Ken Colbung had been invited to perform on the didgeridoo; the Indigenous activist used the occasion to hand an eviction notice to the Governor of Western Australia, Sir Wallace Kyle.
The act was intended both as a reminder of Aboriginal land rights and dispossession, and a reference to the contemporary plight of the state's indigenous people.
Maritza Sayalero of Venezuela won the pageant; as numerous press people crowded close to photograph her, the catwalk collapsed.
[9] Some have noted the celebrations focused on its perpetuation of the "pioneer myth",[10] which "saw progress in terms of mineral development rather than social justice or environmental amenity".
In 1989 Bolton wrote that the WAY 79 celebrations: offered a sanitised version of the past.... Nobody tried to replicate the heat, the insects, the dysentery, the alcoholism, the boredom and the discomfort which were so intimate a part of daily life in the Swan River Colony.
[11] The Education Department produced Western Australia: An atlas of human endeavour to provide schools with an up-to-date list of achievements by the state and its people, with graphics and accurate maps.
[citation needed] Rather than being simply a collection of maps, like a traditional atlas, the atlas of human endeavour presents descriptive text and photographs illustrating the changes over time since the initial European settlement, in four broad categories: It includes extensive usage of historical geography, such as historical maps and photographs, for comparison with those of the contemporary landscape: The maps, photographs and text in this atlas present a story of discovery, exploration and economic and social development.The front and rear covers of the book are false colour images created by processing satellite imagery from Landsat 1 and 2.
[17] The atlas includes gazetteers and bibliographies - at some divergence from the Sesquicentenary Celebrations Series editions that lacked indexes and adequate reference materials.
[12][18] One hundred and fifty commemorative plaques were installed along St Georges Terrace, Perth,[19][20] honouring notable figures in Western Australia's history.