Western Australia secedes from the rest of Australia.

[Samm]

Today I learned that in 1933 there was a referendum in Western Australia about secession from the rest of the Australian federation. The secession side of the debate won with about 66% of the vote. However, the Australian federal government argued that secession was not permitted by the Australian constitution. The Western Australians appealed to the British parliament which set up a select committee to judge the matter. After 18 months of discussion they decided that they could not legally grant secession. The cause quickly faded although even today there are still some who argue for Western Australian independence.

Looking at Wikipedia it seems that Western Australia today has about 2.6 million inhabitants or about 11% of Australia's population. However, it is responsible for almost half of Australia's exports and more that half of its mining. How might the history of the region be affected if the British Parliament decided to grant it the right to secede?

 

[Ian_W]

. However, it is responsible for almost half of Australia's exports and more that half of its mining. How might the history of the region be affected if the British Parliament decided to grant it the right to secede?

How are you dealing with the political conflict between the Perth region squattocracy and the miners ?

As well, WA is literally indefensible without an industrial and population base, and with politics being dominated by farmers or miners, it's not going to develop one.

 

[Riain]

The Japanese effect a lodgement in northern WA during WW2 and Australia conquers and annexes the SW of the state , and excises the separate WA state to the part physically occurred by the Japanese. The secession leaders are rounded up and infiltrated into the occupied territory and then labeled collaborators and rump WA as an enemy state. Other secessionist diehards are offered the same fate.

WA is broken up as an entity and ceases to exist.

 

[Dathi THorfinnsson]

For further discussion, see also
https://www.alternatehistory.com/forum/threads/independent-western-australia-in-1933.363604/
https://www.alternatehistory.com/forum/threads/country-of-western-australia.281443/
https://www.alternatehistory.com/fo...-joined-the-commonwealth-of-australia.208205/
https://www.alternatehistory.com/fo...stralia-declared-independence-in-1933.171276/
https://www.alternatehistory.com/forum/threads/western-australia-3-situations.154365/
https://www.alternatehistory.com/forum/threads/the-dominion-of-western-australia.61001/

https://www.alternatehistory.com/forum/threads/independent-western-australia.52088/

 

[Citycat]

WA would be a lot wealthier, and the rest of Australia a lot poorer.

The population of WA might be higher than OTL if it was an independent nation to consolidate control over remote areas.

 

[Dominic]

An independent WA after the 1933 referendum is no more likely to be invaded by Japan in the Second World War as OTL WA was. It's still part of the British Empire, and still going to be defended by all available resources. How it develops post-WW2 is highly dependent on the development of politics on both sides of the Nullabor. It potentially can be just as successful a state as New Zealand, as a conservative continental counterpart. With control over its own immigration policy and the ever growing mineral wealth going entirely to Perth, it may well end up very well off. It is pretty likely to end up more integrated into local alliances than NZ, but again there aren't actually any threats to its sovereignty. I doubt it would spend significant money on a defence force.

Of course, it's also possible that it will politically falter. The old lament about GST that Western Australians trot out every election is bullshit, and the reason for that will be far clearer in an indepenent WA: Perth is not a magically productive city, and all that vast mineral wealth comes from far afield. Nonetheless, Perth will utterly dominate elections. The precedent of secession could well lead to the Goldfields and even Pilbara/Kimberly attempting to counter-cede back to the Commonwealth. OTL, Perth/regional WA have a common foe in the East, but on their own that common purpose would be non-existant. Shorn of the regions, Perth would probably gravitate back into the Commonwealth as well.

It's also possible that it will falter simply due to bad government. WA has a history of bad governments, and in the post-WW2 period had a very small, very conservative population with a political culture that functioned and to a large degree still functions as an adjunct of the existing political system further east. How would party politics develop in an independent WA? I could certainly see it being a de facto one-party state, dominated by conservative extraction-industry interests. Over time it would no doubt diversify, but WA has never before been a particularly politically diverse state. Given the shallowness of the economy, poor management could well lead to bankruptcy, as it effectively has OTL.

The arguments of an independent WA have always been weak. Independence for what, and for who? The underlying resentment of money being funneled back into the Commonwealth is a morally indefensible position perpetuated by extremist capitalist interests. An independent WA would very likely spend a large part of its history sending that same money into the upper class. This would only change if the political makeup of the state substantially shifted i.e. through immigration, which is possible but slow.

 

[Riain]

Iirc WA didn't become a major mining state in the modern sense until lang Hancock started in the 60s or so. Thats excluding gold of course.

My point about ww2 is that WA is indefensible, it can do virtually nothing for its own defence.

 

[Dominic]

Iirc WA didn't become a major mining state in the modern sense until lang Hancock started in the 60s or so. Thats excluding gold of course.

My point about ww2 is that WA is indefensible, it can do virtually nothing for its own defence.

Mining came and went in terms of a boom, but the importance of the Goldfields never vanished. WA could not defend itself, but that is not particularly important. All available British forces would defend it, and in any case Perth is far outside the range of the IJN and there is nothing else worth attacking in WA given the distances involved.

 

[Citycat]

My point about ww2 is that WA is indefensible, it can do virtually nothing for its own defence.

Australia as a whole was indefensible without foreign support. Geographical distance from Japan was about the only thing it had going for it.

 

[Jellico]

Mining came and went in terms of a boom, but the importance of the Goldfields never vanished.

Which sums up independent WA. For a few years it has a boom then relies on money from the rest of the country for the majority of the time.

 

[Dominic]

Australia as a whole was indefensible without foreign support. Geographical distance from Japan was about the only thing it had going for it.

That is the opposite of 'indefensible'. Australia's geography plays a huge role in its defence (as geography does everywhere), making it highly defensible against almost any concievable foe. Japan could not even begin to threaten it without pissing off a whole host of other countries, and today that is true too: it is virtually impossible to threaten Australia without going through Indonesia, a very tough target, while Indonesia lacks the resources (for now and a good while yet) and motive (probably forever) to do so itself. Other than the US via the Pacific or a coalition with Indonesia, Australia is probably impregnable. In WW2 this was even more true.

 

[Riain]

Australia had 6 divisions in ww2, WA would struggle to raise 1. Similarly the RAN had 2 heavy and 3 light cruisers and 4 destroyers, WA would struggle to buy and man some corvettes. Similar applies to any air forces, WA is simply too underpopulated, too poor in an absolute sense and too vast to contribute anything to ww2.

 

[Dominic]

Australia had 6 divisions in ww2, WA would struggle to raise 1. Similarly the RAN had 2 heavy and 3 light cruisers and 4 destroyers, WA would struggle to buy and man some corvettes. Similar applies to any air forces, WA is simply too underpopulated, too poor in an absolute sense and too vast to contribute anything to ww2.

It doesn't need to contribute resources, at least in order to survive. It simply needs to exist and be on the side of Australia/Britain/America. Perth is just as good a submarine base as part of the Commonwealth as not.

 

[Samm]

It doesn't need to contribute resources, at least in order to survive. It simply needs to exist and be on the side of Australia/Britain/America. Perth is just as good a submarine base as part of the Commonwealth as not.

Yeah, this. A lot of people here seem to be talking as if Western Australia is not just leaving Australia but also any relationship with its traditional allies and becoming completely isolated. This is nonsense. They didn't even intend to leave the British empire. There is no reason for the Japanese to be any more able to conquer them than in otl.

 

[FranzAncheNo]

I'm very interested. If it gets independence which kind of natural resources could sustain its economy? Which minerals does the WA's soil hide?

 

[Jellico]

In that case Newfoundland provides a model.

 

[Dominic]

I'm very interested. If it gets independence which kind of natural resources could sustain its economy? Which minerals does the WA's soil hide?

Vast resources. Extraordinary quantities. As per OTL, they’ll be exploited using foreign capital, and to a far greater extent than OTL that foreign capital will laugh off any attempt by the WA government to have a say in where the money goes. WA is no Scandinavia with a solid culture of social equity that can manage much larger foreign entities, but an extraction economy open for the taking. The PRC, for example, would adore this country.

 

[FranzAncheNo]

Vast resources. Extraordinary quantities.

How about agriculture? Can it sustain the locals or are imports needed.
Edit: Found. It can.

 

[Riain]

Yeah, this. A lot of people here seem to be talking as if Western Australia is not just leaving Australia but also any relationship with its traditional allies and becoming completely isolated. This is nonsense. They didn't even intend to leave the British empire. There is no reason for the Japanese to be any more able to conquer them than in otl.

Within a couple of years of Federation the Dominion of Australia had purchased a 2nd tier navy and had a 50,000+ man militia to bring to the table in WW1. Is WA going to be able to do the same from 1933-34? If not it becomes a Protectorate or some other subservient type of relationship rather than a Dominion.

As for the help in WW2, Britain, Australia and the US will have their own problems to contend with before helping WA.

The point of all this is that succeeding from Australia ins't simply a matter of having a vote then a secession party with a few beers, particularly in 1933. If WA can't being anything to the table other than gold mines it is going to be a subservient colony, indeed Britain might make it an Australian protectorate along the lines of PNG.

 

[Samm]

Within a couple of years of Federation the Dominion of Australia had purchased a 2nd tier navy and had a 50,000+ man militia to bring to the table in WW1. Is WA going to be able to do the same from 1933-34? If not it becomes a Protectorate or some other subservient type of relationship rather than a Dominion.

As for the help in WW2, Britain, Australia and the US will have their own problems to contend with before helping WA.

The point of all this is that succeeding from Australia ins't simply a matter of having a vote then a secession party with a few beers, particularly in 1933. If WA can't being anything to the table other than gold mines it is going to be a subservient colony, indeed Britain might make it an Australian protectorate along the lines of PNG.

They won't be helping it due to benevolence. They will help it because they are at war with Japan and there not going to allow Japan to seize such a place if they can possibly hep it. After even in otl its not like Australia could have stood up to Japan on its own. As for PNG remember that WA is still white.