1891, 8,800,000 lb; in 1900, 9,514,000 ℔; and in 1905, 17,489,402 ℔;
the value of the latter being £594,872.
Western Australia has very extensive forests of timber, and it has been estimated that the forest surfaces cover more than 20 million acres, of which 8 million acres are jarrah; 1,200,000 acres, karri; 200,000 acres, tuart; 7 million acres, wandoo; and 4 million acres, York gum, yate, sandalwood and jam. The principal timber exported is jarrah, karri, and sandalwood, the value of the exports being about £656,000 annually. There are 30 saw-mills in operation, employing altogether 2750 hands.
Fisheries are taking an important position; they comprise pearl shell fishing beche-de-mer, and preserved or tinned fish. The pearl shell fisheries in the north-west and in Shark's Bay have been a considerable source of wealth, the export of pearls and pearl shell being valued at £110,667 in 1899, £106,607 in 1900 and £171,237 in 1903. In 1892 the export was valued at £119,519.
Mandurah, at the mouth of the Murray, and Fremantle have preserving sheds for mullet and snapper. Guano beds are worked to much advantage at the Lacepede Isles. Salt is produced largely at Rottnest Island. Raisins are dried, and the oil of castor trees is expressed. The mulberry tree succeeds well, and sericulture is making progress. Dugong oil is got from Shark's Bay. Honey and wax are becoming valuable exports; from the abundance of flowers the hives can be emptied twice a year. Manna and gums of various kinds are among the resources of the country. Among the wines made are the Riesling, Burgundy, Sweetwater, Hock and Fontainebleau.
Commerce.—All the great lines of steamers trading between Australia and Europe make one of the ports a place of call both- on the inward and outward voyage; this makes the shipping tonnage very large compared with the population. In 1891 the tonnage entered and cleared equalled 21 tons per head, and in 1905 14·3 tons. The increase of tonnage is shown by the following figures: 1881, tonnage entered, 145,048; 1891, 533,433; 1905, 1,839,227. In 1905 the tonnage entering Fremantle was 1,176,982, and the imports were valued at £6,030,415. The shipping entering Albany had a tonnage of 519,377, and the imports were valued at £160,305. The trade of Bunbury was: shipping 92,281 tons, imports £59,197; Broome, shipping 32,191 tons, imports £48,653; other ports, shipping 18,396 tons, imports £182,739.
The trade has increased very rapidly under the influence of the gold discoveries, as the following figures show:—
| Year. | Imports. | Exports. | ||
| Total. | Per Head. | Total. | Per Head. | |
| £ s. d. | £ s. d. | |||
| 1861 | 147,913 | 9 9 8 | 95,789 | 6 2 10 |
| 1871 | 226,000 | 9 0 10 | 209,196 | 8 6 11 |
| 1881 | 404,831 | 13 14 3 | 502,770 | 17 0 8 |
| 1891 | 1,280,093 | 25 2 5 | 799,466 | 15 13 9 |
| 1901 | 6,454,171 | 34 4 5 | 8,515,623 | 45 3 0 |
| 1905 | 6,481,309 | 25 18 1 | 9,871,219 | 39 9 1 |
About 54% of the trade is with Great Britain and 21% with the other Commonwealth states.
Railways.—Western Australia is the only state of Australia in which there is any considerable length of railway lines not owned by the state. The total railway mileage in 1905 was 2260, of which 655 m. were privately owned. The divergence of the policy of Western Australia from that pursued by other states was caused by the inability of the government to construct lines at a time when the extension of the railway was most urgently required in the interests of settlement. Private enterprise was therefore encouraged by liberal grants of land to undertake the work of construction. Changed conditions have modified the state policy in respect of land grants, and in 1897 the government acquired the Great Southern railway, 243 m. in length, one of the two trunk lines in private hands. The cost of constructing and equipping the state lines open for traffic in 1905 was £9,808,458; the earnings for that year amounted to £1,610,129, the working expenses were £1,256,003, and the net receipts £354,126; this represents a return of 3·61% upon the capital cost.
Posts and Telegraphs.—The postal business has grown enormously since the gold discoveries. In 1905 there were 295 post offices as compared with 86 in 1891. In the latter year the letters despatched and received numbered 3,200,000, and the newspapers 1,665,000; in 1905 the letters and postcards totalled 22,107,000, and the newspapers and packets 14,800,000, being respectively 88 and 59 per head of population. There were in the same year 188 telegraph stations, 6389 m. of line, and 9637 m. of telegraph wire in use, while the number of telegrams sent and received was 1,634,597. There were sixteen public telephone exchanges and 4857 telephones in use at the end of that year.
Banking.—There are six banks of issue, with 109 branches in various parts of the country. The liabilities of these banks in 1904 averaged £5,206,170, and the assets £6,399,305; the note circulation was £354,810; the deposits bearing interest £1,475,616; deposits not bearing interest £3,258,294, making the total deposits £4,733,910. The gold and silver held by the banks, including bullion, was £2,129,304. The savings banks are directly controlled by the government and are attached to the post offices; in 1904 there were 54,873 depositors in these banks with £2,079,764 to their credit—an average of £37 18s. per depositor. In 1891 there were only 3564 depositors and £46,181 at credit.
Authorities—James Bonwick, Western Australia, its Past and Future, 8vo (London, 1885); Very Rev. J. Brady, Descriptive Vocabulary of the Native Language of Western Australia (Rome, 1845); Hon. D. W. Carnegie, Spinifex and Sand (London, 1898); Ernest Favenc, The Great Australian Plain, 8vo (Sydney, 1881), Western Australia, its Past History, Present Trade and Resources, &c. (Sydney, 1887); Sir John Forrest, Explorations in Australia, 8vo (London, 1875); M. A. C. Frazer, Western Australia Year-Book, annually (Perth). (T. A. C.)
History.—Both the western and northern coasts of the colony are pretty accurately laid down on maps said to date from 1540 to 1550, where the western side of the continent terminates at Cape Leeuwen. The discovery of the coast may be attributed to Portuguese and Spanish navigators, who were in the seas northward of Australia as early as 1520. The next visitors, nearly a century later, were the Dutch. John Edel explored northward in 1619, and De Witt in 1628. The “Gulde Zeepaard” in 1627 sailed along the south coast for 1000 m., the territory being named Nuyt's Land. Tasman made a survey of the north shore in 1644, but did not advance far on the western border. Dampier was off the north-west in 1688 and 1696, naming Shark's Bay. Vancouver entered King George Sound in 1791. The French, under D’Entrecasteaux, were off Western Australia in 1792; and their commodore Baudin, of the “Geographe” and “Naturaliste,” in 1801 and 1802 made important discoveries along the western and north-western shores. Captain Flinders about the same time paid a visit to the Sound, and traced Nuyt's Land to beyond the South Australian boundary. Freycinet went thither in 1818. Captain King surveyed the northern waters between 1818 and 1822.
The earliest settlement was made from Port Jackson, at the end of 1825. Owing to a fear that the French might occupy King George Sound, Major Lockyer carried thither a party of convicts and soldiers, seventy-five in all, and took formal British possession, though Vancouver had previously done so. Yet the Dutch had long before declared New Holland, which then meant only the western portion of Australia, to be Dutch property. This convict establishment returned to Sydney in 1829. In 1827 Captain Stirling was sent to report upon the Swan river, and his narrative excited such interest in England as to lead to an actual free settlement at the Swan river. Captain Fremantle, R. N., in 1827 took official possession of the whole country. Stirling's account stimulated the emigration ardour of Sir F. Vincent, and Messrs Peel, Macqueen, &c., who formed an association, securing from the British government permission to occupy land in Western Australia proportionate to the capital invested, and the number of emigrants they despatched thither. In this way Mr Peel had a grant of 250,000 acres, and Colonel Latour of 103,000. Captain (afterwards Sir James) Stirling was appointed lieutenant-governor, arriving June 1, 1829. The people were scattered on large grants. The land was poor, and the forests heavy; provisions were at famine prices; and many left for Sydney or Hobart Town. The others struggled on, finding a healthful climate, and a soil favouring fruits and vegetables, whilst their stock grazed in the more open but distant quarters. The overland journey of Eyre from Adelaide to King George Sound in 1839-1840, through a waterless waste, discouraged settlers; but Grey's overland walk in 1838 from Shark's Bay to Perth revealed fine rivers and good land in Victoria district, subsequently occupied by farmers, graziers and miners. The difficulties of the settlers had compelled them to seek help from the British treasury, in the offer to accept convicts. These came in 1850; but transportation ceased in 1868, in consequence of loud protests from the other colonies.
The progressive history of Western Australia may be said to commence in 1870, when its energetic and capable governor, Sir Frederick Weld, began to inaugurate public works on a
