This second edition has been brought up to date following the latest developments in the state. The human history of Western Australia, as of all Australia, stretches back some 60,000 years. It is often assumed that European colonisation was very recent relative to the rest of Australia, but in fact it was contemporary with the first penal colony in Queensland, and while a South Australian settlement was still a gleam in Londons eye. Albany was first settled in 1826 and the Swan River settlement (later to become Perth) in 1829. It was also the first part of Australia to be even seen by Europeans: the Portuguese back in the early 1600s. The first 60 or 70 years of European settlement were very difficult, but when the gold rushes came in the late 1800s, WA was set on the path of mineral wealth that still drives its economy today.

This entertaining book is the most up-to-date single-volume Australian history available.

Australia is the last continent to be settled by Europeans, but it also sustains a people and a culture tens of thousands of years old. For much of the past 200 years the newcomers have sought to replace the old with the new. This book tells how they imposed themselves on the land, and brought technology, institutions and ideas to make it their own. It relates the advance from penal colony to a prosperous free nation and illustrates how, in a nation created by waves of newcomers, the search for binding traditions has long been frustrated by the feeling of rootlessness. This revised edition incorporates the most recent historical research and contemporary historical debates on frontier violence between European settlers and Aborigines and the Stolen Generations. It covers the Sydney Olympics, the refugee crisis and the 'Pacific solution'. More than ever before, Australians draw on the past to understand their future.

This book is the first comprehensive account of how Australia attained the world's highest living standards within a few decades of European settlement, and how the nation has sustained an enviable level of income to the present. Why Australia Prospered is a fascinating historical examination of how Australia cultivated and sustained economic growth and success. Beginning with the Aboriginal economy at the end of the eighteenth century, Ian McLean argues that Australia's remarkable prosperity across nearly two centuries was reached and maintained by several shifting factors. These included imperial policies, favorable demographic characteristics, natural resource abundance, institutional adaptability and innovation, and growth-enhancing policy responses to major economic shocks, such as war, depression, and resource discoveries. Natural resource abundance in Australia played a prominent role in some periods and faded during others, but overall, and contrary to the conventional view of economists, it was a blessing rather than a curse. McLean shows that Australia's location was not a hindrance when the international economy was centered in the North Atlantic, and became a positive influence following Asia's modernization. Participation in the world trading system, when it flourished, brought significant benefits, and during the interwar period when it did not, Australia's protection of domestic manufacturing did not significantly stall growth. McLean also considers how the country's notorious origins as a convict settlement positively influenced early productivity levels, and how British imperial policies enhanced prosperity during the colonial period. He looks at Australia's recent resource-based prosperity in historical perspective, and reveals striking elements of continuity that have underpinned the evolution of the country's economy since the nineteenth century.

This second edition has been brought up to date following the latest developments in the state. The human history of Western Australia, as of all Australia, stretches back some 60,000 years. It is often assumed that European colonisation was very recent relative to the rest of Australia, but in fact it was contemporary with the first penal colony in Queensland, and while a South Australian settlement was still a gleam in Londons eye. Albany was first settled in 1826 and the Swan River settlement (later to become Perth) in 1829. It was also the first part of Australia to be even seen by Europeans: the Portuguese back in the early 1600s. The first 60 or 70 years of European settlement were very difficult, but when the gold rushes came in the late 1800s, WA was set on the path of mineral wealth that still drives its economy today.

It also deals with the country's colorful history, its laidback lifestyle and the quirky and entertaining brand of English that Australians speak.