Auralia was a proposed colony that would have been formed out of the south-eastern portion of the colony of

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...

in the early twentieth century, and would have joined the newly formed

Commonwealth of Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of , Australia is the largest country by ...

. The name, meaning 'golden' in

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

, denotes the gold industries that were alive at the time and which helped foment the ideas of

secession Secession is the withdrawal of a group from a larger entity, especially a political entity, but also from any organization, union or military alliance. Some of the most famous and significant secessions have been: the former Soviet republics le ...

. The proposed colony would have comprised the

Goldfields Goldfield or Goldfields may refer to: Places * Goldfield, Arizona, the former name of Youngberg, Arizona, a populated place in the United States * Goldfield, Colorado, a community in the United States * Goldfield, Iowa, a city in the United State ...

, the western portion of the

Nullarbor Plain The Nullarbor Plain ( ; Latin: feminine of , 'no', and , 'tree') is part of the area of flat, almost treeless, arid or semi-arid country of southern Australia, located on the Great Australian Bight coast with the Great Victoria Desert to its ...

and the port town of Esperance. Its capital would have been Kalgoorlie. The push to secession was prompted by perceptions that the Western Australian colony under Sir John Forrest was parochial, self-serving and evasive towards federating the colony with the emerging Commonwealth. Many inhabitants in the goldfields had come to Western Australia from the other colonies in the previous decade when Kalgoorlie experienced a

gold rush A gold rush or gold fever is a discovery of gold—sometimes accompanied by other precious metals and rare-earth minerals—that brings an onrush of miners seeking their fortune. Major gold rushes took place in the 19th century in Australia, New ...

and their loyalties were thus not usually directed towards

Perth Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth i ...

. Sir John Forrest's efforts to secure concessions before fully supporting

federation A federation (also known as a federal state) is a political entity characterized by a union of partially self-governing provinces, states, or other regions under a central federal government ( federalism). In a federation, the self-govern ...

was alienating these new arrivals. Eventually the proposal was dropped when Western Australia joined the federation in 1901. The name ''Auralia'' was used by a journalist writing in the ''

Coolgardie Miner The ''Coolgardie Miner'' (18 April 1894 – 16 June 1911) was a weekly newspaper established in Coolgardie, Western Australia, at a time when Coolgardie was the prominent town in the goldfields region of Western Australia. The subsequent publi ...

'' after federation, and before the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. In the 1933 secession referendum, the Goldfields was the only region of Western Australia to be against secession, instead arguing for a constitutional convention.

References

{{coord missing, Western Australia History of Western Australia Proposed states and territories of Australia Nullarbor Plain Separatism in Australia

See also

References