State of Western Australia, Australia — Towns & Travel Guide

What is State of Western Australia known for?

Western Australia fills the western third of the continent, and Perth is its capital and by far its largest city, sitting on the Swan River near the state's south-western corner. The rest is famous for what lies far from that one corner. Iron-red gorges cut the Pilbara in the north, the Kimberley folds into sandstone ranges above it, and the Nullarbor Plain runs flat and treeless to the cliffs of the Southern Ocean in the south-east.

Off the north-west coast, Ningaloo Reef fringes the shore for hundreds of kilometres.

Where is State of Western Australia?

Western Australia is the westernmost state of the continent, and it covers the entire western third of it. That makes it the largest of the country's states by a wide margin. The Indian Ocean runs the whole length of its northern and western shores, so almost all of the state's populated coast faces open water toward Africa and Asia.

Land borders exist on only two sides. The Northern Territory meets it in the north-east and South Australia in the south-east, both drawn as long straight lines through the desert rather than following any river or ridge. Most of the interior is dry.

The Great Sandy Desert and the Gibson Desert fill the centre, and the Nullarbor Plain stretches east across bare limestone until it drops to the Southern Ocean in a wall of coastal cliffs. Iron-red gorges and mineral ranges scar the Pilbara across the near north, while the Kimberley rises above it in sandstone country cut by deep river gorges. The green corner is small and south-western.

There the Swan River reaches the Indian Ocean at Perth and Fremantle, and the wine and forest country runs south from there toward Margaret River. Ningaloo Reef fringes the coast far up the north-west. The distances between all of these are vast.

What is State of Western Australia like?

The state's culture is split between one crowded corner and an enormous, thinly peopled rest. Perth holds most of it. The Noongar people are the traditional owners of the whole south-west, and their country reaches from the Swan River south through the forests and the coast to Margaret River.

Their language names the land here. Rottnest Island, a short ferry hop off Fremantle, is Wadjemup to the Noongar, and its story carries both the modern holiday coast and a hard colonial past as an Aboriginal prison. Away from the south-western corner the culture is that of the outback and the coast.

In the far north the Kimberley and the Pilbara are Aboriginal country of a different kind, older rock art and open desert distances. Mining and the sea shape daily life across the state, from the iron ranges inland to the fishing and pearling towns of the north-west shore. Margaret River has grown a wine-and-surf identity of its own down south.

The gap between the packed south-west and the empty north is the defining fact of life here. People measure trips in days of driving, not hours.

What is the history of State of Western Australia?

British settlement began at the Swan River in 1829, when James Stirling founded the Swan River Colony that grew into Perth and its port at Fremantle. For decades the colony was small and slow. Everything changed with gold.

The strikes at Kalgoorlie in 1893 pulled tens of thousands of prospectors across the desert and quadrupled the population within a decade. That new wealth carried a reluctant colony into the federation of 1901, when Western Australia joined the other colonies to form the country as its westernmost state.

What is the climate of State of Western Australia?

The climate splits along the length of the state. Perth and the south-western corner run Mediterranean, with hot dry summers and wet mild winters carried in off the Indian Ocean. The vast centre is desert, baking and almost rainless across the Great Sandy Desert and the Nullarbor Plain.

Up north the Kimberley and the Pilbara are tropical, swinging between a long dry season and a monsoon wet that can flood the gorges. Distance changes everything here. A single day's drive can cross from vineyard weather to true desert heat.

How do you get to State of Western Australia?

Almost everyone flies into Perth. Perth Airport is the only airport in the state with regular international flights, linking the corner to Asia, the Gulf, Africa and Europe across the Indian Ocean. Coming overland means a long haul.

The Indian Pacific railway crosses the Nullarbor Plain from Adelaide and Sydney to reach Perth, a journey of days rather than hours. Once inside the state, the distances are so great that reaching the Kimberley or the Pilbara from Perth is usually a second flight rather than a drive.