Based on meticulous research, Paupers, Poor Relief and Poor Houses in Western Australia 1829-1910 throws light upon those who are neglected within the celebratory history of Western Australia’s past. Who fed the indentured servants who were cast adrift by their masters? What was the government’s solution to the problem of unemployed paupers, many of them ex-convicts? And what became of the destitute women and children and the sick and insane? The overt wealth of present-day Western Australia makes for a problematic consideration of a colonial society characterised by the fundamental lack of resources and charitable institutions, and inadequate Governmental administration. With a sense of simplicity, Hetherington guides us toward contemplation of Western Australia as a state whose present wealth was built on the backs of indentured labourers, ex-convicts and penniless immigrants.

A wide-ranging edited collection that interrogates colonial expansion, and the mismatch between intention, perception and hype, and the actual realities.

This collection of essays explores historical, geographical, and cultural factors that contribute to our understanding of places and settings of Australian transient communities. From Gwalia and Kalgoorlie in Western Australia, Charters Towers in Queensland, Broken Hill in New South Wales, and Queenstown in Tasmania, the places provide opportunity to revisit sites of history from the different angles of architecture, landscape theory, social history, and visual arts. They also provide a springboard for thinking through the pressing issues of contemporary Australians and counterparts in other 'post-settler' societies. [Subject: Australian Studies, History]