Western Australia got its first constitution and Prime Minister, Sir John Forrest, many years later in the 1890s. By this time, the country was undergoing tremendous growth as gold had been discovered. In 1901, Western Australia moved from being an independent colony to a state of the Commonwealth of Australia and Perth became its capital.
This move brought increased importance to Perth that only continued after World War II as immigrants flocked to the city. New cultures were merged with the existing lifestyle and in the 1960s and 1970s, the face of the city also began to change with skyscrapers and modern apartment blocks being built.
