Boom time.
During the early 1840’s, Western Australia experienced it’s first economic boom. This was both contributed to and was fed by a sudden expansion in the settler population. Between 1837 and 1843 the European population in the colony increased by over 50% — The settler population doubled. While that may sound impressive, consider this: The total number of settlers in 1837 was only 2,025 men women and children. There might have been an additional sixty or seventy soldiers, but that was it for a land area…
