Western Australia

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander viewers are advised that this archive contains images, names and voices of people who have died. A third of a continent, told through what can be looked at. The oldest known fragment of the Earth's crust is a zircon grain from the Jack Hills, and people have been living here for at least forty seven thousand years by the securely dated evidence at Karnatukul, redated at the request of the native title holders. Then Dutch ships hitting the coast in the dark, a colony that asked for convicts because it could not find labour, gold at Coolgardie and Kalgoorlie and a pipeline five hundred and thirty kilometres long, pearling luggers crewed by Japanese and Malay and Aboriginal divers, missions and prisons and an island that was a gaol, eight hundred Aboriginal pastoral workers who walked off the stations in 1946 and stayed out for three years, iron ore trains, and rock shelters blown up in 2020. The hard parts are here because they are the record. Aboriginal presence is not a chapter in this archive; it runs through all ten of its parts.

A chronological documentary of 1,156 moments spanning 1616–2026 on Loreline.

Curated by Olivier · last updated 2026-09-20

1. 1616 - Drik hartog's plate, 1616 and vlaming's plate, 1697 - cyclopedia of western australia. Dirk Hartog made the first recorded European landing on the west coast on 25 October 1616, nailing a pewter plate to a post at Cape Inscription. Willem de Vlamingh found it half-buried on 4 February 1697 and took the original to Amsterdam, where it is held by the Rijksmuseum.
2. 1648 - Voyage of the Batavia, Francisco Pelsaert, 1648. Ongeluckige voyagie van het schip Batavia, uytgevaren onder't beleydt van den E. François Pelsaert, na Oost-Indien, en gebleven is op de Abrollos van Frederick Houtman... Pelsaert returned aboard the Sardam in, October 1629, tried the mutineers on the islands and executed Cornelisz, some of them having both hands struck off before hanging. It was taken by the mission that held them, and not by anyone in it.
3. 1828 - Setting Camp of the survey expedition at Clause's Lagoon. Western Australia 1828 by Frederick Clause. Western Australia 1828 Painting by Frederick Clause from a sketch by Frederick Garling drawn in 1827 during James Stirlings expedition to the river Swan in Western Australia. Stirling explored the river in 1827 aboard HMS Success and lobbied the Colonial Office on what he found.
4. 1854 - Stamp-Western Australia 1854 1d Black Swan imperf. Western Australia imperforate 1854 1d Black Swan stamp believed to be the first bird stamp - SG #1. The honey possum feeds only on nectar and pollen, which ties it to whatever is flowering in any given month.
5. 1859 - E37 Fremantle Prison tour 078. Artwork found under whitewash in James Walsh's cell at Fremantle Prison. It operated as the Convict Establishment from 1 June 1855 and was transferred to colonial control on 31 March 1886.
6. 1859 - FremantlePrisonWalsh1. Artwork found under whitewash in James Walsh`s cell Fremantle Prison. In the riot of 4 January 1988 prisoners overwhelmed guards with boiling water, took six hostages and set a fire that caused about 1.8 million dollars of damage. Nobody died. The photograph was made by the institution, not by the people pictured.
7. 1866 - Fremantle Prison 1866. The convict establishment, Fremantle, Western Australia, watercolour, 13.5 x 44.5 cm. The southern half of the Main Cell Block was finished in 1855 and the northern wing by the end of 1859.
8. 1868 - Tarsipes rostratus Gould 3. The honey possum feeds only on nectar and pollen and is endemic to the southwest, where it depends on banksia and kwongan flowering through the year.
9. 1871 - Mammals of Australia (Krefft) The Dingo, or Native Dog. In The Mammals of Australia. Cane toads reached the Kimberley from the east and continue to move west.
10. 1877 - Valley Heights Platform 1877. S:Valley Heights (322m) William Cox referred in 1815 to "The Valley" as a suitable site for watering and feeding stock. No. 1 Fence alone ran 1,833 kilometres and was described on completion in 1907 as the longest unbroken fence in the world.
11. 1879 - Report on the forest resources of Western Australia - Eucalyptus Marginata. A plate of jarrah, Eucalyptus marginata, from a government forestry report. About 22.13 percent of the region, some 109,445 square kilometres, is protected, and unevenly across its six ecoregions.
12. 1888 - Aboriginals under temporary bark gunya (shelter), ca. 1888. Aboriginal Australians under temporary bark gunya (shelter), D.Le Souef, ca 1888. Numbats, woylies and dibblers survive where predator control is sustained and nowhere else.
13. 1892 - The jarrahdale timber station, Western Australia. A timber station in the southwest forest, with tramway and stacked cut timber. Jarrah was cut for railway sleepers and wharf piles and shipped across the world.
14. 1894 - Houtman Abrolhos coral (Saville-Kent). A painting of coral growing at the Houtman Abrolhos islands, off the west coast of Australia. The coral was identified at the time as Madrepora, but this name was previously applied to virtually any hard coral.
15. 1895 - Terns, Pelsaert Island. Photograph of Brown Noddy terns on Pelsaert Island in the Houtman Abrolhos. The Batavia struck Morning Reef near Beacon Island here on 4 June 1629.
16. 1896 - MolochLyd. Illustration of a Reptilia species, Moloch horridus, commonly referred to as the Thorny Devil. North of the southwest the arid and tropical zones hold entirely different assemblages, so the state spans several distinct faunas.
17. 1898 - Miners posed underground with dog in mine at Boulder Hill, Yukon Territory, circa 1898 (AL+CA 1437). On image: Boulder Hill flashlight underground. 313 by Goetzman. (Goetzman 313) PH Coll 305.27 Subjects (LCTGM): Miners--Yukon--Boulder Hill; Dogs--Yukon--Boulder Hill; Group portraits.
18. 1899 - Fremantle Prison 1899 Former Superintendent S. Hope. The prison superintendent, photographed in office. Hope, in 1899. Fremantle Prison: Former Superintendent S. Hope.
19. 1900 - Camel train in Nannine. Cameleers from Afghanistan, British India and what is now Pakistan carried water, stores and fencing across country no other transport could cross. Richard John Anketell built the main section of the rabbit-proof fence with 120 men, 350 camels, 210 horses and 41 donkeys.
20. 1900 - Quod, Wadjemup / Rottnest - 1900-. Wadjemup / Rottnest Prison ("Quod"), Western Australia. c1900-1910. At least 370 men died in custody here and are buried in unmarked graves north of the Quod. The source calls it the largest known deaths-in-custody grave site in Australia. The photograph was made by the prison establishment, not by the people pictured.
21. 1900 - Mowering with two goannas
22. 1900 - Mowering with two goannas, cropped & tweaked. Mowering with two goannas, probably somewhere around Roebourne around the turn of the century. The noisy scrub-bird was believed extinct until it was found again near Albany in 1961.
23. 1901 - Kerr Stuart locomotive N° 750 of 1901 'Leonora' for Sons of Gwalia. Poppet heads over the shafts were the visible signature of the goldfields, hoisting men and ore through country that had no surface water.
24. 1901 - Crowd watching parade in Hannan Street, Kalgoorlie, 1901. Hannan Street was laid out wide enough to turn a camel team, which is why it still looks oversized. Kalgoorlie's gold paid for a streetscape of hotels and public buildings out of all proportion to a desert town.
25. 1901 - The Dutchess and the Manx Fairy on the Derbarl Yerrigan / Swan River, 1901. Duchess paddle steamer ferry (prominent) and the Manx Fairy steam ferry (behind) on the Derbarl Yerrigan / Swan River in 1901. Ferries worked its reaches into the twentieth century and a few still do.
26. 1901 - The Dutchess and the Manx Fairy on the Derbarl Yerrigan / Swan River, 1901. Duchess paddle steamer ferry (prominent) and the Manx Fairy steam ferry (behind) on the Swan River in 1901. Derbarl Yerrigan, the Swan River, carried the colony's traffic before there were roads or rail.
27. 1901 - Feral cat with galah. Islands off this coast have become the last refuge for several mammals that are gone from the mainland. Foxes, cats and cane toads have driven the losses that fenced sanctuaries and island refuges now exist to hold back.
28. 1904 - Great Boulder Mines. The Great Boulder Mine, Boulder, Western Australian eastern goldfields in 1902. Paddy Hannan, Tom Flanagan and Dan Shea found gold at Mount Charlotte in 1893. All three names belong in the record, not only the one on the street and the statue.
29. 1904 - Great Boulder Perserverance Mines. 1903/1904. Paddy Hannan, Tom Flanagan and Dan Shea found gold at Mount Charlotte in 1893. All three names belong in the record, not only the one on the street and the statue.
30. 1905 - Mid-day-halt-cattle-droving-in-the-nor-west-coyarre. Cattle and horses stopped by a water soak, edged with eucalypts. The northern cattle runs were worked by Aboriginal stockmen paid in rations rather than wages, which is the grievance that produced the 1946 Pilbara strike.
31. 1905 - Landing fish in Fremantle. Fish being landed on the jetty at the fishing boat harbour. Landing fish on the jetty at the Fremantle Fishing Boat Harbour.
32. 1906 - St John's Church and the Fremantle Town Hall, 1906. St John's in Fremantle and the Perth churches mark the two original centres of the colony. The colony's churches were among its first permanent buildings, and several were raised by convict labour after 1850.
33. 1906 - Fremantle High Street 1906. The tram carbarn is on the right. Fremantle's West End survived because the money moved to Perth and left the buildings standing.
34. 1909 - Fremantle Prison 1909 The radiating exercise yard. The radiating exercise yards, laid out so one guard could watch every wing. The last convict ship, the Hougoumont, arrived on 10 January 1868 carrying 62 Fenian political prisoners. The camera belonged to the institution, not to anyone in the frame.
35. 1909 - Fremantle Prison 1909 The tailors' workroom. The tailors' workroom, where prisoners made the clothing the establishment issued. The colonists asked for transportation on the argument that the pastoral sector faced collapse without labour. Historians have since found the colony was oversupplied with labour and that capital and markets were the real constraint. The photograph was made by the institution, not by the people pictured.
36. 1909 - Fremantle Prison 1909 The bootmakers' workshop. The bootmakers' shop, one of the trades worked under sentence here. Royal Engineers began the prison in 1851, training convicts to quarry the limestone it is built from, so the building is made of the ground it stands on.
37. 1909 - Fremantle Prison 1909 The prison printery. The prison printery, which produced government forms and stationery. It operated as the Convict Establishment from 1 June 1855 and was transferred to colonial control on 31 March 1886.
38. 1909 - Fremantle Prison 1909 Superintendent W. A. George. The prison superintendent photographed in his office at Fremantle Prison in 1909. The image was made by the prison administration as part of its own institutional record.
39. 1909 - Fremantle Prison 1909 Chief Medical Officer Dr. J. W. Hope. The prison medical officer. Hope, in 1909. Fremantle Prison: Chief Medical Officer Dr Hope.
40. 1910 - Derbarl Yerrigan / Swan River Rowing Club. The population went from 49,782 in 1891 to 184,124 in 1901, the largest demographic event in the colony's history. The colony was founded on 17 June 1829 under Captain James Stirling, and deliberately as a free settlement rather than a penal one.
41. 1910 - O&K locomotive N° 2271 of 1907, 610mm gauge, 0-4-0WT, 30hp, at Roebourne, ex Public Works Department of Victoria, Coode. OandK locomotive N° 2271 of 1907, 610mm gauge, 0-4-0WT, 30hp, at Roebourne, ex Public Works Department of Victoria, Coode Canal reclamation works, Port Melbourne ( 685B-5).
42. 1910 - paddle steamer ferry the Duchess on the Derbarl Yerrigan / Swan River, c. 1910. paddle steamer ferry the Duchess on the Derbarl Yerrigan / Swan River, in 1910. It runs through Whadjuk Noongar Country and the Wagyl is the being that made it.
43. 1910 - Aboriginal slaves Wadjemup / Rottnest 1883. Aboriginal slaves and prisoners on Wadjemup / Rottnest Island (multiple dates given in the library catalogues: 1883 or c1910). The Quod, built in 1863 and 1864, housed tourist accommodation until 2018, when it closed after decades of Aboriginal protest. The camera belonged to the prison, and the men in front of it were its prisoners. This is the administration's own record of the people it held.
44. 1911 - Macrotis lagotis. The western swamp tortoise is among the most restricted reptiles in Australia. The southwest's small mammals have been reduced by foxes and cats to fenced reserves and offshore islands.
45. 1912 - Railway Construction Workers Union meeting, Western Australia, 1912. The transcontinental railway promised at federation was completed in 1917, and the private Pilbara ore railways were built later to heavy North American specifications.
46. 1912 - RMS Koombana. The Koombana was lost off Port Hedland in 1912 with more than 150 aboard, described as Australia's worst maritime disaster of the twentieth century.
47. 1912 - HMS Juno in Albany Harbour 1901. Major Edmund Lockyer established a post at King George Sound in 1826 and formally annexed western Australia for Britain on 21 January 1827, two years before the Derbarl Yerrigan / Swan River Colony.
48. 1912 - Bush natives, frog hollow - cyclopedia of western australia. Aboriginal Australians at Frog Hollow, Western Australia, circa 1912. Carnaby's black cockatoo depends on the same woodland and kwongan that clearing has removed.
49. 1914 - RJL Joan Helen Rose Aubrey Hall (rotated, cropped). Robert John "Jack" Lodge, Joan Soutter Martin (née Lodge), Helen Rose Hall (née Lodge), and Harold Aubrey Hall at the family house in Forrest Street, Cottesloe, Western Australia. The Round House of 1831 is the oldest surviving public building in the state, put up as a gaol in the colony's second year.
50. 1916 - Rock engraving of human form - NMA-11812. Engraved rock surfaces are the most durable record of Aboriginal presence on this continent, and at Murujuga they are dated to 45,000 years and more.

…and 1,106 more moments.

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