Perth
Swan River Colony

Despite the Colony of New South Wales establishing a convict-supported settlement at King George's Sound (later Albany) on the south coast of Western Australia in 1826, responding to rumours of potential French annexation, Perth marked the first comprehensive European settlement in the western third of the continent of Australia in 1829. Officially designated as "Western Australia" in 1832, the colony retained the informal moniker "Swan River Colony" for many years, after the area's major watercourse.

On 4 June 1829, newly arriving British colonists had their first view of the mainland. Captain James Stirling, aboard Parmelia, noted that the site was "as beautiful as anything of this kind I had ever witnessed". On 12 August that year, Helen Dance, wife of the captain of the second ship, Sulphur, felled a tree to commemorate the town's founding. From 1831 onward, confrontations between British settlers and the Noongar people escalated due to conflicting land-value systems and increased land use as the colony expanded. These confrontations resulted in multiple events, including the murder of settlers (such as Thomas Peel 's servant Hugh Nesbitt), the execution without trial of Whadjuk elder Midgegooroo, the killing of his son Yagan in 1833, and the Pinjarra massacre in 1834.

The strained relations between the Noongar people and the Europeans arose due to these events. Agricultural development on the land restricted the traditional hunter-gatherer practices of the native Whadjuk Noongar, compelling them to camp in designated areas, including swamps and lakes north of the European settlement. Third Swamp, known to them as Boodjamooling, remained a primary campsite for the remaining Noongar people in the Perth region, also accommodating travellers, itinerants, and homeless individuals. During the gold rush in the 1890s, miners on their way to the goldfields joined this community.
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