Australia : her natural and industrial resources / MacDonald Gill (1946)

bit.ly/2H2scBw

‘Strange lack of iron in the West … The Pilbara Pastoral strike (Aboriginals across the region went on strike due to no wages) happened around this time, so the Aboriginal workers and their families mined locally and sold locally to make ends meet. That is, until it came to the attention of prominent white men that Aboriginals in WA couldn’t own land thus their claims and related paperwork were up the creek. Enter Lang Hancock and the subsequent mining boom.

How The West Was Lost by Don McLeod is a great starter book for anyone interested in this shitty bit of history of WA’