Page 305 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Australia

Western A ustr A li A  303

PERTH AND THE

SOUTHWEST

Western Australia’s pretty capital, Perth, is the most
isolated city in the world, closer to southeast Asia than it is
to any other Australian city. the state’s stunning southern region takes
in magnificent forests and diverse coastal scenery. to the east, the vast to the east, the vast t
nullarbor Plain covers more than 250,000 sq km (100,000 sq miles), and
rolling wheat fields lead to the arid interior and the gold fields.

Aborigines have lived in the southern region The beginning of the 20th century saw
of Western Australia for at least 30,000 years. huge changes: a telegraph cable was laid
However, within 20 years of the settlement connecting Perth with South Africa and
of the state’s first European colony, in 1829, London, and, in 1917, the railway arrived
most Aboriginal groups had been either to join Kalgoorlie with the eastern states.
forcibly ejected from the region, imprisoned In the 1920s, immigrants and returning
or stricken by European diseases. World War I servicemen were drafted to
Europeans visited the southern part of the area to clear and develop land under
the state as early as 1696, but it was not the Group Settlement Scheme. Much of
until 1826 that British colonist Captain the land, however, was intractable and
James Stirling arrived in the Swan River many people abandoned it.
area, declaring the Swan River Colony, later Today, Perth and the Southwest are fast
Perth, in 1829. Convicts arrived in 1850 and becoming popular international tourist
helped to build public buildings and the destinations. Blessed with superb beaches
colony’s infrastructure, until transportation and a glorious climate, the region has
to Western Australia ceased in 1868. everything to offer visitors from climbing
In the 1890s, gold strikes in Coolgardie the tallest fire-lookout tree in the country
and Kalgoorlie led to a wave of prosperity to whale-watching along the coast. World-
in the region. Many ornate late Victorian- class wineries abound in the Margaret
style buildings were erected, several of River region and, in springtime, vast tracts
which are still standing. of the south are covered with wildflowers.

Dramatic beauty of the Stirling Ranges rising from the plains in the southwest of the state
Architectural contrast of Victorian and modern buildings in Perth