Western Australia Travel
Western
Australia is the largest
Australian state, occupying the
western third of the continent. The
large majority of the the 2 million
inhabitants live on the Southwestern
area in or close to Perth, its
capital and the most isolated city of
this size on Earth.
Beyond that, Western Australia's vast wilderness is very sparsely populated, with only a handful of townships over a few thousands residents. The state's main attraction resides precisely in its overall remoteness and huge expanses of untouched scenery. Western Australia is a huge monster sized state encompassing various climatic zones (from the moonsonal and tropical north, to the temperate and mediterranean South, and the desert and barren inland).
In the far North, the remote Kimberley is a huge chunk of wilderness with astounding scenery. The Pilbara is a (hot) mining region, very lightly populated, with various natural attractions that are worth the stop. The coast of the Gascoyne in the middle of the State offers various wonders: the Ningaloo Reef is far to be as famous as the Great Barrier Reef, but it easily equals or surpasses it in beauty, and Shark Bay is a UNESCO world heritage site. The Western coast has various surfing beaches. The closer to Perth, the more temperate the weather and hospitable the landscape.
A few hundred kilometers inland, the inner area of the state (technically divided between the Kimberley, Pilbara, Mid-West and Goldfields regions) is a huge remote barren desert with little to no population. This area encompasses fully several of the Australian deserts: the Great Sandy Desert, the Little Sandy Desert, the Gibson Desert, as well as parts of the Great Victoria Desert and the Tanami Desert. It is extremely challenging to access, and requires a lot of preparation. Western Australia Regions
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Apart of the Southwestern
coast, the majority of the land is
extremely old, eroded, flat, arid and
infertile. The population centers are
extremely isolated from one another, and
from the other populated zones of
Australia. This and the tough environment
may account for a more independant spirit
than the Eastern counterparts of the
state, and there have been several
referendums in the past where it was close
to actually become a separate country (in
1933, the population voted in majority
for secession, though no action was
taken).
The vastitude of the state is
certainly not to be underestimated when
planning your trip: the state is actually
larger than any of the European or African
countries (even larger than Denmark with
Greenland), and twice the size of Alaska.
Visiting anything else than Perth will
probably require some long driving.
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