Australia is an island: The impact of sea transport on shaping the settlement patterns of Western Australia

Public Lecture | Updated 1 decade ago

Batavia shipwreck in the Shipwreck Galleries Museum
Batavia Gallery, Western Australian Museum – Shipwreck Galleries
Image copyright of WA Museum

Dr Gaye Nayton
Heritage Archaeologist

The Swan River colony had an economy focussed on supplying overseas markets while only being reachable by ship. The requirements of this maritime transport therefore shaped the cultural landscape of the colony as it developed.

Australia is an island archipelago that when colonised by the British Empire was drawn into an imperial global supply-and-demand network. From early settlement, the productive economy of the Swan River Colony was focussed on producing goods to sell for cash within the Empire’s markets. The only way to transport goods to and from these overseas markets was necessarily by ship. The requirements and economics of sea and river transport therefore had a critical effect on shaping the new colony. These factors dictated not only where ports could be formed along the WA coastline, but also where other towns could successfully bloom and even where agricultural goods could be grown in economic terms. That imprint on the landscape of Western Australia is still with us today.

Join Dr Gaye Nayton during WA Heritage Festival 2013 as she discusses the archaeology of evolving colonial settlement in WA.

COST: $12 per person. Includes refreshments after the lecture
BOOKINGS: Essential on 9431 8455. Please RSVP by 5.00pm, Wednesday 17 April