[2] UWA's vice-chancellor, Hubert Whitfeld, believed that "Australian universities ought to publish very much more than they do", and established the Text Books Board in 1935 with support from academics Walter Murdoch and Fred Alexander.
Subsidised journals were published during the 1960s for UWA's departments, which were time-consuming for press staff and despite the subsidies, rarely met their costs.
The first work published was Blood Sweat and Welfare: A History of White Bosses and Aboriginal Pastoral Workers by Mary Anne Jebb.
[5] In 2001, the press selected the Eurospan Group to promote and distribute their books in the United Kingdom, Europe and the Middle East.
"[7] The press approached Australian university coordinators in creative writing courses for recommendations of the work of post-graduate students in PhDs and master's degrees.
[16] Kgshak Akec won for her manuscript Hopeless Kingdom[17] which was published in 2022 and went on to be shortlisted for the 2023 Miles Franklin Award.
[18] In November 2019 the University of Western Australia announced its plans to close UWA Publishing.