Editing Western Australia (section)

==History==
{{Main|History of Western Australia}}
{{See also|French Western Australia}}

Western Australia has a geological history dating back to 4.4 billion years ago when [[Hadean zircon]]s were formed. The earliest direct known life on land, known as [[stromatolite]]s, started to be created by microbes at around 3.48 billion years ago.

The first human inhabitants of Australia arrived from the north "over 50,000 years ago and possibly as much as 70,000 years ago".<ref name="men22">{{cite Q |Q127496561 |mode=cs1 |url-status=live |access-date=2024-05-19 }}</ref>{{rp|5}} Over thousands of years they eventually spread across the whole landmass.{{cn |date=June 2024}} These [[Indigenous Australians]] were long established throughout Western Australia by the time European explorers began to arrive in the early 17th century.

[[File:Hessel Gerritsz - Malay Archipelago and Australia.jpg|thumb|right|Map first drawn in 1618 by [[Hessel Gerritsz]], 12 years after [[Janszoon voyage of 1605–1606|Europeans first encountered]] the Australian mainland,<ref name="huy95" /> showing the charted coast of Australia. Chartings after 1618, for example by [[François Thijssen]] in 1627, were added to the engraved plate between 1628 and 1632.<ref name="ger18">{{cite web |title=Chart of the Malay Archipelago and the Dutch discoveries in Australia |last=Gerritsz |first=Hessel |author1-link=Hessel Gerritsz |others=Octroy Vande H.M. Heeren de Staten Generael der Vereenichde Neerlanden. The discoveries after 1618 were added to the engraved plate between 1628 and 1632 |publisher=Hessel Gerritsz |location=Amsterdam |year=1618–1638 |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-231306238/view |via=Trove |access-date=3 August 2020 }}</ref>]]

The first Europeans to visit Western Australia were those of the Dutch [[Dirk Hartog]] expedition, who on 25 October 1616 landed at what is now known as Cape Inscription, [[Dirk Hartog Island]]. For the rest of the 17th century, [[European maritime exploration of Australia|other Dutch and British navigators]] encountered the coast of what [[Abel Tasman]] named [[New Holland (Australia)|New Holland]] in 1644, usually unintentionally as demonstrated by the many shipwrecks along the coast of ships that deviated from the [[Brouwer Route]] (because of poor navigation and storms).<ref>{{cite journal |last=Green |first=J.N. |date=1977 |title=Australia's oldest wreck: The Loss of the Trial, 1622 |url=http://museum.wa.gov.au/maritime-archaeology-db/sites/default/files/no._278_trial_bar_1977_0.pdf |journal=British Archaeological Reports, Supplementary Series |volume=27 |location=Oxford}}</ref> By the late 18th century, British and French sailors had begun to explore the Western Australian coast. The [[Baudin expedition to Australia|Baudin expedition]] of 1800–03 included the coast of Western Australia and resulted in the [[Freycinet Map of 1811]], the first published map featuring the full outline of Australia. The name New Holland remained in popular and semi-official use until at least the mid-1850s; that is, it was in use for about {{#expr: 1850 - 1644}} years in comparison to the name Australia which to date has been in use for about {{#expr: floor( ( {{CURRENTJULIANDAY}} - {{JULIANDAY|1829}} ) / 365.25 ) }} years.<ref name="wayb79" />{{rp|11}}

[[File:Thevenot - Hollandia Nova detecta 1644.png|thumb |left |[[Melchisédech Thévenot]]'s ''Hollandia Nova—Terre Australe'' in his travel anthology ({{langx|fr|link=no|Relations de divers voyages curieux}}) published in 1664,<ref name="the64" /> and which seems to be a copy of ''Archipelagus Orientalis sive Asiaticus'' by [[Joan Blaeu]] in the ''Atlas of the Great Elector'' ({{langx|de|link=no|Atlas des Großen Kurfürsten}}) from 1659.<ref name="bla59" /> The latitude staff depicted by Thévenot falls along the ''Zaragoza antimeridian'' from the [[Treaty of Zaragoza]] of 1529 between [[Crown of Castile|Castile]] and [[Portugal]], and which complemented the ''Tordesillas meridian'' from the [[Treaty of Tordesillas]] of 1494.]]

The origins of the present state began with the establishment by Lockyer<ref name="Western Australia Foundation"/> of a convict-supported settlement from [[New South Wales]] at [[King George Sound|King George III Sound]]. The settlement was formally annexed on 21 January 1827 by Lockyer when he commanded the [[Union Jack]] be raised and a [[feu de joie]] fired by the troops. The settlement was founded in response to British concerns about the possibility of a French colony being established on the coast of Western Australia.<ref name="Western Australia Foundation"/> On 7 March 1831 it was transferred to the control of the Swan River Colony,<ref name=knibbs/> and named [[Albany, Western Australia|Albany]] in 1832.

In 1829 the [[Swan River Colony]] was established on the Swan River by Captain [[James Stirling (Australian governor)|James Stirling]]. By 1832, the British settler population of the colony had reached around 1,500, and the official name of the colony was changed to Western Australia on 6 February that year.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://poi-australia.com.au/swan-river-colony-proclaimed/|title=Swan River Colony Proclaimed|date=2 May 1829|publisher=POI Australia|language=English|accessdate=13 February 2021}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://statelibrarynsw.tumblr.com/post/156855938896/on-this-day-6th-february-1832-the-swan-river|title=On this day, 6th February 1832|newspaper=State Library of New South Wales|language=English|accessdate=13 February 2021}}</ref> The two separate townsites of the colony developed slowly into the port city of [[Fremantle]] and the state's capital, [[Perth]]. [[York, Western Australia|York]] was the first inland settlement in Western Australia, situated {{convert|97|km}} east of Perth and settled on 16 September 1831. York was the staging point for early explorers who discovered the rich gold reserves of Kalgoorlie.

Population growth was very slow until significant discoveries of gold were made in the 1890s around [[Kalgoorlie]].

[[File:John Forrest 1898.jpg|thumb|right|upright|[[John Forrest]] was the first Premier of Western Australia.]]

In 1887, a new constitution was drafted, providing for the right of self-governance of European Australians, and in 1890, the act granting [[self-governing colony|self-government]] to the colony was passed by the [[Parliament of the United Kingdom|British Parliament]]. [[John Forrest]] became the first [[Premier of Western Australia]].

In 1896, after discoveries of gold at [[Coolgardie, Western Australia|Coolgardie]] and [[Kalgoorlie]], the [[Western Australian Parliament]] authorised the raising of a loan to construct a [[Pipeline transport|pipeline]] to transport {{convert|5|e6impgal|ML|order=flip|abbr=off}} of water per day to the burgeoning population on the goldfields. The pipeline, known as the [[Goldfields Water Supply Scheme]], was completed in 1903. [[C. Y. O'Connor|{{thinspace|C. Y.}} O'Connor]], Western Australia's first engineer-in-chief, designed and oversaw the construction of the pipeline. It carries water {{convert|530|km|mi|abbr=on}} from Perth to [[Kalgoorlie]], and is attributed by historians as an important factor driving the state's population and economic growth.<ref>{{cite book |url=http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A110059b.htm |title=''O'Connor, Charles Yelverton (1843–1902)'' |author=Tauman, Merab Harris |chapter=Charles Yelverton O'Connor (1843–1902) |publisher=[[Melbourne University Press|MUP]] |year=1988 |pages=51–54 |access-date=12 July 2008}}</ref>

Following a campaign led by Forrest, electors of the colony of Western Australia voted in favour of [[Federation of Australia|federation]] with the five other Australian colonies, resulting in Western Australia officially becoming a state on 1 January 1901.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Hawkins |first1=John Robert |title=John Forrest: Four times treasurer |url=https://treasury.gov.au/sites/default/files/2019-03/08_John_Forrest.pdf |publisher=University of Canberra |access-date=3 May 2023 |date=2007}}</ref>

==="West Australia"===
[[File:2shillingsWestAustralia.jpg|thumb|upright|"West Australia" on a 1902 stamp]]
"West Australia" and its related demonym "West Australian" are occasionally used, including in the names of the main daily newspaper, ''[[The West Australian]]'', and the state-based [[West Australian Football League]], but are rarely used in an official sense. The terms "[[Westralia (disambiguation)|Westralia]]" and "Westralian" were regularly used in the 19th and 20th century.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://henrietta.liswa.wa.gov.au/search/?searchtype=X&SORT=D&searcharg=westralia&searchscope=2&submit.x=0&submit.y=0&submit=Submit |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111109143420/http://henrietta.liswa.wa.gov.au/search/?searchtype=X&SORT=D&searcharg=westralia&searchscope=2&submit.x=0&submit.y=0&submit=Submit |archive-date=9 November 2011 |title=SLWA Online Catalogue /Entire Sta |website=Henrietta.liswa.wa.gov.au |access-date=2 November 2012 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://trove.nla.gov.au/result?q=westralia|title=Search results for 'westralia' – Trove|website=Trove.nla.gov.au|access-date=16 September 2015}}</ref> The terms are still found in the names of certain companies and buildings, e.g. Westralia House in Perth, the [[skyscraper]] Westralia Square on [[St Georges Terrace]], and Westralia Airports Corporation, which operates [[Perth Airport]], as well as in the names of several ships.<ref>{{cite web |title=SLWA Online Catalogue /Entire Sta |url=http://henrietta.liswa.wa.gov.au/record=b2140613~S2 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111109135900/http://henrietta.liswa.wa.gov.au/record=b2140613~S2 |archive-date=9 November 2011 |website=Henrietta.liswa.wa.gov.au |access-date=2 November 2012 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=SLWA Online Catalogue /Entire Sta |url=http://henrietta.liswa.wa.gov.au/record=b1791098~S2 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111109141500/http://henrietta.liswa.wa.gov.au/record=b1791098~S2 |archive-date=9 November 2011 |website=Henrietta.liswa.wa.gov.au |access-date=2 November 2012 }}</ref>