The Colonial Secretary of Western Australia was one of the most important and powerful public offices in Western Australia, in the time when Western Australia was a British colony. The Colonial Secretary was the representative of the British Colonial Office in Western Australia, and was usually appointed from Britain. He was responsible for all official correspondence between the colony and the Colonial Office. He was at all times a member of the Western Australian Legislative Council and the Executive Council of Western Australia.
After Western Australia gained responsible government in 1890, the office of Colonial Secretary became a ministerial portfolio. The responsibilities of the office changed substantially, and it was no longer such an important role. In 1917 the office of Colonial Secretary was described as being: [1]
responsible for a large number of departments including [Aboriginals ...], Public Health, charities and many of the state trading concerns including the State Shipping Service. The position required a great deal of detailed work and would always attract many Parliamentary Questions, but did not allow the minister much scope for initiative or achievement.
Since Western Australia was no longer a British colony after 1901, the office of Colonial Secretary was misnamed after this date. In 1924, the office was renamed to Chief Secretary.
The following is a list of colonial secretaries of Western Australia:
Colonial Secretary | Period in office |
---|---|
Peter Broun | 1828–1846 |
George Fletcher Moore (acting) | November 1846–1847 |
Richard Robert Madden | May 1847–1849 |
Revett Bland (acting) [2] | January 1849–March 1850 |
Thomas Yule (acting) | March 1850–October 1850 |
Charles Alexander John Piesse | October 1850–March 1851 |
Thomas Yule (acting) | March–December 1851 |
Thomas Falconer | From March 1851 but never arrived in colony |
William Ayshford Sanford | January 1852–July 1855 |
Frederick Barlee | July 1855–24 November 1875 (on leave from 24 July 1875) |
Anthony O'Grady Lefroy (acting) | 24 July 1875–30 August 1877 |
Roger Goldsworthy [lower-alpha 1] | 30 August 1877–7 September 1880 |
Edric Gifford | 2 November 1880–21 January 1883 |
Malcolm Fraser | 5 January 1883–28 December 1890 |
Matthew Smith (acting) | 8 December 1885–18 April 1887 |
George Shenton | 29 December 1890–11 October 1892 |
Stephen Parker | 11 October 1892–4 December 1894 |
John Forrest | 4 December 1894–28 April 1898 |
George Randell | 28 April 1898–27 May 1901 |
Frederick Illingworth | 27 May–21 November 1901 |
Matthew Moss | 21 November–23 December 1901 |
Frederick Illingworth | 23 December 1901–30 June 1902 |
Walter Kingsmill | 1 July 1902–10 August 1904 |
George Taylor | 10 August 1904–7 June 1905 |
John Drew | 7 June–5 August 1905 |
Walter Kingsmill | 25 August 1905–7 May 1906 |
John Connolly | 7 May 1906–7 October 1911 |
John Drew | 7 October 1911–27 July 1916 |
Hal Colebatch | 27 July 1916–17 April 1919 |
Charles Hudson | 17 April–17 May 1919 |
John Scaddan | 17 May–25 June 1919 |
Frank Broun | 25 June 1919–22 August 1922 |
Richard Sampson | 22 August 1922–16 April 1924 |
Sir Harry Pateshall Colebatch was a long-serving figure in Western Australian politics. He was a member of the Western Australian Legislative Council for nearly 20 years, the twelfth Premier of Western Australia for a month in 1919, agent-general in London for five years, and a senator for four years. He was known for supporting free trade, federalism and Western Australian secessionism, and for opposing communism, socialism and fascism. Born in England, his family migrated to South Australia when Colebatch was four years old. He left school aged 11 and worked for several newspapers in South Australia before moving to Broken Hill in New South Wales in 1888 to work as a reporter for the Silver Age. In 1894, he moved to the Western Australian Goldfields following the gold rush there, working for the Golden Age in Coolgardie and the Kalgoorlie Miner in Kalgoorlie. Two years later, he moved to Perth to join the Morning Herald, but after that newspaper collapsed, he moved to Northam where he started The Northam Advertiser. He also became friends with local bank manager James Mitchell and convinced Mitchell to run for state parliament. Colebatch was the mayor of Northam between 1909 and 1912.
The Swan River Colony, also known as the Swan River Settlement, or just Swan River, was a British colony established in 1829 on the Swan River, in Western Australia. This initial settlement place on the Swan River was soon named Perth, and it became the capital city of Western Australia.
Admiral Sir Charles Howe Fremantle GCB was a British Royal Navy officer. The city of Fremantle, Western Australia, is named after him.
John Hutt was Governor of Western Australia from 1839 to 1846.
The State Library of Western Australia is a research, education, reference and public lending library located in the Perth Cultural Centre in Perth, Western Australia. It is a portfolio agency of the Western Australia Department of Local Government, Sport and Cultural Industries, and facilitated by the Library Board of Western Australia.
Hal Gibson Pateshall Colebatch was a West Australian author, historian, poet, lecturer, journalist, editor, and lawyer.
Peter Nicholas Broun, known for most of his life as Peter Nicholas Brown, was the first Colonial Secretary of Western Australia, and a member of Western Australia's first Legislative Council.
The Comptroller General of Convicts was the head of the convict establishment in Western Australia.
The convict era of Western Australia was the period during which Western Australia was a penal colony of the British Empire. Although it received small numbers of juvenile offenders from 1842, it was not formally constituted as a penal colony until 1849. Between 1850 and 1868, 9,721 convicts were transported to Western Australia on 43 convict ship voyages. Transportation ceased in 1868, at which time convicts outnumbered free settlers 9,700 to 7,300, and it was many years until the colony ceased to have any convicts in its care.
George Essex Hampton was an unpopular public official in colonial Western Australia.
The J S Battye Library is an arm of the State Library of Western Australia. It stores much of the state's historical records and original publications including books, newspapers, periodicals, maps, and ephemera, as well as oral history tapes, photographs and artworks, films and video, and non-government records which are kept in the library's Private Archives collection. The Library provides a range of services, including reference, copying, and genealogical services, as well as consultancy and reader education.
James Sykes Battye (1871–1954) was an Australian librarian who was the first chief librarian of the Victoria Public Library in Perth, Western Australia. He was a leading historian, librarian and public figure in Western Australia and also served as a Chancellor of the University of Western Australia.
Perth is the capital city of Western Australia. It was established by Britain as the Swan River Colony in 1829. The area had been explored by Europeans as early as 1697, and occupied by the Indigenous Whadjuk Noongar people for millennia.
The State Records Office of Western Australia (SRO) is the Western Australian government authority with responsibility for identifying, managing, preserving and providing access to the state's archives. The SRO also delivers best-practice records management services to state and local government agencies.
The Western Australia Post Office Directory, also known as Wise Directories and Wise Street Directories, was published in Perth by H. Pierssené in 1893–1895, and by H. Wise & Co in 1895–1949 except for 1943 and 1948. It listed household, business, society, and Government contacts in Perth, Fremantle, Kalgoorlie, Boulder and Coolgardie including some rural areas of Western Australia.
The Historical Encyclopedia of Western Australia (HEWA) from the Centre for Western Australian History at the University of Western Australia was published in June 2009. Although work on it started in 2003, the idea within the university for an historical encyclopedia of Western Australia dates to the early 1990s.
The Cyclopedia of Western Australia, edited by James Battye, was the pre-eminent written summary of Western Australia's development and context prior to World War I.
In 1929, Western Australia (WA) celebrated the centenary of the founding of Perth and the establishment of the Swan River Colony, the first permanent European settlement in WA. A variety of events were run in Perth, regional areas throughout the state, and even across Australia such as the Western Australian Centenary Air Race.
Hillson Beasley was an English-trained architect who relocated to Australia, executing his major buildings in Melbourne (1886–96) and Perth (1896–1917). In his later career he was the Principal Architect of Western Australia's Public Works Department and designed many notable public buildings, including the Government House ballroom (1899), Parliament House, Perth (1900-1904), Fremantle Post Office (1907) and the old Perth Technical School (1910).
Matthew Lewis Moss KC was a lawyer and politician who served in the Parliament of Western Australia on three separate occasions – in the Legislative Assembly from 1895 to 1897, and in the Legislative Council from 1900 to 1901 and again from 1902 to 1914. He was a minister in the governments of Alf Morgans (1901), Walter James (1902–1904), and Hector Rason (1905–1906). Moss was born in New Zealand and arrived in Western Australia in 1891. He left for England in 1914 and spent the rest of his life there, although he maintained connections with Australia, on two occasions acting as Agent-General for Western Australia.