WA acquires Bussell Diaries for $80k

A series of personal journals owned by members of Western Australia's prominent Bussell family have been acquired by the State Government, along with National Cultural Heritage Account, the Shire of Busselton and Bussell family descendents for $80,000.

The collection will be eventually be housed in the State Library.

The full text of an announcement from Culture and the Arts minister Sheila McHale is pasted below

The life and times of Western Australia's prominent Bussell family as described in the Bussell Diaries will remain in WA following a successful bid by a consortium led by the State Library of Western Australia.

Culture and the Arts Minister Sheila McHale said the early colonial diaries, bought for $80,000, were extremely important records of a notable Australian family who were European settlers in the Swan River Colony.

"I am delighted the State has been able to obtain these important documents, which add a distinctive chapter to the Bussell story," Ms McHale said.

"The Bussell Diaries are the personal journals of members of the Bussell family from 1830 to the 1840s.

"The diaries include the details of the journey from England to the Colony, written by one of the Bussell women who arrived in 1833.

"It also includes the day-to-day life of the early Colony, the trials and tribulations of their settlement in the Augusta, Vasse and Geographe Bay regions and the development of the family property named Cattle Chosen."

Ms McHale said the Bussell Papers already held by the State Library of WA provided an outstanding record of the lives of settlers from 1830 onwards.

"The addition of the diaries to this collection provides a missing element to the Library's Bussell family collection," Ms McHale said.

"Items such as these are rarely offered for public sale, so we are pleased the diaries will be now kept in public collections in their home State."

State Library chief executive officer Margaret Allen said the Bussell Diaries were purchased by the State with the assistance of the National Cultural Heritage Account, the Shire of Busselton and the descendents of Frederick Aloysius Weld Bussell, son of Alfred and Ellen Bussell.

"The State Library would like to acknowledge and thank all the partners who assisted with the acquisition of these important papers," Ms Allen said.