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Self, king and country


The push for the creation of a university in Western Australia came in the new years of the 20th century as citizens in the west grappled with what it meant to be a young, vibrant state in the new federation. Other colonies, particularly New South Wales and Victoria, had long since founded their centres of knowledge fro professional and higher education - Sydney and Melbourne universities were both founded almost immediately after their colonies had achieved self government in the 1850s.

But the depressed economy and small population of Western Australia had delayed the hope of the resident British community for the chance of a university on their side of the country. That was, until the gold rushes of the 1890s, a period of rapid population growth and financial boom, which generated a civic imagination.

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