They Made Their Destiny: History of Settlement of the Shire of Harvey 1829-1929 by A C Staples

Book Description

Secondhand. Good condition. Minor wear to book corners and edges. Faint marks on tail right edge of first five pages. Previous owner has inscribed front endpage, now covered with a blank ex libris bookplate sticker. Otherwise interior and binding are very good.Dust jacket is in fair condition with several tears and marks on back cover, now covered in a protective plastic covering.

The Shire of Harvey constitutes the northern half of the Wellington District in Western Australia. European settlement commenced there ten years after the first arrivals at the Swan River.

Within the Shire lies the site of the Australind settlement pioneered in 1841 by the London-based Western Australian Company financed by ship owners and inspired by Edward Gibbon Wakefield. Prospective farmers purchased 100-acre blocks of land, but many remained at home in comfort when the time came to emigrate. Instead, prospective workers filled the ships. They obtained free passage to a new land where without organised employment or capital in a hostile wilderness.

These settlers tamed the wilderness without the benefit of either squatters or landlords and demonstrated how settlers could force a virtually barren land to produce a comfortable living.