Approximately 40,000 people live in the Great Western Woodlands, centred mainly in and around the towns of Kalgoorlie-Boulder, Coolgardie, Norseman and Southern Cross. Mining and pastoralism are the main commercial activities but a growing tourism industry is also important to the regional economy. Kalgoorlie is the largest town, with around 30,000 people.
It is a busy center in the heart of Western Australia’s ‘Goldfields’ and is rich in mining heritage.
The discovery of gold at Southern Cross in 1888, Coolgardie and Dundas in 1892 and Kalgoorlie in 1893 triggered a mining boom that transformed the land and a radical impact on the population.
Within a decade, the region’s population had exploded to 50,000 people, the worlds longest water pipeline had been constructed, hundreds of mining companies had been floated on the London Stock exchange and over 50 towns had emerged around the Goldfields. Although some of these mines and towns were short lived, the industry is still an important economic asset today with many mines and exploration companies operating throughout the area.
Since first settlement by Europeans 100–150 years ago, the population and land use of the Great Western Woodlands has changed in many ways. One of the most distinct changes is in the distribution of people. In the early 19th century, Indigenous people were dispersed throughout the Woodlands, taking advantage of seasonal resources and playing an important role in the ongoing management of the land and its wildlife. Since the influx of miners, pastoralists, loggers and farmers to southern Western Australia in the late 1800s, however, the pattern has been for both Indigenous and non-Indigenous people to become concentrated in population centres.
One of the most striking facts regarding our relationship with the Great Western Woodlands is that fewer people now live ‘on-country’ and actively manage the region than at any time since its first permanent settlement thousands of years ago.
The question now is how we can effectively manage the natural values of this place with so few experienced and knowledgeable human custodians.
