Indian Pacific & rail history

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Indian Pacific & rail history

Australia wouldn’t be what it is today without this rail line.

The tracks that lie west-east across the continent also connect the dots of our political history.

And Kalgoorlie-Boulder, where I am now on the Indian Pacific train, holds a particular key to that history.

Gold was discovered in the 1890s, and people came from the east of the continent, quickly increasing Western Australia’s population four-fold to about 180,000.

The promise of a new railway across the continent was enthusiastically supported in the Goldfields. The rail proposal was important to them, as it would connect them to the east.

When people in the coastal Swan River Colony seemed ready to stay out of the proposed Federation, Goldfields settlers formed the Eastern Goldfields Reform League and there was talk of setting up a separate colony.

On July 31, 1900, a referendum was held in WA and the Federationists won, with 44,800 voting for Federation and 19,691 against. Of those 44,800, 26,330 voters were from the Goldfields.

Western Australia was the final *********** colony to vote for Federation. On January 1, 1901, the Commonwealth of Australia was proclaimed.

Deep divisions had delayed that joining. Deep divisions remained. At the core of these were perceptions about identity.

After Federation, a wave of migrants came from eastern Australia. Sandgropers (the West Australians) called them “t’othersiders”. They were met, at best, with detachment, often distrust, and at worst, with venom.

Camera IconRails on the bumpy train in outback NSW east of Broken Hill. Credit: Stephen Scourfield/The West ***********

But it was far from over.

WA was allowed to maintain custom duties for five years. When that passed, the State’s exemption from the Constitution’s free trade agreement ended, too.

WA’s Legislative Assembly decided Federation had proved detrimental to the interest of the State.

A new referendum, to gauge support for withdrawing from the Commonwealth, was held in April 1933, and West Australians voted two-to one in favour of leaving.

The British Parliament was petitioned in November 1934 to bring in legislation restoring WA as a self-governing dominion of the British Empire and the following year, a joint select committee of the British Parliament was appointed to hear submissions from WA and the Commonwealth.

That committee decided the petition from the WA Legislative Assembly could not be received, as the British Parliament had no jurisdiction to act unless the Commonwealth of Australia specifically asked it to in response to the “clearly expressed wish of the *********** people as a whole”.

The case of secession was rejected. Maybe it is still far from over. In 2017, riding the wind of Brexit (as Britain’s exit from Europe is known) there was talk of a WAxit from the Federation.

And the mood was certainly still alive in 2020, when then-Prime Minister Scott Morrison conceded WA’s hard border, stopping travel between WA and other *********** States and Territories, should remain closed indefinitely. In doing so, he conceded WA was different from the rest of the country.

He conceded WA was entitled to set its own rules.

On September 5, 2020, The West *********** newspaper’s front page read: “September 4 will be forever etched in folklore. Why? Because it’s when Canberra finally conceded our State IS special. Our economy IS special. And WE should dictate our borders. From now on this date shall be known as Our Westralia Day!”

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