When Was Western Australia First Settled? The first significant European settlements were established on the Swan River by James Stirling in 1829. The colonists first sighted land on 1 June, an official Proclamation was made on 18 June and the foundation of the colony took place on 12 August.

Who were the first settlers in Western Australia? In October 1616 Dirk Hartog, in the Eendracht, a Dutch East India Company (Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie, or VOC) ship, became the first European to set foot on the western shores of Australia. For more than two centuries afterwards Dutch, English and French navigators explored and mapped the west coast.

What is the oldest town in Western Australia? York is the oldest inland European settlement in Western Australia, originally established to grow cereal crops to feed the Swan River Settlement in 1829. The town is listed as a Heritage Precinct due to the significant number of historic buildings throughout the township.

When was Australia first settled by white people? The first known landing in Australia by Europeans was in 1606 by Dutch navigator Willem Janszoon. Later that year, Spanish explorer Luís Vaz de Torres sailed through, and navigated, what is now called Torres Strait and associated islands.





How many free settlers came to Western Australia?

The resulting “Swan River mania” brought nearly 4,000 settlers to Western Australia in 1829–30.

What is the Aboriginal name for Perth?

The Aboriginal name is Mooro or Goomap. There’s so much literature out there which describes Perth!

What was Western Australia originally called?

Albany was the first European settlement established in Western Australia. It was settled three years before the Swan River Colony — now known as Western Australia — was claimed in 1829. The Swan River Settlement was later named ‘Perth’ and became Western Australia’s capital city.

What is the oldest suburb in Perth?

Situated to the west of the city centre, Claremont is one of Perth’s oldest suburbs and with a superb location on the river, conveniently between the city and the coast, and directly on a railway line, it’s also one of the most expensive!

How did the first Aboriginal get to Australia?

Aboriginal origins Humans are thought to have migrated to Northern Australia from Asia using primitive boats. A current theory holds that those early migrants themselves came out of Africa about 70,000 years ago, which would make Aboriginal Australians the oldest population of humans living outside Africa.

What did the aboriginals call Australia?

The Aboriginal English words ‘blackfella’ and ‘whitefella’ are used by Indigenous Australian people all over the country — some communities also use ‘yellafella’ and ‘coloured’.

What was Australia called before 1901?

Before 1900, there was no actual country called Australia, only the six colonies – New South Wales, Tasmania, South Australia, Victoria, Queensland, and Western Australia. While these colonies were on the same continent, they were governed like six rival countries and there was little communication between them.

How old is Western Australia?

The geology of Western Australia spans 4.4 billion years of Earth’s history — from the oldest dated zircon mineral grains at Jack Hills and ancient 3730 million-year-old Archean gneiss in the Narryer Terrane, to recent sediments forming right now on the Swan Coastal Plain around Perth.

Who discovered Western Australia?

The first European to sight Western Australia was the Dutch explorer, Dirk Hartog, the first European to suggest to have found a continent there, who on 26 October 1616 landed at what is now known as Cape Inscription, Dirk Hartog Island. Before departing, Hartog left behind an inscribed pewter plate affixed to a post.

When did the first Chinese arrive in Australia?

Records show that about 18 Chinese settlers had immigrated to Australia before 1848. The earliest known Chinese immigrant to arrive in Sydney is reported to have been Mak Sai Ying. Born in Guangzhou (Canton) in 1798, he arrived as a free settler in New South Wales in 1818 and purchased land at Parramatta.

How did early settlers survive?

The settlers recognized that they would have to grow their own food and survive on their own without help from England or anyone else. The Jamestown colony was clearly established by sixteen twenty-four. It was even beginning to earn money by growing and selling a new crop: tobacco.

What did early settlers live in?

Early Housing The houses built by the first English settlers in America were small single room homes. Many of these homes were “wattle and daub” homes. They had wooden frames which were filled in with sticks. The holes were then filled in with a sticky “daub” made from clay, mud, and grass.

When did free settlers first arrived in Australia?

First Free Settlers Arrive in Australia The first free settlers arrived on board the sailing ship Bellona on 16 January 1793. They were a farmer named Thomas Rose, his wife and four children and seven others.

What do you call a person from Perth?

Melbournian is widely accepted, but people from Perth are known as Perthites or more commonly Perthians.

Is Perth Whadjuk or Noongar?

Whadjuk, alternatively Witjari, are a Noongar (Aboriginal Australian) people of the Western Australian region of the Perth bioregion of the Swan Coastal Plain.

What does Boodja mean?

Boodja means land/country in Noongar language and the care for Boodja is central to Noongar culture, with the natural environment and culture intrinsically linked. It also relates to a sense of belonging and custodianship, as opposed to ownership.

What does the word Perth mean?

Etymology. From a Pictish term meaning “wood, copse, thicket”, related to Welsh perth and perhaps Proto-Celtic *kʷerxtā (from Proto-Indo-European *pérkʷus (“oak”).

What was Australia called before 1788?

Australia, once known as New South Wales, was originally planned as a penal colony. In October 1786, the British government appointed Arthur Phillip captain of the HMS Sirius, and commissioned him to establish an agricultural work camp there for British convicts.

What is the oldest house in Perth?

The oldest building in Perth is Old Court House, completed in 1836. When it was first built, it stood close to the original shoreline of the Swan River.

What Aboriginal land is Perth on?

Perth City is located in the ancient country of the Whadjuk Nyoongar people, who have been the Traditional Owners of the south west of Western Australia for at least 45,000 years.