Jenny Gregory

Pretty good, with caveats. At just over 1,000 pages, this encyclopedia covers everything from medical research to Aboriginal culture, from environmentalism to sewing. Each article is written by a relevant person, including many academics, so there's a comprehensiveness despite their brevity, if that makes sense. As another reviewer has noted, there was apparently a significant errata slip issued with the original printing - which is certainly unfortunate, but given the book's length I don't think it speaks to any overall issues. Indeed, as a significant reference volume, the biggest "downside" is that this is not a history to necessarily be read through. It isn't all (or primarily) stories of the thrilling and eccentric residents. A two-page article on religious education or medical research will soberly present the facts, in all their detail. As one would hope!

2009 feels like the time when Western Australia was entering the next act, in the midst of a major mining boom and - in the era of internet, higher quality transport, and rising amenities like AirBnB - able to appeal to a broader base of tourists from Australia and South-East Asia than ever before given its geographic limitations. It was an era of major city building projects and further suburban expansion, which in 2024 seems to be ongoing, and allows for many fascinating entries on contemporary subjects, in addition to the older ones. All the same, I'd like to see a revised (and even chunkier version) of this in 10 years ago, as I think the changes in the state will have been significant during this period.

The advantage of being one of the (to be frank) less valued states in the federation has sometimes meant that there is more focus on chronicling our history and culture. It's rather like how those smaller European countries seem to have more buy-in to their folk traditions than the larger countries, or how people in a little English village remain defiantly proud of their odd little county fair. It's ours, thankyou, and we're not letting go of it. Not perfect, as no volume like this can ever be, but an immensely valuable resource to be cherished.… (more)

A sweet and sensible social history of Perth from 1950 to the start of the 2000s. Jenny Gregory is the writer of several commissioned histories related to Western Australia, but this is a cut above the rest. Although clearly commissioned by the Council or the Government, this is an independent work that seeks to discover the social and economic changes that overwhelmed the most isolated city in the world, changes that took it from an outpost with a population in the mid-100s of thousands to a 2 million metropolis fuelled by mining money and tourism.

Gregory's book sits consciously as a sequel to the pioneering work of CT Stannage in his "The People of Perth" and his broader history of Western Australia, and sits alongside Geoffrey Bolton's general history which covers the later 20th century from a political standpoint. Well worth it, with a great array of pictures too.… (more)