White Western Australia continued

Between the wars 1918-1939

The gold rush of the 1890s had brought a wide diversity of people to Western Australia including Italians, Dalmatians, Croatians, Norweigans and Germans.  These groups continued to arrive in Western Australian in small numbers in the early twentieth century.  While some European migrants were tolerated by the mainly British population of the State, most Western Australians believed their society should remain exclusively white and British.

Racial tensions in Western Australia led to riots in Broome in 1920, followed by a race riot in Kalgoorlie in 1934 where Australians from a British background attacked Italian and Slav born residents and their property. During the first part of the twentieth century some migration from European countries continued, in spite of ethnic tensions.  In a White Western Australia these migrants were tolerated, if not accepted by all Anglo-Australians in the years between the wars.