WESTERN AUSTRALIA. — The western coast of Terra Australis Incognito is believed to have first been sighted by Portuguese sailors.
However, the first recorded sighting of Australia’s western coastline came in 1611, when Dutch mariner Hendrik Brouwer experimented with a different route to the Dutch East Indies.
Further Dutch sightings of Australia followed as the route became more popular: hence the early name of “New Holland”.
Dutch captain Willem de Vlamingh named the Swan River in 1697 because of the black swans he saw in abundance there. In 1826, Edmund Lockyer was sent to claim the western half of the Australian continent for Britain. He arrived at King George Sound on Christmas Day in 1826, and established a military base which he named Frederick’s Town (now Albany).
In 1829, Captain Charles Fremantle was sent to take formal possession of the remainder of New Holland, which had not already been claimed for Britain under the territory of New South Wales.
On May 2, 1829, Captain Fremantle raised the Union Jack on the south head of the Swan River, thus claiming the territory of Swan River for Britain. The colony of Western Australia was proclaimed on June 18 1829, with Captain James Stirling as the first Lieutenant Governor. The official proclamation was read aloud to the officials and colonists on Garden Island, a day after it was read on the mainland. Less than two months later, Perth was also founded.
