This website is about Western Australia, including the people places, events, activities and organisations that create communities. Contact us if you manage a not-for-profit community based organisation that would benefit from exposure through this website.

Visiting Western Australia is ideal for those who are seeking an adventure holiday. The vast majority of the state is still pristine as nature intended, especially in the north and the east where there are often no roads, towns or people to be found for hundreds of kilometres in any direction. The south west of the state is somewhat less wild, although travelling the long distances between some adjacent towns along roads that wind through vast forests, provides many opportunities to commune with nature.

Western Australia is the largest state in Australia, and is larger than Texas, the UK and Ireland combined. Distances between locations outside the Perth Metropolitan Region are often huge, with only relatively small populations living in many areas of the state.

Once upon a time in the West - A surfing adventure

Video © B2iPoynter. Courtesy of YouTube.

West Australians mostly live outdoor lifestyles and participate in broad ranges of physical activities and events, including sport, cultural activities and exploring the state.

An overview
The state enjoys clear blue skies and moderate temperatures for most days of the year. Temperatures in the far north can be very high in the middle of summer, although are cooler at other times of the year.

Ranging from the far north of the state to the far south, Western Australia has a wide variety of climates and environments. The far northern areas of the state are tropical, while the southern areas are temperate. The distance by road from  Kununurra, located near the remote far north-east coast of the state to Esperance located on the far south-east coast is 3946 kilometres via Perth. In between these two extremes are towns and cities which range from the world famous tropical resort of Broome to remote outback towns such as Halls Creek, active mining towns such as Newman and ghost towns such as Coolgardie, plus modern metropolitan cities such as Perth and the charming historical cities of Fremantle and Albany.

Away from the main population centres, lush green agricultural areas such as Harvey, and wheatbelt towns such as York and Merredin dot the broad landscape. In the far south western area of the state the popular coastal towns of Margaret River and Dunsborough provide access to world-class surfing beaches, while the south coast towns of Augusta, Walpole and Denmark enable visitors to experience beautiful scenery and peaceful solitude in remote oceanside, farmland and unspoiled forest settings.

To the east, along the south coast of the state is the historic city of Albany, while further to the east lie the remote towns of Ravensthorpe and Esperance. Even further to the east, far along the long straight road to South Australia the small town of Eucla is located on the Nullarbor Plain.

Western Australia consists of all the areas of the Australian continent that lie to the west of the 129th meridian. The total land area covered by the state is 2,645,615 square kilometres (or 1,021,478 sq miles) and the state boasts a coastline which is in total more than 12,000 kilometres (8,000 miles) long.

The resident population of Western Australia is approximately 2.2 million (June 2010), most of who live within the Perth Metropolitan region. The population of the state continues to grow steadily by approximately 3% per year. Most of this growth originates from eastern states and overseas migration into the state.

To the north of Broome is the vast and untamed Kimberley region, where the rocky coastline is deeply indented by gulfs, bays and inlets and rugged granite bluffs dominate the landscape. The opportunities for fishing and sightseeing around the Kimbeley coastline are legendary.

South west of Broome and running south for hundreds of kilometres, are some of the most magnificent, unspoiled sandy beaches to be found anywhere in the world. For more than two thousand kilometres the low-lying coastline rises barely more than a few metres above sea level.

This idyllic scene is broken only by rocky outcrops around Cape Leeuwin on the far south-west coast. The coastline then continues eastward along the south coast, broken in places by rocky outcrops such as those found near Albany. Then, far to the east, close to the border with South Australia and continuing for hundreds of kilometres beyond, magnificent limestone cliffs soar like castle ramparts more than two hundred feet above the Southern Ocean.

Inland to the north of Broome lies a region of alternating high and low plateaus stretching for thousands of square kilometres in the Kimberly region, a magnificent remote land of spectacular, rugged granite mountains and deep valleys.

Traveling inland south from Broome, a vast uninhabited plateau stretches away to the distant horizons. In some locations this great inland plateau comes to within 30 or 40 kilometres of the western coast, producing high escarpments which plunge steeply down to the coastal plains below. The inland plateau covers the majority of the state and continues eastward all the way to the borders with the Northern Territory and South Australia, and beyond. Toward the south east of the state this plateau rises to an elevation of more than 1000 feet above sea level. Combined with the erosive actions of the Southern Ocean, this elevated plateau has produced the spectacular cliffs which reach all the way to the South Australian border and beyond, along the Great Australian Bight.

The eastern interior of the state consists mostly of arid deserts and low scrub. Rainfall gradually increases when moving to the west of the deserts into the vast although sparsely populated central wheatbelt region. This area is responsible for substantial grain production and exports to overseas markets. Also, substantial areas in the north of the state are dedicated to the grazing of sheep and cattle, these range from locations in which high to modest rainfall is experienced, to arid regions where a single cattle station can be the size of a small European country.

Mineral exploration and extraction are the major economic activities in the northern and eastern regions of the state, with gold, diamonds, iron ore and a broad range of other minerals extracted for export to international markets. Also, offshore oil and gas exploration and extraction industries hold promises of vast mineral wealth in the future.

Tourism is an increasingly important industry in Western Australia, with growing numbers of tourists from overseas and the eastern states arriving in the state each year.

The south west region of the state with its temperate climates, higher rainfall, mild winters and pleasant summers is the main population centre and provides ideal conditions for comfortable living and outdoor activities. The majority of West Australians live and work within a region located between Geraldton on the mid west coast, Esperance on the south-east coast and Augusta located on the far south west corner of the Australian continent, plus the Great Southern coastal region lying between Albany and Augusta. These south west regions, although similar in area to the size of England, cover only a small part of this vast state.

The majority of West Australians, of who there are fewer than two and a half million live and work within the Perth metropolitan region. However, there are growing trends toward living and working in the less populated although very popular south western and central western coastal areas of the state.

The time in Western Australia