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Western Australian Government publications

This research guide provides advice about where to find and how to use Western Australian Government publications.

Online

Western Australian Parliamentary tabled papers are searchable through their website. You can choose to search current or past papers (only from 2000 onwards). There is also information here on categories of tabled papers, requirements for ministers for tabling reports and on how to obtain a report.

Some reports from the early parliamentary papers are available online through Trove, including:

Parliamentary papers 1870 - 1889: Parliamentary reports about the Indigenous community of Western Australia from this period are available online digitised by National Library of Australia -

Votes and proceedings of the Legislative Council during the session ...

1889 - 1958: Parliamentary reports about the Indigenous community of Western Australia from this period are available online digitised by National Library of Australia. The 1899 Report of the Commission appointed to inquire into the penal system of the colony is also available online in this collection -

Minutes and votes and proceedings of the Parliament ... with papers presented to both Houses.

Current Departmental Publications

You can access the publications of the three Parliamentary departments through the Parliament of Western Australia Department Publications webpage. 

Publication archive

Older publications are available through the Parliament of Western Australia publication archive:

  • Parliamentary Digest 1973 - 2012
  • Legislative Council annual reports 2004-05 to 2022-23 and strategic plans 2008 to 2021-22
  • Legislative Assembly annual reports 2004-05 to 2022-23
  • Parliamentary Service Department annual reports 2004-05 to 2022-23

Print

Use the online equivalents, e.g., Tabled papers  (from 2000), Departmental publications (Annual reports from 2004-2005. Parliamentary Digest from 1973 - 2012)  and Hansard (from 1870 to today) in preference to retrieving hardcopy material.

Parliamentary papers are contained within the following volumes:

NOTE: We don't hold the first volume 1870-71 in our collection, they are held by the State Library of Western Australia and the State Library of NSW

1870 - 1889

Votes and proceedings of the Legislative Council during the session... we hold 1872 - 1889

1891 - 1985

Minutes and votes and proceedings of the Parliament... with papers presented to both houses 

1985 to 2002
1985 to 2002 Journals and Printed papers of Parliament/ Western Australia (microform) Later issues published after 2002 also available online. Also available in printed format with the title "Votes and Proceedings of the Legislative Assembly
Also available in printed format with the title, Votes and Proceedings of the Legislative Assembly.

Indexes 

General index to the printed papers presented to the Legislative Council, 1870-1889, and to Parliament, 1890, to session I of 1908. 1908

General index to the printed papers presented to the Legislative Council 1870-1889 and to Parliament from the first session of the first Parliament to the third session of the eighteenth Parliament 1890-1946 / compiled by L.P. Hawley. 1948

General index to the papers presented to Parliament from the first session of the nineteenth Parliament to the first session of the twenty-second Parliament, 1947-1956 / compiled by the staff of the Library Board of Western Australia. 1959

James M. Fowler; First Australian Parliament; Member of Parliament, Western Australia

J M Fowler, Perth; H96.160/679/42.

James MacKinnon Fowler was a member of the first Parliament of the Commonwealth of Australia