History of Perth Trivia Quiz

Answer: Noongar

The Noongar were historically hunter and gatherer people who lived in the sout west of Western Australia. They lived in the Perth area for over 40,000 years. What would become Perth was the perfect area for hunting and gathering because of the many lakes and rivers running through it. Many of the lakes and rivers feature prominently in Noongar myth.

Answer: James Stirling

Dutch explorer Willem de Vlamingh is believed to have been the first European to visit the area in 1697 but he was unimpressed with the land. That was the same for many other explorers until James Stirling and the British East India Company came along. Stirling believed a British establishment in western Australia would facilitate trade with India and other places along the Indian Ocean. Stirling, along with fellow explorers Frederick Garling and Charles Fraser, helped found the Swan River Colony.

Stirling, in his attempt to receive approval for an establishment at Perth, over exaggerated the quality of soil, saying it was 'even more fertile than New South Wales'. In addition, during Stirling's original surveying of land, he missed the sandier areas of Perth which were almost entirely useless for farming. As a result, the first settles to the region were disappointed and struggled to find suitable land for farms and homes.

Answer: Septimus Roe

The housing crisis was that there were no homes when the settlers arrived. The first fleet of settlers to Perth arrived in June 1829 on the ship Parmelia. However, there was no preliminary fleet to establish housing. John Septimus Roe, as the first Surveyor-General, stepped in to build houses and draw property lines.

He chose land around the Swan and Canning Rivers for homes because the soil was the most fertile there. Later, Roe would explore areas in Western Australia beyond Perth. In particular, Roe explored and traced Australian rivers.

Answer: Yagan

Like in most other places in Australia, the relationship between European settlers and the local Aborigine people was tense, though in Perth it was not as violent as in other places. However, there was still plenty of conflict that turned violent.

Perhaps the most famous clash between Aborigines and Europeans involved Yagan. Yagan's brother, Domjum has been shot by a shopkeeper after he and a group of Noongars were accused of stealing flour. He later wound up dying in jail. Yagan sought revenge and along with two other Aborigines killed Tom and John Velvick. As a result, a £30 bounty (about £3030 today) was placed on his head. The Keates Brothers, William and James, had come across Yagan and allegedly promised to hide him from arrest. However, they killed him and severed his head (which is pictured in the drawing) to claim the bounty.

Yagan has ever since been a symbol of Aboriginal struggle. His head was sent to London to be studied and displayed as an artifact. In 1964, the head was buried in Liverpool. The Aborigines tried for years to try to get Yagan's head returned, which it eventually was in 1997. Yagan received a formal burial ceremony in 2010.

Answer: Convicts

Between 1850 and 1865, more than 9,000 convicts arrived in Perth, a huge increase to the population. These convicts built many of Perth's historic buildings and tourist attractions such as the Fremantle Prison. The convict work saw Perth's infrastructure improve dramatically and people slowly emigrated to the city.

However, its 'far out' location still hindered its growth as people were still unwilling to relocate to a remote location.

Answer: Gold

Gold was discovered in Western Australia in 1885 in Halls Creek, Kimberley, which is was up north in Western Australia and Perth in the south. In the years following, gold was discovered in places closer to Perth but not within Perth itself. However, many prospectors took their haul to Perth rather than travel back across Australia to Melbourne or Adelaide. As a result, Perth's population grew to over 27,000 people by 1901. The city also became richer and saw further improvements to its infrastructure including telegraph lines and railways.

Pictured to the right is an oil painting by Eugene von Guerard called "Ballarat". It depicts a typical tent city established by prospectors who recently moved into the gold rush areas. Although Ballarat is a town in Victoria, such tent cities were typical in Western Australia as well.

Answer: Massive flooding

The Swan River experienced massive flooding in 1926 which caused the Fremantle Railway Bridge to collapse. No one was killed but a passenger train had just passed over the bridge immediately before it collapsed. The same flooding damaged several of Perth's other bridges.

In 2014, the new rail bridge that stands where the Fremantle Railway Bridge used to was closed for weeks when a storm caused a ship to crash into it.

Answer: A political scandal

WA Inc. stands for Western Australia Incorporated and refers to a political scandal that rocked Perth in the 1980s. Brian Burke, the premier of Western Australia, was exposed as having conducted a number of transactions with several Perth businessmen.

These actions cost Western Australia of 600 million dollars and many once strong corporations folded. Burke and many of the businessmen were convicted of various financial and corruption crimes.

Answer: Australia II

The New York Yacht Club has held the America's Cup continuously since 1851, which was believed to be the longest streak in any sport at the time. Alan Bond, who was one of the business men involved in the WA Inc. scandal, had made some progress throughout the 1970s by funding more competitive yachts and searching for more skilled yachtsmen. He was actually named Australian of the Year in 1978 because of this, even though he had not actually funded a winner yet.

Australia II lost the first, second and fourth races of the 1983 America's Cup to the U.S. yacht Liberty but won the third and fifth. This forced a sixth race for the first time ever. Australia II won the sixth race forcing a seventh. Australia II beat the Liberty by 41 seconds to win the America's Cup. That year's America's Cup was held off the coast of Rhode Island.

Answer: France

Bosco Boscovich and Maya Catts plead guilty to the firebombing and were sentenced to prison. Their motivation was to make a statement to the French that they opposed the resuming of nuclear testing by France Mururoa Atoll in the Pacific Ocean. It is not exactly clear if the Pacific Popular Front was a real group.

It was not a group previously known to police and has not been heard from since. It is known that Boscovich and Catts acted alone.