
- State Library of Western Australia has a dedicated web page with resources for Aboriginal family history.
European Settlement of Western AustraliaEuropean Settlement of Western Australia
The first documented contact of Europeans in Western Australia came with the advance of the Dutch East India Company into the Indian Ocean in the 17th Century. Dirk Hartog, a dutch explorer, made landfall in 1616 when he was blown off course en route to Batavia (modern day Jakarta). Half a century later Abel Tasman's voyages helped to fill in the map of the west coast. But the Dutch saw no value in this territory and never laid claim to it[2].
On 30 March 1772, [Francois de] Saint-Alouarn landed at Turtle Bay on the northern tip of Dirk Hartog Island. There he claimed possession of the western half of New Holland for King Louis XVI. This was two years after Captain James Cook landed at Botany Bay, and 16 years before the arrival of the First Fleet[3].
The French claim was never enforced, but in 1826, disturbed by reports of possible French interest, and misbehaving American whalers, New South Wales Governor Ralph Darling sent Maj. Edmund Lockyer to stake a claim for the UK, by establishing a garrison at King George Sound (Albany) on the south west coast[2].
The Swan River colony was founded as a free settlement in 1829, and promoted as a potential agricultural paradise[4].
Early settlers came primarily from England, Scotland, and Ireland, many from middle-class backgrounds or landed gentry with capital to invest. Less well off settlers came through assisted passage schemes, where the colonial government subsidized their travel costs in exchange for labor. These settlers helped establish pastoral stations, farms, and businesses, and eventually formed the colony's social and political elite.
Unfortunately the agricultural potential of the region had been somewhat exaggerated and the settlement got of to a rocky start.
Initially too many people arrived too quickly, and then there were too few. Soon the population began to decline as disheartened settlers left for the eastern colonies. Between 1833 and 1834, twelve ships carried 1358 passengers away from the colony, leaving a total population in the Swan River settlements of less than 1400 ...During 1843 and 1844 a major depression hit the colony. Hampered by the lack of transport, administrative and communications infrastructure, plus a severe shortage or workers, the growth of the colony’s pastoral and agricultural industries came to a halt[4].
In 1847 wealthy pastoralists petitioned the local authorities to allow for convict labor, arguing it would stimulate the economy. Between 1850 and 1868 the colony accepted almost 10,000 convicts. Swan River was the last Australian colony to receive convicts[4].
The convicts who came were set to work on public infrastructure projects including roads, bridges, and buildings in Perth, Fremantle, and regional areas. Many were skilled tradesmen - stonemasons, carpenters, blacksmiths - and after serving their sentences, many stayed in WA, contributing their skills to the regions development.
The discovery of gold in Coolgardie in 1892 and Mt Charlotte in 1893 triggered a major population boom. Prospectors flooded in from the eastern Australian colonies, some areas of which were in the grip of a severe economic depression, as well as from Britain, Ireland, Italy, Croatia, China, Afghanistan, and North America. One of the most significant ethnic groups that came to WA at this time was the Afghan cameleers. Camel trains became an essential service, moving cargo from the coast to the desert townships springing up near the goldfields[5].
By early 1893 there were 380 camels in Western Australia, and more were on their way from India. The benefits for those seeking gold were immediately obvious, as camels could survive for days without water and could feed on local vegetation[5].
This wave of migration dramatically increased WA's population and cultural diversity.
In 1901, Western Australia joined the Commonwealth of Australia and became a state. Migrants from Italy, Greece, Croatia, Macedonia, and other Southern European countries arrived in more substantial numbers. After WWII, Western Australia received thousands of migrants under assisted passage schemes. British migrants continued to arrive under schemes like the "Ten Pound Pom" program, but there were also significant numbers of Dutch, German, Polish, Ukrainian, and Baltic migrants, often from displaced persons camps in Europe. Many were refugees fleeing war-torn Europe or Soviet control.
After the White Australia Policy was finally dismantled in the early 1970s, WA experienced increased migration from Asia. Vietnamese refugees arrived after the fall of Saigon in 1975, with further migration throughout the late 1970s and 1980s. Chinese migration increased significantly from the 1980s onward, driven by students, skilled workers, and business migration. Indian, Malaysian, Singaporean, Filipino, Indonesian, and other Southeast Asian communities also grew substantially.
In the 1990s and into the 21st century Western Australia continues to attract migrants. The mining boom in particular has attracted skilled workers from around the world.
Genealogical records for Western AustraliaGenealogical records for Western Australia
The State Library of Western Australia has a detailed and comprehensive guide to the genealogical records in their holdings called Dead Reckoning. Originally published as a book in the 1980s, it has been updated and is now presented as an online resource. Unfortunately many of the resources it links to have not been digitised and must be viewed on site in the library.
The passenger arrivals index in RecordSearch at National Archives of Australia covers over 10 million arrival records from 1898 to 1972. This includes arrivals:
- by ship from 1898 to 1966 into Fremantle or other Western Australian ports
- by aircraft from 1944 to 1966 into Perth airport, and
- by ship and aircraft from 1965 to 1972 into all ports/airports.
State archives are held by the State Records Office of Western Australia (SROWA). They hold records related to several genealogically relevant subjects including:
Unfortunately, the SROWA catalog is not very user friendly. Not everything has been digitised and their catalog is organised for professional archivists. You need to create an account and log in to order digitised images of records.
Births, Marriages & DeathsBirths, Marriages & Deaths
MyHeritage holds indexes of Western Australian birth, marriage and death registrations:
The State Records Office WA holds Probate files
MyHeritage also holds several directories for Western Australia, including:
- Western Australia Blue Book 1871-1877 & 1878-82 - Blue Books were compilations of information on public servants gathered from details submitted to the Colonial Secretary's Office. Sometimes called 'Public Service Lists' or 'Civil Service Lists', these include details of people employed in the Western Australian Public Service for the year of publication. After listings of various appointed and elected Government officers and members and various statistics, these volumes record appointment by department.
- Western Australia Post Office (Wise) Directories for 1905, 1910, 1914, 1924, 1935-36, and 1939 - Theis directory is divided into three main sections: Towns, Alphabetical and Trades and Professions.
- THE TOWNS DIRECTORY includes Perth, Fremantle, Kalgoorlie, and all other towns, townships and postal districts in WA.
- THE ALPHABETICAL SECTION contains the names, occupations and postal addresses for the entire state.
- THE TRADES SECTION shows the business firms of the state, arranged under their trades or professions.
- Cyclopedia of Western Australia 1912-13 - Cyclopedias were published for most states of Australia around the beginning of the 20th Century are a vast resource of historical and biographical information on the state concerned - the people, towns, industries, professional, commercial and social institutions and much more.
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