State Library of New South Wales

On this day, 6th February 1832,  the Swan River colony was officially renamed “Western Australia”.

In 1616, Dutch captain Dirk Hartog was the first European to set foot on the western shores of Australia, landing on what is now known as Dirk Hartog Island, at Cape Inscription. Further Dutch sightings of Australia followed, hence the early name of “New Holland”.

Early European exploration of the area commenced in 1697 with the discovery of the Swan River by Dutch captain Willem de Vlamingh. but he was not impressed. Similar explorations by the French in 1801, and the British in 1822 left equally unfavourable impressions regarding any potential settlement of the area.  The first explorer to gain a favourable opinion of the Swan River was Captain James Stirling, who explored the area in March 1827. .With Frederick Garling and the botanist Charles Fraser, Stirling spent 12 days exploring the river, their favourable impressions of the quality of the soil was highly inaccurate, but became instrumental in the decision to establish the Swan River Colony. In his reports to the Home Office, Stirling acknowledged that previous explorations had found the area “sterile, forbidding and inhospitable” but argued that he had found it superior to New South Wales even, and promoted in glowing terms the agricultural potential of the area. Persuaded that the proposed colony would incur no significant cost on the part of the British Government, and perhaps fuelled by rumours that the French were about to establish a penal colony in the western part of Australia, the Colonial Office assented to the proposal in mid-October 1828.(Wikipedia)

The first fleet of settlers arrived in June 1829, disembarking with their possessions on the sandy beaches north of the Swan River. No advance party had been sent, no land had been allocated, and no buildings had been constructed. Under intense pressure from the settlers, Stirling’s energetic Surveyor-General, John Septimus Roe went to work demarcating the allotments along the river.

The Swan River colony thrived, and within three years, had a population of around 1500 British settlers. On 6 February 1832, the Swan River colony was officially renamed as Western Australia.

These early views of the Swan River and Perth are from the collections of the State Library of New South Wales.