Editing Western Australia (section)

===Secession===
{{Main|Secessionism in Western Australia}}
[[File:Westralia secession movement meeting 1933.jpg|thumb|A 1933 meeting of the Dominion League in support of secession.]]
Secessionism has been a recurring feature of Western Australia's political landscape since shortly after European settlement in 1826. Western Australia was the most reluctant participant in the [[Federation of Australia|Commonwealth of Australia]].<ref>[http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/journals/MULR/2000/40.html Review Essay, New Federation History, Melbourne University Law Review] www.austlii.edu.au</ref> Western Australia did not participate in the earliest federation conference. Longer-term residents of Western Australia were generally opposed to federation; however, the discovery of gold brought many immigrants from other parts of Australia. It was these residents, primarily in Kalgoorlie but also in Albany who voted to join the Commonwealth, and the proposal of these areas being admitted separately under the name [[Auralia]] was considered.{{citation needed|date=July 2014}}

In a [[1933 Western Australian secession referendum|referendum in April 1933]], 68% of voters voted for the state to leave the Commonwealth of Australia with the aim of returning to the British Empire as an autonomous territory. The State Government sent a delegation to [[Parliament of the United Kingdom|Westminster]], but the British Government ruled that after the [[Statute of Westminster 1931]], it no longer had the authority to amend the constitution of Australia without the consent of its federal government; the British Government took no action.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article30087998|title=25 May 1935 – W. A. Secession Petition Disallowed Committee's ...|newspaper=Mercury |date=25 May 1935 |access-date=16 September 2015}}</ref>