Happy WA Day
In 2012, The Western Australian Parliament enacted the Western Australia Day (Renaming) Act 2012, renaming ‘Foundation Day’ as ‘Western Australia Day’, explaining in the Act –
Whereas:
A.The 1st of June in 1829 was the day when the first European settlers, under the command of Captain James Stirling RN, Lieutenant Governor, arrived from Britain to settle the Swan River Colony; and
B.Foundation Day is celebrated on the first Monday of June each year to mark this important event for Western Australians; and
C.Foundation Day acknowledges our indigenous people as the original inhabitants and traditional custodians of the land and unites all who have made Western Australia their home,
it is, 182 years later, now appropriate that Foundation Day be known as Western Australia Day.
On 2 May 1829, just before Stirling and the settlers arrived, Captain Charles Howe Fremantle raised the Union Jack near Arthur Head, Bathers Beach, now part of the City of Fremantle (shown in this photograph), and claimed sovereignty over the territory we now call Western Australia for the British Crown.
Fremantle then remained at this location until Stirling arrived on 1 June, with the settlers aboard the Parmelia. The colony was officially proclaimed on 8 June 1829, and Perth was founded two months later.
The Whadjuk Noongar People must have wondered just what on earth these people were up to. Mind you, word had no doubt spread that similar looking folk, many in uniforms, had already set up a barracks on Noongar country at Albany over the previous few years. Stirling himself had sailed up the Swan River on his exploratory visit in 1826, and Whadjuk people had possibly seen him then.
Albany holds the distinction of being the first British settlement in the region. It was founded on 26 December 1826, when Major Edmund Lockyer arrived aboard the brig Amity to establish a military outpost at King George Sound.
Lockyer’s arrival marked the beginning of British presence in Western Australia, predating the Swan River Colony. The settlement was initially known as Frederickstown, named after Prince Frederick, Duke of York and Albany, but was later renamed Albany in 1832.
But Lockyer was not authorised to claim sovereignty over Western Australia. That didn’t happen until Fremantle first claimed it for the Britsh Crown in 1829, and Stirling repeated the dose a few weeks later.
Happy WA Day.
No doubt there will be many discussions over the next couple years as to how WA and Freo will mark the bicentennial of the arrival of Fremantle, Stirling and the European settlers when WA Day 2029 arrives.