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The city of Perth is actually located on
the western coast of the continent of Australia. Western Australia was originally stumbled on rather than found by the Dutch explorers. Early in the 17th Century Dutch explorers
were looking for a quicker and easier route to the Spice
Islands (South East Asia). Eventually
the navigators found that they could be whisked quickly eastward under the Cape of Good Hope along
the Trade Winds. The winds were called the Roaring 40's because the winds blew directly down the 40°S Longitude.
Many a
shipwreck occurred during the 17th Century as the sailors missed the turn north and ended on our coast (Above Right: Early
Dutch Map). Three hundred and twenty one shipwrecks occurred on the Western Australian coast between 1622 and 1945. Some famous
examples are the Batavia in 1629, and the Guldern Drakk in 1656. But there were some lucky sailors who actually
landed in WA safely, like the buccaneer Dampier and explorer Dirk Hartog who made interesting discoveries about Western Australia. | But the most influential in the development of Perth was the discovery of an estuary mouth by Willem de Vlamingh. His crew was looking for fresh
water when they stumbled on to the future site for the most isolated capital in the world. He was travelling around the area
when he entered the mouth and found an abundance of swans (Right), but everyone in Europe knew that all swans are white. So he left fearing the land had corrupted the white swans
and turned them black, hence the estuary was named Swan River. Vlamingh also encountered strange wild life on the small island
20 kilometres out to sea. The island was invested with lots of marsupial rats (Quokas) to which it was named Rottnest (Dutch
for " rat nest "). This was not to be the last European intrusion into the Swan River.
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In 1827 over a century later an
English Captain arrived in the area for surveying and found an uncharted fertile valley, and decided that this site was adequate
for inhabitance. Captain James Stirling (Right) then travelled back to the eastern states and put forward an application.
It was rejected at first but after two years Stirling finally convinced the bureaucrats to start a colony. On the 1st of June 1829, the first colony was established.
The going was tough for the new arrivals.
Originally they had to live on the beaches of Fremantle, Rottnest and Garden Islands. Many a ship had run aground leading to the loss of the colonist's possessions. The colonists were inappropriately
dressed for the weather and conditions that contributed to influenza out break.
The land around the river was portioned
out to respectively to the colonist but a majority of the good land was left to the government. As always the colonist were
unprepared for the harsh conditions and the farms and crops did not flourish. By 1840 Western Australia had its first depression. The landowners were having a hard time dealing with the labourers; they wanted
cheaper labour to clear the land, which meant higher profits. So many of Western Australia's
work force was leaving to go to the Eastern States. The state needed a desperate solution and with England's goals still overflowing with convicts was the best answer. The murderers and petty thieves who arrived from 1850 to 1869 saved Perth from ruin for the convicts replaced the lost labourers. Productivity rose by six folds,
the population dramatically increased and after 19 years Western Australia had it's first export commodity, Sheep. The convicts built many new constructions, including
historical sites like The Old Fremantle Prison (Right) which is now a popular museum.
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