Western Australia

I

Introduction

Western Australia, state in western Australia, bordered on the north by the Timor Sea, on the west by the Indian Ocean, on the south by the Indian Ocean and the Great Australian Bight, on the southeast by the state of South Australia, and on the northeast by the Northern Territory. Western Australia is the largest of Australia’s states, covering 2,525,500 sq km (975,100 sq mi), or almost one-third of Australia. The capital of Western Australia is Perth.

II

Land and Resources

Western Australia is a generally low-lying state, largely comprised of a plateau ranging from 300 to 600 m (1,000 to 2,000 ft) above sea level. Upland regions include the King Leopold Ranges in the far north, the Stirling Range in the far south, and the Hamersley and Carnarvon ranges in the state’s west central region. Western Australia’s highest point, Mount Meharry (1,245 m/4,085 ft), lies in the Hamersley Range. The state has 12,500 km (7,800 mi) of coastline, much of which is lined by broad coastal plains that extend inland to the central plateau. The southwestern coastal area is home to a fertile region called Swanland, but most of Western Australia is sandy and dry with little vegetation. Three large deserts, the northern Great Sandy, the central Gibson, and the southern Great Victoria, dominate vast tracts of the state’s inland regions. Each is characterized by extreme temperatures and scanty rainfall. Outside the deserts, the climate varies from tropical (hot and humid) in the north to temperate in the southwest. The state is a leading producer of iron ore, gold, industrial diamonds, wool, wheat, and alumina.

III

The People of Western Australia

Western Australia is the most sparsely settled of the Australian states and one of the world’s most sparsely settled regions. It has a population (2004) of 1,982,204, or 9.5 percent of Australia’s total population. The average population density is 0.8 persons per sq km (2.1 per sq mi). However, all but a tiny percentage of the population lives on the coast or in the inland mining settlements, leaving vast areas of the interior uninhabited. In 1991 Aboriginal Australians and Torres Strait Islanders numbered 41,779, or 2.6 percent of the state’s total.

Perth, situated on the estuaries of the Swan and Canning rivers on the southwestern coast, is the largest city as well as the capital of Western Australia. It is also Australia’s most isolated city, lying closer to Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia, than to Canberra, the capital of Australia. Fremantle, just south of Perth, is the chief port of Western Australia. Other important settlements are Bunbury, Geraldton, Albany, and Esperance, all of which are scattered along the southwestern and central coasts. Kalgoorlie-Boulder, in the southern interior, is the center of a major mining region; a pipeline brings water to the arid region from the Mount Charlotte Reservoir created by the Mundaring Weir, or dam, near Perth.

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IV

Economy

Western Australia’s economy has been the fastest growing in Australia since large-scale mining began in the 1960s. In the mid-1990s the state produced about 11 percent of the world’s iron ore, chiefly from the Pilbara region, making it one of the largest producers in the world. Huge diamond deposits were discovered in the Kimberley region in 1979, and by the mid-1990s Australia had become the world’s leading supplier of diamonds by volume and the sixth largest supplier by value. The state leads Australia in gold production; bauxite, nickel, and petroleum are also produced in significant quantities. Plentiful supplies of natural gas and coal have been discovered off Western Australia’s northwestern coast. The nearby, rapidly expanding economies of Southeast Asia are important consumers of Western Australia’s natural resources and other products.

Agriculture, forestry, and fishing also contribute significantly to the state’s economy. The principal crops are wheat, oats, barley, hay, potatoes, tobacco, and orchard fruits. Livestock includes sheep, cattle, pigs, and horses. Cultured pearls are raised on farms near the town of Broome, once a center for pearl and pearl-shell fishing. State forests and timber reserves cover about 283,300 hectares (about 7 million acres).

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