Before the Europeans
Circa 50,000 BC Humans arrive in Australia on foot from Asia via land bridges.
The first Europeans
1606 First authenticated landing on Australian soil, by Dutchman Willem Janszoon in the Duyfken.
1616 Dutch explorer, Dirk Hartog, makes first authenticated landing in WA, at Shark Bay, in the Eendracht.
1696–7 Discovery of Swan River by Willem de Vlamingh.
1791 Discovery of King George Sound by Captain George Vancouver.
1826 King George Sound occupied by convicts.
1827 Examination of Swan River by Captain Stirling in HMS Success.
1828 British government approves founding of Swan River Colony.
1829 Possession of the colony is taken by Captain Fremantle; Stirling formally founds the colony.
1831 Stirling made governor; first newspaper issued.
1834 Battle of Pinjarra sees massacre of 30 Noongar people.
1846 New Norcia Mission established; discovery of coal.
1850 Convicts sent to meet labour shortage and help build Perth.
1856 Queen Victoria grants Perth city status.
1868 Convict transportation ends.
1870 Colony gains representative government.
1877 Telegraph links Perth and London.
1881 Eastern railway links Perth, Fremantle and Guildford.
1885 Gold found at Halls Creek.
Perth hosts the Empire Games, 1962
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1889 Great Southern Railway opened.
Statehood
1890 Sir John Forrest forms WA’s first government.
1892 Construction of Fremantle Harbour begins.
1893 Paddy Hannan’s Kalgoorlie find becomes ‘The Golden Mile’.
1899 Women get the vote, ahead of Britain, Canada and the US; 1,231 WA men fight in the Boer War.
America’s Cup, 1987
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1900 WA votes ‘yes’ in federal referendum.
1901 Commonwealth of Australia inaugurated 1 January; WA becomes a state of federal Australia.
War and peace
1914–18 6,000 Western Australians die in World War I.
1915 Anzac fleet assembles in King George Sound for the assault on Gallipoli, Turkey. WA’s 10th Light Horse Regiment prominent.
1917 Trans-Australian Railway links WA to eastern states.
1929 Fremantle becomes a city.
1933 WA votes to opt out of federation, but the UK government rules the move unconstitutional.
1939–45 Perth men and women serve in World War II.
1950s The Causeway and Narrows Bridge span the Swan.
1952 Britain explodes atomic bombs on the Monte Bello islands. Two more explode in 1956.
1962 Perth hosts Empire Games.
1983 Labor begins 10-year period of government in WA.
1987 America’s Cup held in Fremantle.
1993 WA Liberal/National coalition ousts Labor.
1999 World’s earliest known lifeform, 3.5 billion-year-old stromatolites, found in WA outback.
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison
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21st Century
2006 WA resources boom begins.
2007 Labor Party, under Kevin Rudd, wins landslide national election victory.
2008 Colin Barnett (Liberal Party) becomes WA Premier for two terms.
2010 Kevin Rudd replaced by Australia’s first female Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, until 2013, when Rudd regains leadership.
2013 Tony Abbot leads Liberal Party to win national election.
2015 Malcolm Turnbull replaces Tony Abbott as Liberal Party leader and Prime Minister, and defeats Labor party by a single seat in the 2016 election.
2016 Elizabeth Quay opens, with work continuing.
2017 Mark McGowan (Labor) becomes WA Premier.
2018 Scott Morrison replaces Malcolm Turnbull as Liberal Party leader and Prime Minister; Yagan Square and Perth Stadium open.
2019–20 FOMO, a $220-million project to redevelop Fremantle city centre, continues.