By: mag.tide
9/11/2008
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The divide between east and west goes back right to the days of settlement.
But as late as the 30's, WA had a referendum to secede from the rest of Australia and it was voted by west Aussies to do so but stopped by the Federation.
When the French were going to settle the south coast mother England planned on sending Captain James Stirling to set up the swan river settlement, he refused to be under the command of NSW Governor Darling (who at the time commanded all of Australia because it was all NSW). Stirling pretty much said he would do it but he got the west half and darling the east.
7 months after setting up the swan river settlement (which became Perth) Stirling sent "his troops" to Albany (settled by Darling) and sent them back to Sydney.
That is where the East v's West thing started.
However most people in the East are unaware of the whole East v's West thing.
your view's/history welcome... |
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By: mag.tide
9/11/2008
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Secession!
On 8 April 1933 the people of Western Australia voted to secede from the Commonwealth of Australia by a margin of more than two to one. The result represented a culmination of nearly three years of intensive campaigning by the Dominion League during the height of the Depression.
Voting patterns indicate that a solid majority of voters in most districts voted yes to the question "Are you in favour of the State of Western Australia withdrawing from the Federal Commonwealth established under the Commonwealth of Australia Constitutional Act (Imperial)?" The only area to reject the call to secede was the goldfields. It accepted an alternative proposition, rejected and ridiculed by secessionists, to call a national convention to alter the Australian Constitution.
On the same day that Western Australians voted to leave the Commonwealth they decimated the government which had proposed and strongly supported secession. The anti-secession Labor Party of Philip Collier was swept to power. Premier James Mitchell, and a number of cabinet ministers, lost their seats in an election which punished a government which had been elected in 1930 with the promise of 'Jobs for All'. The Depression years were not happy ones for governments seeking re-election.
The question remains as to whether the 1933 referendum represented an exceptional result caused by unusual times, or a true reflection of a deep secessionist belief. It has been argued that Western Australians sought to blame someone for their problems, regardless of whether they believed secession to be constitutionally possible, and the ballot box was the only way for a powerless population to show their disapproval. The Dominion League was merely a protest movement people were happy to support only because they suspected secession would never succeed. Certainly the Dominion League found the victory much harder to cope with with than the campaign. |
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By: mag.tide
9/11/2008
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Dominion League
The Dominion League was formed at a public meeting at His Majesty's Theatre on 30 July 1930. It followed on from the far less successful Secession League which had been established in 1926 by the editor of the Sunday Times James MacCallum Smith. The League was established to agitate for the separation of Western Australia from the Commonwealth and the creation of Western Australia as a Dominion within the British Empire. As the secession song Liberty's Light proclaimed:
Westralia's law, Westralia's will;
Our loyalty, 'England and Empire' still.
Talk of secession had been around since Federation, but the Dominion League very rapidly became a dynamic and influential movement within Western Australian politics. Although proclaiming itself to be non-political, many of its members and supporters were politically conservative. The driving force behind the movement was its young Secretary H.K. 'Keith' Watson, later a Liberal Party MLC, who bombarded newspapers with a constant stream of correspondence and articles advocating the advantages of secession.
Established at a time when the effects of the Depression were just starting to bite in Western Australia, the League claimed at one stage to have as many as 10,000 members recruited through a constant barrage of campaigning by committed activists who would speak on any occasion whether it was on a street corner or at one of the many large public gatherings organised by the League.
Rousing songs like This Bit of the World Belongs to Us and Westralia Free were composed, published, circulated and sung at political meetings in order to strengthen the cause of secession. A direct grassroots campaign was used at a time when the fabric of the Western Australian community was under extreme economic and social pressure.
The Dominion League gave people an opportunity to take action at a time when they felt powerless, providing Western Australians with a handy scapegoat to blame for their probl ... |
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By: mag.tide
9/11/2008
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Isolation 1929
In 1929 Western Australia was a small isolated community and Perth, its capital, was the most isolated city in the world. This sense of physical and psychological isolation was part of the Western Australian identity. While the pro-Federation campaigners of the nineteenth century had proclaimed "A Nation for a Continent and a Continent for a Nation", Western Australians were separated from the rest of Australia by the continent they shared. Interstate travel was costly and inconvenient.
It is difficult to imagine the sense of isolation from information, ideas and places. In 1929 talking pictures had yet to be shown in Western Australia, and television had not been invented. The first local radio station to broadcast was 6WF in 1924, and it wasn't until 1933 that the first Australia-wide radio broadcast took place.
The opportunities for Western Australians to take part in national pursuits were few and far between. Given what historian Geoffrey Blainey called "the tyranny of distance", sporting and social activities were locally run and organised. While Western Australians followed the exploits of Australia's cricketers under Don Bradman, the State did not have a team in the Sheffield Shield competition in cricket until the 1950s.
In the thirty years since Federation Western Australia had grown and changed, but its geographic and psychological isolation still remained. Little wonder that a sense of distance fostered a distinct identity and, in the difficult years of the Depression, fuelled those secession sentiments which ran deep throughout the State. |
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By: kwikfix55
9/11/2008
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On 31 July 1900 Western Australia became the final Australian colony to vote for Federation. An overwhelming majority of voters were in favour of union with the eastern colonies. Within six months the Commonwealth of Australia had been proclaimed - 1 January 1901 - and campaigning for Federal elections had begun.
Yet when Western Australians voted in their referendum the outcome of ten years of Constitutional Conventions and inter colonial wrangling had already been determined. The new Australian constitution had been proclaimed by Queen Victoria, omitting reference to Western Australia in the preamble as it had yet to make up its mind if it would become an original State. Western Australian political representatives who either opposed Federation outright or who wanted to hold out for more concessions from the other colonies, failed completely in their attempts to secure the support of the British Government. It was clear that Federation would go ahead with or without Australia's western third.
Sharp divisions in the West had delayed the referendum. These were the result of a decade of dramatic growth, fuelled by the discovery of gold in the colony just a few years after it was granted responsible government in 1890. By the time Western Australia joined the Federation in 1901, its population had soared from under 50,000 to nearly 200,000 in just a decade.
Ideas about Western Australian and Australian identity were affected by rapid social changes and economic developments. The arrival of a wave of immigrants from eastern Australia - referred to as the othersiders by Western Australians - coincided with an increased momentum in the other Australian colonies towards Federation. Met with distrust, disinterest and hostility by the residents of Western Australia's more established coastal and farming communities - known as sandgropers - the new arrivals naturally looked eastwards across the deserts of the interior towards their former homes. Sandgropers, on t ... |
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By: kwikfix55
9/11/2008
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| Sandgropers, on the other hand, were more likely to look westwards across the Indian Ocean towards Britain. The story of Western Australia's reluctant entry into Federation is the story of these two competing visions. |
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By: mag.tide
9/11/2008
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| The labour Party seemed to be formed around this time too. |
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By: mag.tide
9/11/2008
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Discontent 1930s
For the people of Western Australia the 1930s was a time of discontent and hardship. Like the rest of Australia and a good proportion of the world, the State experienced economic depression, unemployment, racial violence and disaffection with the ruling political system.
In other parts of the world the Depression triggered radical and sometimes violent political movements offering extreme solutions to the misery caused by unemployment and hunger. Yet in Western Australia the Communist Party remained a relatively small and unsuccessful organisation, efficiently monitored and suppressed by local police, and it was not until 1935 that a Western Australian n a z i party briefly sprung up with just a handful of members.
Western Australian business, political and community leaders had long-standing complaints about the treatment of Western Australia since joining the Federation. In a time of economic crisis they were able to attract public support for a movement to secede from the Commonwealth of Australia. It is interesting to note that the first meeting called by the secessionists in 1930 attracted thousands of discontented citizens at a time when the worst of the Depression had yet to hit Western Australia.
Throughout the early 1930s the frustration and resentment of ordinary people who felt powerless to control their own destiny was directed at Canberra and the East. By the time the secession referendum was held in 1933 the electorate was confused and dissatisfied. They gave expression to their general sense of discontent by voting to secede by a margin of three to one while paradoxically on the same day rejecting the pro-secession government of Premier James Mitchell. Philip Collier's Labor Party was swept back into office even though it opposed secession. |
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By: kwikfix55
9/11/2008
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Early efforts to bring about federation in the 1850s and 1860s, were dogged by the lack of popular support for the movement. A number of conventions were held during the 1890s to develop a constitution for the Commonwealth. Sir Henry Parkes, Premier of New South Wales, was instrumental in this process. Fiji and New Zealand were originally part of this process, but decided not to join the federation.
When the conference met at the Victorian Parliament in Melbourne on 6 February, the delegates were confronted with a scorching summer temperature of 39.7°C in the shade. The Conference debated whether or not the time was ripe to proceed with federation. Whilst some delegates agreed it was, the smaller states were not as enthusiastic. Thomas Playford from South Australia indicated the tariff question and lack of popular support as hurdles. Similarly, Sir James Lee Steere from Western Australia and the New Zealand delegates suggested there was lukewarm support for federation in their respective colonies. |
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By: mag.tide
9/11/2008
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We were reluctant to change 100yrs ago!
Lol. |
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By: bulldoost
9/11/2008
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western australia as such, was very, very reluctant in joinig the commonwealth... it held it's referendum 1 year after all rest of the states, and it held it by "imported" voters...
vote was 44,800 "yes" and 19,691 "no" - sound like very sound results...
we need now consider that actually forrest, then premier of wa (colony) "imported" actually nearly 31,000 voters from nsw and vic... from these 31,000 - 28,000 were "imported" in last six months before referendum!
if no "imports" vote will be exactly reverse 2 to 1 against federation...
first what eastern states done was abolish wa industry... that was a competition...
wa did not make good deal on federtion, federation make much better deal on it...
in whole history of federation, wa was always supply for foreign exchange and powerhouse for commonwealth. on average, western australi supply more than 20% of australia's foreign exchange, in last 15 years more than 30%, in last 5 years more than 40% of all australia's foreign earnings...
and that is done by about 9% of country population, western australia receives from commonwealth about 7% to 10% of general revenue, creating 40% of it...
not good deal for wa... not good at all... |
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By: mag.tide
10/11/2008
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Kalgoorlie is where these imported voters all had jobs.
without them-
things would av been different. |
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By: bulldoost
10/11/2008
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in 1930's england did not approve referendum results on technicality, today, in australian constitutions are rulings which make secession virtually impossible for wa!
i do think that wa, even if it pay commonwealth for use of they currency and come to some arrangement as to territory defence agreement, it will fare much better than with commonwealth... |
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By: nw8hillbilly
10/11/2008
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bulldoost,
it sounds very much like you are in favour of a "royalties for the regions" programme.
It was interesting to hear the outrage when the Nationals wanted to implement it....from my perspective it is only just and fair....you don't see why WA should fund the nation and the regions dont see why they should fund continuous city projects in competition with themselves |
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By: napier48
10/11/2008
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'Re:WA Secede
=============
Why ?, We eastern staters what to still get your mining benefits but you can keep your outdated 19th Century, backward rules about weekend trading & daylight savings |
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By: mintie_boy
10/11/2008
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Bulldoost said:
and that is done by about 9% of country population, western australia receives from commonwealth about 7% to 10% of general revenue, creating 40% of it...
------------------------- -
Bulldoost forgot to mention that the economy which is based on GDP sees WA only contribute around 10% to the nation's economy (and hence why only around 10% of federal funding is given to WA too) ...
WA will never secede ... too many here don't like change, imagine all the changes needed to secede ... the number of heart attacks would be mind boggling. |
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By: jaykaye_09
10/11/2008
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| If WA ever seceded, it would crash and burn. Crash, and burn. |
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By: napier48
10/11/2008
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WA will never secede ... too many here don't like change, imagine all the changes needed to secede ... the number of heart attacks would be mind boggling.
--------------
Correct, They are 15 years behind Australia & the rest of the world & still discussing Daylight saving & weekend trading, imaging the whinging Poms in WA agreeing to something like this ???? |
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By: big.ol64
10/11/2008
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By: napier48
Today (12:56 pm)
Re:WA Secede? (PREVIEW)
'Re:WA Secede
=============
Why ?, We eastern staters what to still get your mining benefits but you can keep your outdated 19th Century, backward rules about weekend trading & daylight savings
------------------------- ------------------------- ---------
Tsk, tsk now napier.
We're over here on the eastern seaboard and we make a lot of money for Australia with our mining too and we'll never introduce DLS and we're not to keen for Sunday trading either.
Remember WA, Queensland will always support your right to be difference from the mexicans.
. |
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By: bulldoost
11/11/2008
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mintie - i did give example of difference between gdp and earnings...
internal trade value is your gdp, it cost money!
export is providing money... |
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By: bulldoost
11/11/2008
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that is from another thread...
mintie - valid remark!
now, consider your home, furniture, rug on the floor, wife, yourself, child... wife is cooking, you do garden, child is washing dishes. all of that have measurable value, so is your home, so is carpet and furniture... food is divided according to needs, beds are different sizes, rug need mending and need money to fix the tap... this is your gdp adn expenditure list...
now, you are going out of the home, some boring office or whatever you do for living, you bring money home - that are your export earnings...
do you notes the difference? gdp is closet system operating within and costing money, export is providing money... |
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By: whiteman.aussie
16/11/2008
4:07 pm |
Message deleted. Reason: Breach of terms of service |
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By: falnoc4
2/12/2008
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| mag and rest sen 5933 |
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By: mhqs2007
27/05/2009
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How bad did Western Australia suffer unemployment?
(a bit of explanation please) |
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By: libbosrliars
28/05/2009
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The W.A government would never let the people of W.A vote on the topic of secession because it's too hard a question that is far beyond the intellectual capacity of the average sandgroper to comprehend!
No, I'm afraid the people of that great Western Australian democracy will just have to settle for the regular DLS referendum combined with the occasional Sunday trading referendum, because their masters on Parliament Hill have no trust or confidence in asking their beloved people any questions that might tax the feeble minds of their subjects. |
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