In 1963, the US Naval Communication Station at North West Cape in Western Australia became the first US defense facility to be established on Australian soil in peacetime. During America's Cold War struggle against communism, North West Cape's primary function was to communicate with the US fleet in the Indian and Western Pacific Oceans, especially nuclear missile submarines - the Navy's most powerful deterrent force. Seen as a vital outpost of US defense throughout the 1960s and 1970s, the whole venture was just as monumental for Australia.This book represents an important and long-overdue history of the significance of North West Cape for Australia-US relations and Australian politics, paying special attention to the town of Exmouth that was uniquely created to support the base. Drawing on archival records and oral interviews, A Little America in Western Australia brings to light the experiences of Australian civilians and US Navy personnel in a fascinating and often humorous portrait of life at the Cape. *** Librarians: ebook available on ProQuest and EBSCO *** "...welcome addition to military and nautical history collections, highly recommended especially for college library shelves." - Midwest Book Review, Library Bookwatch: September 2015, The Nautical Shelf [Subject: Military History, Naval Studies, US Studies, Australian Studies, Politics]

"Finally a concise, clear and informative history that puts Western Australia on the map. Lauded historian Geoffrey Bolton vividly narrates this long-awaited short history of Western Australia. From 1826 to the present, Land of Vision and Mirage covers the social, cultural, political and economic development of the most geographically isolated area in the world. While being both informative and analytical, the author’s wry observations about Western Australia’s unique history will stimulate public debate."--From the publisher.

The authors draw upon a rich life history archive of letters, diaries, personal photographs and oral history interviews with former migrants, including those who settled in Australia and those who returned to Britain. They offer original interpretations of key historical themes, including motivations for emigration; gender relations and the family dynamics of migration; the 'very familiar and awfully strange' confrontation with the new world; the anguish of homesickness and return; and the personal and national identities of both settlers and returnees, fifty years on. --book cover.

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.

From searches for serial killers and missing persons to the persecution of migrants and Aboriginal people, David Price takes us back to a time when the line between lawmakers and criminals was lightly drawn. Based on a wide array of contemporaneous accounts of life in the Gascoyne, these sometimes shocking, sometimes disturbing true crime stories depict an era when laws served to maintain order rather than to secure justice. Dark Tales from the Long River offers a window into an evolving history of colonisation that is still struggling into the light.

This book contains a comprehensive and detailed overview of the State's history as well as biographies and portraits of the leading men of the 1890s. Long out-of print, this Facsimile edition does justice to the early history of Western Australia.