Does Western Australia belong in Australia? We almost didn’t join the federation of Australian colonies way back when. There was talk of going it alone. But we were bribed (east coasters wanted our gold!). They promised us a transcontinental railway, and we fell for it.

Well, no, it’s a bit more complicated than that. The gold rush of the 1890s brought a huge influx of east coasters to the West Australian goldfields and they wanted to be part of the new Australian nation. When it looked like the longer-term West Australian residents disagreed, the miners sent a petition nearly two kilometres long to Queen Victoria saying that if Western Australia seceded, they would secede from Western Australia and join the new Australia. Blasted east coasters! [note: I suspect Great-grandad was one of these troublemakers!]

The dream (or nightmare, depending on your point of view) of secession in Western Australia has never quite gone away. A quick search of newspaper articles over the last 120 years shows that. (And if you want to search Australian newspapers, you’ll need to visit Trove, run by the National Library. It’s an excellent resource for primary materials).

I’m not sure what the appeal is. Perhaps it is geography. We do feel quite physically distant from the more populous eastern states. On the other hand, we speak the same language and we share a British colonial history and over a hundred years of national history. Perhaps it’s as simple as Wild West independence and we should talk to California and Texas about the notion of a western coalition of wild thinkers?

This is the flag the secessionist movement dreamt up in the 1930s. Inspiring? Not. [and personally, if I’d been lucky enough to be visiting the Savoy, I wouldn’t have been talking politics, I’d have been gawking at Hollywood stars and minor royalty. But call me shallow]