Western Australia

2021

09 July

Tasman travel bubble resumes between Western Australia & New Zealand [Covid-19]

2021

01 May

Flights from Western Australian to New Zealand paused for 24 hours. [Covid-19]

2021

28 April

New Zealand resumes quarantine-free travel with Western Australia. [Covid-19]

2021

24 April

Travel between New Zealand and Western Australia is suspended following a 3 day lockdown in the metropolitan area of Perth. [Covid-19]

2021

13 March

The Western Australian state election is held with the incumbent McGowan Labor government winning with a large majority.

2020

27 June

The Western Australian Government announced the state would move into "Phase 4", permitting some of the most relaxed Covid-19 restrictions in the country

2020

26 May

Rio Tinto blows up the Juukan Gorge, a region inhabited by Australian Aborigines for 46,000 years, to expand an iron ore mine

2020

24 April

Perth Airport blocks runways with bulldozers to pressure Virgin Australia Airlines Pty Ltd to pay its $16 million debt

2020

24 March

Western Australia closed their borders, with all interstate arrivals being required to self-isolate for 14 days [Covid-19]

2015

15 September

The Matagurup Refugee Camp is founded in Perth to defend Aboriginal Rights

2006

08 September

Peter Brock, an Australian motor racing driver, was killed in an accident on the Targa West road rally

2005

26 February

WA Labor Government of Dr Geoff Gallop is returned with a solid majority

2005

25 January

Plastic surgeon and burns specialist Dr Fiona Wood named Australian of the Year

1985

28 May

The last train to use the Bunbury railway station departed.

1947

27 November

Australian banks nationalized.

1947

24 November

The Old Bunbury railway station, which served as the terminal for the Australind passenger train to Perth, transported its first passengers.

1917

17 October

Completion of line linking Western Australia with the Eastern States.

1901

01 January

Federation of Australia, with Western Australia becoming one of the founding states

1887

22 April

Cyclone strikes pearling fleet at Eighty Mile Beach near Broome claiming 140 lives. The storm was unexpected, being so late in the season.

1870

05 December

WAs first Legislative Council meets

1870

01 June

Representative Government is granted to WA

1834

28 October

The Battle of Pinjarra takes place in the Peel region, a significant conflict between European settlers and the Indigenous Noongar people

1831

07 March

Administration of King George Sound passes to Swan River Colony, convicts returned to New South Wales.

1829

12 August

Founding of Perth, Western Australia

1829

04 June

Colony of Western Australia established at Perth by Captain James Stirling. The British Government agreed to found the colony as the first free settlement in Australia.

1829

01 June

Colonists first sighted land. The first significant European settlements were established on the Swan River by James Stirling.

1829

02 May

Captain Charles Fremantle declared the Swan River Colony (Western Australia) for Britain

1826

26 December

New South Wales established first settlement in Western Australia at King George Sound as a convict-supported military garrison, named Frederick Town but renamed Albany in 1832.

1801

06 December

Captain Matthew Flinders reached and named Cape Leeuwin and proceeded to make a survey along the southern coast of the Australian mainland.

1697

05 January

A well-armed party landed near the present-day Cottesloe Beach & marched eastward to the Swan River near Freshwater Bay

1696

30 December

Dutch explorer Willem de Vlamingh charted the southwestern coast of Australia, making a landfall at Rottnest Island.

1688

05 January

English explorer William Dampier explored the West Coast of Australia making many discoveries, before later being court-martialled for cruelty.

1681

01 January

English navigator John Daniel on the New London charts the WA coast, including Rottnest Island & the Wallabi Group of the Houtman Abrolhos

1656

28 April

The Vergulde Draeck strikes a submerged coral reef midway between Seabird & Ledge Point, WA. Of the 193 crew, 118 are believed to have perished

1629

04 June

First European structure in Australia – Wiebbe Hayes Stone Fort on West Wallabi Island

1629

04 June

VOC ship Batavia wrecks on Houtman Abrolhos, off Geraldton. Mutiny ensues and at least 110 men, women, and children are murdered

1627

26 January

François Thijssen came upon the most south-west tip of Australia, near Cape Leeuwin

1623

27 July

First European child in Australia is born. Seebaer van Nieuwelant, son of Willemtgen and Willem Janszoon, is born south of Dirk Hartog Island, in present-day Western Australia

1622

26 May

The Tryall, under the command of John Brooke, was wrecked on the Tryal Rocks off the north-west coast of Western Australia in 1622. Her crew were the first Englishmen to sight or land on Australia. The wreck is Australia's oldest known shipwreck.

1618

01 July

VOC ship Mauritius under command of Supercargo Willem Janszoon, lands near North West Cape, near the modern town of Exmouth

1616

25 October

Dirk Hartog, commanding the Eendracht, made history as the first European to land in Western Australia, leaving a recording of his voyage on a pewter plate.

WA Timeline