The Historical Encyclopaedia of Western Australia is an authorative and comprehensive guide to the region's history. It will become the outstanding reference for researchers, teachers, students and the general public throughout Australia enabling them to locate information about significant events, institutions, people and places, themes and topics in the history of Western Australia.

Papers by G.C. Bolton, J.E. Thomas, D. Black, J. Hay, M. Aveling, I.M. Crawford, S.J. Halllam and N.J. Green, separately annotated.

This second edition has been brought up to date following the latest developments in the state. The human history of Western Australia, as of all Australia, stretches back some 60,000 years. It is often assumed that European colonisation was very recent relative to the rest of Australia, but in fact it was contemporary with the first penal colony in Queensland, and while a South Australian settlement was still a gleam in Londons eye. Albany was first settled in 1826 and the Swan River settlement (later to become Perth) in 1829. It was also the first part of Australia to be even seen by Europeans: the Portuguese back in the early 1600s. The first 60 or 70 years of European settlement were very difficult, but when the gold rushes came in the late 1800s, WA was set on the path of mineral wealth that still drives its economy today.

"The State and Position of Western Australia; commonly called the Swan-River Settlement" by Frederick Chidley Irwin is a comprehensive account of the colonization, description, and travel experiences in Western Australia. Irwin's detailed observations and analysis provide readers with a unique perspective on the early days of the Swan-River Settlement.