In terms of politics, WA has a number of notable firsts, especially in relation to gender and Indigenous representation.
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Ernie Bridge, far right, in 1998.
Edith Cowan was the first Australian woman to be elected a member of parliament in 1921, winning the lower house seat of West Perth. Florence Cardell-Oliver became Australia’s first female cabinet minister in 1949. Carmen Lawrence was the first female state premier in Australia, pipping Joan Kirner in Victoria by about six months.
Ernie Bridge was the first Indigenous member of the WA parliament following him winning the seat of Kimberley in 1980. Mr Bridge also holds the honour of being the first Indigenous politician to hold a ministerial position in any Australian parliament.
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In 2011, Carol Martin, a proud Yamatji Naaguja and Noongar woman, became the first Indigenous woman elected to any Australian parliament. Ken Wyatt was the first Indigenous Australian to be elected to the House of Representatives, and was appointed to the front bench where he held the posts of assistant minister for health and then minister for Indigenous Australians.
In respect to firsts on the cultural front, WA is home to Australian first international arts festival, Perth Festival, which commenced in 1953 and has gone from strength to strength ever since.
Kay Goldsworthy. Credit: Tony McDonough
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Back in 1975 when Perth arguably was a big country town, it was also home to Australia’s first gay nightclub, Connections. Opened when homosexuality was still a criminal offence, Connections remains an iconic space for WA’s LGBTQIA+ community.
In another sign of our cultural progressiveness, Kay Goldsworthy became the first female bishop in 2008, and archbishop in 2018, in the Anglican Church of Australia.
And, in terms of innovation, WA is renowned for leading the way in health and medical research. For example, Professor Fiona Wood was instrumental in inventing spray-on skin to help burns victims. In 2005, Professor Barry Marshall and his Adelaide-based colleague Professor Robin Warren won the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for their research on what causes stomach ulcers.
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In an effort to prove their theory that bacteria caused ulcers, Professor Marshall discarded the idea of experimenting on pigs and instead became the guinea pig of his own research by swallowing a drink that contained the H. pylori bacteria. A seemingly reckless action at the time, but one that proved to be wholly accurate.
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In the red dust of WA, telescopes are already tuning in to the faint signals from the very edge of the universe.Credit: TREVOR COLLENS
WA is also leading the way in science and technological innovation when it comes to space exploration. The vastness and desert landscapes of WA are the perfect terrain for experimenting with remote-controlled and autonomous lunar vehicles. This has been made possible by the use of remote-controlled processes and autonomous vehicles and equipment in the mining industry.
And WA’s geography means we’re home to one of two of the world’s most powerful radio-telescopes, the Square Kilometre Array in the Murchison region.
WA, then, can be seen not just as a frontier state, but a state at the frontier of space exploration.
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So, this WA Day, let us throw off the cultural cringe of “Wait Awhile” and embrace the idea that WA is “Where it’s At!”
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