Colony of Western Australia

The Colony of Western Australia was the British colony that covered the whole western third of the Australian continent, the entity shown on the map from its formal naming to federation. It began as the Swan River Colony, established in 1829 on the Swan River; this initial settlement on the river was soon named Perth, and it became the capital city of Western Australia. On 6 February 1832 the Swan River Colony was renamed the Colony of Western Australia, when the colony's founding lieutenant-governor, Captain James Stirling, belatedly received his commission — the date the record opens — though the name Swan River Colony remained in informal use for many years. The first recorded Europeans to sight land where Perth now stands were Dutch sailors — most likely Frederick de Houtman, who on 19 July 1619 first reached the Western Australian coast aboard the ships Dordrecht and Amsterdam without landing. In 1831 the military outpost Frederick Town, belonging to the Colony of New South Wales, was transferred to the Swan River Colony and renamed Albany, gathering the whole western coast into one administration. On 1 January 1901 Western Australia federated with the other Australian colonies, becoming a state of the Commonwealth of Australia and closing the colony's separate record.