Growing Roots

This book tells two intertwined stories in the development of Western Australia’s southwest: the conflicting interests of forests preservation and agricultural settlement, and the experiences of the timber industry’s immigrant workforce.In search of a better life for them and their families, Italians and Croatians who arrived in Western Australia from the 1920s through to 1970 took on whatever work was available, regardless of how remote, hard or dangerous. In the timber industry, they found themselves caught up in the tug-of-war between forests preservation and agricultural settlement - a conflict that raged for most of the interwar and early post-war period - and is still relevant today in terms of old-growth forests preservation. Through over 50 interviews with Italians and Croatians, the book draws a compelling picture of ongoing prejudice and exploitation they endured working in the southwest timber corridor. Pushed to the periphery of the labour market and enduring harsh living conditions, they nevertheless opened up Western Australia’s south-west for settlement. These early Italian and Croatian immigrants contributed to building its communities, growing roots throughout and beyond and earning their place among the early settlers who helped build this State.