Did westewrn Australia try to become its own country at one point?

Question

i cant find any decent info about it from googling it.....does anyone know anything about it

Answer 1

This is a wikipedia article ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secessionis... ) on succession in Western Australia which will add to the answer of the previous responder.  

You can always use the further reading links provided at the bottom of the article as well to gather further information.

Answer 2

There is Hutt River Province, which has seceded from Australia.  It has its own royal family and everything.

Answer 3

[change] Federation

Until 1901, Australia did not exist - it was six separate colonies governed by Britain. This worked well when everybody was British and there were only a few people. But now there were thousands of people and many of them had never been to Britain, an eight month journey away by sea.

They decided to join together to form one new country, the Commonwealth of Australia. This was called Federation, and happened in 1901. Western Australia did not want to join, because the other colonies were thousands of kilometres away. They joined when the other colonies promised to build a railway to Perth.

[change] Secession referendum

In 1933, the Western Australian people didn't want to be part of Australia any more. The main reason was that Western Australia had to give money to the rest of Australia to pay for national services like the army and education, but they weren't seeing the benefits. As well, the Great Depression had happened and many people were homeless and poor all over the world, including Western Australia.

The government decided to hold a referendum and ask the people whether they wanted to start their own country, and 68% said yes. However, the rest of Australia and the British Parliament stopped it. Even today, some Western Australians do not want to be part of Australia.

Answer 4

By 1890, Western Australia had a lot of people, but they were ruled by a governor who was sent by Britain. People in Western Australia wanted to run their own country, and not be told what to do by the British. They were allowed to establish their own Parliament, where they could make their own laws. The governor was still there but the parliament was making all the decisions and the governor simply approved them. The first Premier (leader of the government) was John Forrest.Hope this helps