Location : Western Third Of Mainland Australia.

Capital City : Perth.

Size : 2,525,500 Square Kilometres (975,097 Square Miles).  The Largest State.

Length Of Coastline : 12,500 Kilometres (7,667 Miles)

Highest Point : Highest Point : Mount Meharry (1,245 Metres or  4085 Feet)

Average Annual Temperatures - Perth :

January Maximum - 29.7 Degrees Celsius or 85.5 Degrees Fahrenheit.
July Maximum - 17.4 Degrees Celsius or 63.3 Degrees Fahrenheit.

Average Annual Rainfall - Adelaide : 868 Millimetres or 34.7 Inches

Western Australia makes up about one third of the Australian mainland.  Until claimed by the British in 1829, it was basically free land, with only the original inhabitants living there.  At that point, Australia consisted of, New South Wales, (which made up the Eastern two thirds of the continent) Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania), and Western Australia.  For many years Western Australia was basically isolated from the Eastern part of Australia, and residents did at one time consider secession from the Commonwealth.  An example of just how ludicrous the situation was, is that a telegraph station was built on the South Australian/West Australian border, (Called Eucla).  Telegraph messages from East to West or West to East would be sent as far as Eucla (in Morse Code), where they would be de-coded and written.  The message was then handed through a hole in the wall separating the two States, and re-sent by another telegraph officer to its eventual destination.

Perth is the second fastest growing city in Australia (after Brisbane - Queensland), and they too have issues with infrastructure and water supplies to meet the booming demand.  Much of Perth and its suburbs are  built on a sandy plateau, between the Darling Ranges to the East and the Indian Ocean.  There is also a large heavy industry area south of Perth.

Main industries include timber in the far South West, and some of the world's largest trees are grown in this area.  Also the South is well known for its fruit growing areas.

There is a large Cray fishing (Lobster) industry but the best seem to be always destined for export, and the locals have to accept the "leftovers".  I have seen Cray fish that have weighed about 1.6 kilograms (3.5 pounds), an believe me, it takes quite an effort to eat one of those.

From an area about one third North up the coast to about half way East along the coast, that corner is utilised for grain growing and sheep farming.  As with all farming areas, they depend very much on natural rainfall, and sometimes it can be a number of years, in between, before the farmers have a "good season".  In the Northern parts of the State, there are large cattle stations (ranches), as is the case with much of Northern Australia, from the West coast to the East.  Beef exports make up a large portion of Australia's export market, together with wheat and wool. (although wool is not as great as it once was with the introduction of synthetic fabrics).

Basically the Eastern half of Western Australia is desolate and waterless, with the Nullarbor Plain in the South and the Gibson Desert in the Mid North.  Very little is done on the Gibson Desert, but there is an attempt to raise sheep on the Nullarbor Plain.  However, both the lack of water and the sparse feed make this a difficult task,  and whereas in Victoria, a land owner might calculate the number of sheep he has per square kilometre, on the Nullarbor Plain, it is calculated as the number of square kilometres per sheep. (Example - Victorian property might be 100 square kilometres or 39 square miles ; and they might be able to sustain 5 sheep per square kilometre, therefore they could run 500 sheep.  On the Nullarbor Plain, they might need 10 square kilometres or 3.9 square miles to sustain one sheep, therefore to run 500 sheep would take a land area of 5,000 square kilometres or 1,930 square miles)

The Nullarbor Plain also boasts the longest straight stretch of railway line in the world. (over 480 kilometres or 300 miles), and one of the longest straight stretches of road in the world.  (180 kilometres or 112 miles).  When driving on this section at night, you can see a vehicles headlights about half an hour before you actually see the vehicle.  The road from East to West was not completely sealed until 1975, and this prevented a lot of interstate travel.  The journey was long and arduous and undertaken by relatively few people.   For more on the Nullarbor Plain, see my Australian Towns Section.

Western Australia is an extremely mineral rich State, which began with the discovery of gold in the area now known as the Eastern Goldfields.  Gold was found in a number of areas, but the main ones were, Coolgardie, Kalgoorlie, Boulder, Leonora and Norseman.  The goldfields of Kalgoorlie and Boulder are known as the richest square mile of land in the world, ("The Golden Mile") and billions of dollars of gold has been recovered from that area.  Norseman to the South, has the longest owned gold mine in Australia, and gold is still being recovered from those areas, over one hundred years since it was first discovered.  In the mid 1960's nickel ore was discovered south of Kalgoorlie, and a completely new town was built.  A nickel smelter has also been built at Kalgoorlie.  An interesting side line to the discovery of gold, was at Leonora, where the main mining company was known as "The Sons Of Gwalia" gold mine.   At one time, the manager of "The Sons Of Gwalia" was none other than Herbert Hoover, who went on to become the thirty first President of the United States Of America (1929 - 1933).  For more on the Eastern Goldfields see my Australian Towns section.

Also in the 1950's and 1960's extremely large deposits of iron ore were found in the Hammersley Ranges, in an area known as the Pilbara.  This opened up a whole new export market, and a number of new towns were built.  Existing ports were modified to allow the loading of the ore for export, and millions of tons of iron ore is exported annually.  The trains carrying the ore from the mine sites to the ports can be up to three kilometres (1.9 miles) long, and the equipment used in the mines is some of the largest in the world.  The deposits are expected to last many years, so that area will have a long term impact on both Western Australia, and the Australian economy overall.

In the 1980's two men (both now deceased) who could see that there was an incredible amount of raw material being exported overseas, from the Queensland coal fields and the Western Australian iron ore deposits suggested that a new railway be built across Australia, linking the Queensland coal fields, to the Western Australian iron ore fields.  A smelter would be built at either terminus, and the trains would carry coal from East to West and iron ore from West to East in order to keep both smelters supplied with their respective raw materials.  This would allow Australia to then export iron in a processed form, which would bring a higher price on the international market.  It would also greatly increase employment opportunities for Australians, not only at the rail heads, but all along the proposed railway.  However the idea was given little credence and never saw fruition.

Another idea that was attempted in the 1950's and 1960's was the building of a dam on the Ord River in the State's far North.  The idea was that the water would be used to irrigate crops to be grown in the area.  Although the dam has been built, the growing of crops has basically been a failure, due mainly to natural wildlife destroying the crops.   The dam itself holds more water than Sydney Harbour, and in the last few years there has been discussion of building a pipeline to move that water South to Perth, for use in the mainly populated areas, but that idea has still to be decided on.

Port Headland, on the Pilbara coast also has Australia's second immigration detention centre.  Situated off North West Cape (Exmouth Gulf) is a Top Secret American Base and very little is known about it by the general population.

With the opening of the sealed road from East to West in 1975, the opening of a single gauge railway line (which ended the need to constantly change trains), and the falling in the costs of air travel, more and more people are now visiting Western Australia, especially in the springtime when the State literally comes alive with wildflowers.  Western Australia is known as "The Wild Flower State".  There are many beautiful tourist places to visit within Western Australia, and some of the most common are :-
The South West - Huge forests and trees that seem to disappear into the sky.  You can actually climb some of the trees which are used as fire lookouts, but that is not for the faint hearted.  The main species of trees are Karri, Wandoo and Jarrah.
Beaches : Despite claims by other States Western Australian boasts some of Australia's best beaches.  Along the North West coast is a beach that is simply known as "Eighty Mile Beach". I think that speaks for itself.
Monkey Mia - Wild dolphins come in to be hand fed daily.
Kalbarri - Basically the home of the Cray fishing (Lobster) industry, but a beautiful place to visit and relax.
North West - Pilbara : An area of extreme beauty.  Some simply out of this world natural gorges, many filled with water and a photographer's delight.
Broome And North West : The home of Australia's pearl industry.  Also fast becoming a very popular tourist destination. : An incredible thing about this area is the movement of the tides. The difference between high tide and low tide can be as much as 24.5 metres or 80 feet. That's a long way out at low tide!

And of course if you have the time, a drive around the whole of Australia following National Route Number One, which is finally sealed and basically follows the coastline.  A non stop trip around Australia takes at least a week, (not including Tasmania) so you will need some time if you plan to see things along the way.

Because Perth is basically built on sand, Western Australians are known throughout Australia as "Sand Gropers". They are very parochial and I know when I first left Western Australia in 1969, I thought there was no other place as good anywhere.  Now I am an ex "Sand Groper" who has become a "Banana Bender", although I have returned to Western Australia many times in the last thirty plus years.