ëThe first day of our sojourn here was marked by a visit of three Armed Natives . . . they seemed angry at our invasion of their Territory . . .í
Captain James Stirling to Governor Darling, reporting on his exploration of the Swan River, 1827.
British colonists invaded the Swan River area in 1829.
Led by James Stirling, a naval captain, the colonists took land on the banks of the Swan River and established three towns - Fremantle, the port; Perth, the capital; and Guildford, a farming centre.
The British Government later used the legal fiction of terra nullius ‚ theoretically a place where no one ëownsí land ‚ to justify dispossessing the Indigenous people of their traditional country.
Captain James Stirling, first Governor of Western Australia. Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales.
Stirling Cup, 1833
Captain James Stirling, first Governor of Western Australia, was presented with this cup in London in 1833. It carries the Stirling family Coat of Arms and naval emblems and the inscription reads:
ëPresented to Capt. James Stirling R.N., first Governor of the Colony of Western Australia by the relatives and friends of the Settlers at Swan River. In testimony of their admiration of the wisdom, decision and kindness uniformly displayed by him, and of their gratitude for his strenuous exertions with the Colonial Department for the benefit of that Settlement.í
CH73.209 Donated by General Cooper
These birds prefer open forest and woodland usually with a shrub understorey. The main threat to the species is land clearing, especially in the Wheatbelt and on the Swan Coastal Plain, where it has declined in numbers. Foxes and cats hunt this species, which feeds, roosts and breeds on the ground.
This land is marked by violent conflicts between colonists and Aboriginal people. In the nineteenth century, colonists were attracted to important resource-rich areas and took them by force:
ëYou came to our country; you have driven us from our haunts, and disturbed us in our occupations: as we walk in our own country, we are fired upon by the white men; why should the white men treat us so?í
Yagan, as reported by George Fletcher Moore, 1833.
ëThe camp of Yellagonga, bearing this name (Byerbup) stood beside the Springs at the west end of town, as you descend from Mt Eliza; and on this very spot did the 63rd regiment pitch their tents, then they came to take possession. So that the headquarters of the king of Mooro are now become the headquarters of the territories of the British King in Western Australia. On this spot too the King of Mooro now holds out his hand to beg a crust of bread.í
Robert Lyon, Perth Gazette, 1833.
Bibbulmun warrior, Battye Library, 508B/3.
Conflict between Noongars and colonists led to casualties and deaths on both sides. Noongar groups were devastated by the mounting toll.
Armed soldiers, Battye Library, 4651B/89.
Barbed fighting spear
ìtaken from the blacks by the police in 1873î, Pingelly,
donated by Mr B. Anourigani, 1912. E5301
This uniform belonged to Private G. Douglas, a member of the Perth Rifle Volunteers, c.1890.
W1605
Fanny Balbuk was a descendant of Yellagonga, and daughter of Doodyep and Coondebung who celebrated their marriage with a corroboree near George Fletcher Mooreís cottage in June 1833. Soon after, the couple was near starvation.
Doodyep could no longer dig for yams on what was now farmersí land. To feed his family Coondebung took wheat from Mooreís store. With a warrant on his head he sent Doodyep to beg for flour saying he could not hunt ëwhile the white people were unfriendlyí. In 1840, he was sentenced to seven years gaol at Rottnest Island for stealing a pig and died seven months later from malnutrition and sunstroke.
Balbuk continued to gather foods in the swamps and lakes north of Perth. She constantly reminded colonists that this was the land of her people. Daisy Bates recorded her memories of Balbuk:
ëTo the end of her life she raged and stormed at the usurping of her beloved home ground . . . a straight track led to the place where once she had gathered jilgies and vegetable food with the women, in the swamp where Perth railway station now stands. Through fences and over them, Balbuk took the straight track to the end. When a house was built in the way, she broke its fence-palings with her digging stick and charged up the steps and through the rooms.í
Balbukís uncle, Joobaitch, Battye Library, 5323B/898.
Fanny Balbuk, far right, in group of Aboriginal women at Perth, Battye Library, 25341P.
George Fletcher Moore was an Irish-born lawyer who sought his fortune in the Swan River Colony.
Moore arrived with four servants in 1830 and established a farm, The Hermitage, near the Swan River at Guildford. Although Moore settled on Noongar land, he also recognised the basic injustice of Aboriginal dispossession.
George Fletcher Moore. Battye Library, 1090P.
This is a reconstruction of a room in George Fletcher Mooreís cottage, built near the Swan River at Guildford in 1831. Moore described his brick-built home, with a thatched roof, and its internal furnishings in letters home. Thatch was commonly used to roof Swan River cottages, in keeping with rural traditions in the British Isles. Jarrah, wandoo and sheoak trees were cut and sawn for construction timber. Roofs were thatched with straw and bark, or covered with split wooden shingles, often of sheoak. The soft ëwoolí from the fruit of zamia palms was used for pillows and mattresses.
Wedding Dress, 1840s
This day-style, hand sewn wedding dress is made of brown satin, rather than the more conventional white. Colonial dress reflected the climate of the British Isles and was unbearably hot and heavy in the extreme summers of the Swan River colony.
CH81.125
Swan River colonists saw the land through European eyes. They looked for landscapes that reminded them of home. Artists often represented landscapes as if they were in Britain.
Naturalists described many examples of plants and animals collected in Western Australia. Specimens were routinely shipped to the great museums of Europe for classification and naming. These irreplaceable collections are still important to science.
Georgiana Molloy, courtesy of Dorothy Blaasch.
Georgiana Molloy took great pleasure in the bush where she lived, first at Augusta and later at Busselton. With meticulous care and the help of Aboriginal guides, she collected and detailed plant specimens for shipment to scientists in London.
Otto Lipfert joined the Western Australian Museum as collector and taxidermist in February 1894. On a government-sponsored on the Canning Stock Route in 1930, the 65 year old Lipfert collected over 200 bird specimens along the Canning Stock preparing them at night by the light of carbide lamps. He also collected anthropological items.
WAM collection, PH95023212
This specimen was collected at Well 31 just east of Lake Auld by Otto Lipfert in September 1930.
The species is common in relatively well-watered areas along the Canning Stock Route
Microscope of Ludwig Glauert
Ludwig Glauert (1879-1963) ‚ scientist, lecturer, broadcaster and author ‚ was a driving force in the development of the natural sciences in Western Australia. An employee of the Western Australian Museum from 1910 to 1957, he conducted research in natural history, ethnology, geology and biology.
Map of Western Australia, 1851.
Courtesy of Sarah Meagher.
Philip Chauncy, ëNotes and anecdotes of the Aborigines of Australiaí, in R. Brough Smyth, The Aborigines of Victoria with Notes Relating to the Habits of the Natives of Other Parts of Australia and Tasmania, 1878.
Frederick Garling, c.1827, View of the Flats, Swan River, taken from Fraserís Point.
Collection, The Art Gallery of Western Australia.
Alexander Taylor, c.1850, Perth from St. Georgeís Terrace.
Collection, The Art Gallery of Western Australia.
Ralph Dewarís farm at Gingin, c.1860s.
Courtesy Mrs T.L. Bedells
Thomas Henry Johnson Browne, c.1860s, Ravenswood Hall, Murray River.
Courtesy of Royal West Australian Historical Society.
After Lesueur, ëCassowary of New Hollandí, 1800-1804.
This illustration shows an Emu, though Lesueur misnamed it a ëCassowary of New Hollandí.
Artist unknown, ëAustralian Echidnaí, c.1800
ëParrot with a purple crown, maleí, King George Sound, New Holland, 1800-1804.
Lesueur, ëFrontispieceí in Voyage de decouvertes aux terres Australes, 1800-1804.
John Gould, The Athene Boobook, or Boobook Owl, c.1848.
Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales
Vlamigh expedition entering Swan River, c.1696.
Rex Nan Kivell Collection, by permission of the National Library of Australia
Bevalet, c.1833, Black banded sea perch and harlequin fish.
By permission of the National Library of Australia
Rev. J.W. Wollaston, Xanthorrhoea, c.1840s.
Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales.
M.L. Freycinet and Heirisson, Plan of Louis-Napoleon Islands and the Swan River, 1801 and 1803.
M.L. Freycinet, Map of New Holland, 1808.
This species and the related common bronze-wing pigeon, Phaps chalcoptera, feed on the seeds of poison plants of the genus Gastrolobium that contain a natural poison, commonly known as 1080. Early settlers were astonished when, after eating the flesh of bronze-wings and feeding the entrails and bones to their dogs, the dogs had fits - biting anyone within reach - and died in convulsions. The flesh was safe to eat but the poison was concentrated in the pigeonís gut and bone marrow.
This species was common in the Perth area and often visited colonistís gardens to feed on fruit and berries. They were regarded as a pest and children were often charged with the job of driving them off.
This species was named magpie after the unrelated black and white bird of that name common in Britain. Colonists welcomed the magpieís melodious warbling song, finding its tune a comfort in isolated areas.
The striking coat of the male fairy wrens was admired by colonists who were unused to such electric blue colour in birds.
This bandicoot was common in the Perth area at the time of colonisation. It visited colonistsí gardens, digging for food, often for scraps around cottages.
Colonists encountered this species when they moved through the Avon Valley in the 1830s. About the same size as a rabbit, they were often hunted and eaten.
The sandy soils and dry summers of the Swan coastal plain left many colonists disillusioned.
Farmers found it difficult to locate soils they regarded as fertile. Based on their experiences in Britain, they thought the growth of large trees such as jarrah indicated rich soils.
Ironically, the reverse was true. In Western Australia smaller trees, such as york gums and jam trees, grew on heavier loams, while soils supporting jarrah were generally poor for cropping.
L2001.1 On loan from the Western Australian Herbarium
Unexplained deaths of sheep, cattle and horses perplexed early colonists and posed a serious threat to the Swan River colonyís survival. However in 1841, botanist James Drummond proved that some plants of Gastrolobium and Oxylobium genera often eaten by stock were extremely poisonous.
Many colonial farms and businesses relied on the labour of Asian immigrants and British convicts.
Convict transportation turned the colony into a vast natural gaol. However, convicts also developed the colonial landscape, working on roads, buildings and bridges in Perth, Fremantle and rural areas.
Most Asian migrants were Chinese recruited in Singapore by the Colonial Government. Japanese, Afghan, Indian, Filipino, and Malay migrants also came to Western Australia in the 19th century.
In 1897, the Immigration Restriction Act curtailed the entry of Asian migrants.
Stencil with broad arrow pattern
Western Australia was founded as a free colony, but Imperial need and slow colonial growth led to the introduction of convicts. Nearly 10,000 were shipped to the colony between 1850 and 1868. This broad arrow stencil was used to mark their distinctive clothes.
CH 75.42
Staff standing in front of the E.A. Lums & Co. cash grocers & provision merchants, Hay St. Subiaco, c.1916, courtesy Chung Wah Association.
About three thousand Chinese worked in Western Australia in the 19th century. They came in two groups ‚ indentured labourers under contract to colonists from 1847 to 1898 and ëfreeí immigrants from the 1880s who established market gardens, laundries, furniture factories, and shops.
Ticket-of-leave
Convicts granted tickets-of-leave were hired and paid wages by employers in Perth, Fremantle and country towns. This ticket-of-leave belonged to George Battersby and records the employers he worked for and the districts in which he worked in 1879. He is described as a 57-year-old, blue-eyed, brown-haired man, his distinguishing mark being a ëtear in right leg extending from knee to ankleí.
H97.209