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Western Australia

Western Australia is a state occupying the entire western third of the Australian continent. The nation's largest state and the second largest subnational entity in the world, it has 2.1 million inhabitants (10% of the national total), 85% of whom live in the south-west corner of the state. The people of Western Australia are often colloquially referred to as sandgropers, the common name of an insect found on sand dunes around Perth.

Geology

The bulk of Western Australia consists of the extremely old Yilgarn craton and Pilbara craton which merged with the Deccan of India, Madagascar and the Karoo and Zimbabwe cratons of Southern Africa, in the Archean Eon to form Ur, one of the oldest Supercontinents on Earth (3,200-3,000 million years ago). Because the only mountain-building since then has been of the Stirling Range with the rifting from Antarctica, the land is extremely eroded and ancient, with no part of the state above 1,245 metres (4,085 ft) AHD (at Mount Meharry in the Hamersley Range of the Pilbara region). Most parts of the state form a low plateau with an average elevation of about 400 metres (1,200 ft), very low relief, and no surface runoff. This descends relatively sharply to the coastal plains, in some cases forming a sharp escarpment (as with the Darling Range/Darling Scarp near Perth). The extreme age of the landscape has meant that the soils are remarkably infertile and frequently laterised. Even soils derived from granitic bedrock contain an order of magnitude less available phosphorus and only half as much nitrogen as soils in comparable climates in other continents. Soils derived from extensive sandplains or ironstone are even less fertile, being even more devoid of soluble phosphate and also deficient in zinc, copper, molybdenum and sometimes potassium and calcium.

Climate

The southwest coastal area is relatively temperate and was originally heavily forested, including large stands of the karri, one of the tallest trees in the world. This agricultural region of Western Australia is in the top nine terrestrial habitats for terrestrial biodiversity, with a higher proportion of endemic species than most other equivalent regions.

Thanks to the offshore Leeuwin Current the area numbers in the top six regions for marine biodiversity, containing the most southerly coral reefs in the world. Average annual rainfall varies from 300 millimetres (12 in) at the edge of the Wheatbelt region to 1,400 millimetres (55 in) in the wettest areas near Northcliffe, but in the months of November to March evaporation exceeds rainfall, and it is generally very dry. Plants must be adapted to this as well as the extreme poverty of all soils. A major reduction in rainfall has been observed, with a greater number of rainfall events in the summer months.

The central four-fifths of the state is semi-arid or desert and is lightly inhabited with the only significant activity being mining. Annual rainfall averages about 200 to 250 millimetres (8–10 in), most of which occurs in sporadic torrential falls related to cyclone events in summer months. An exception to this is the northern tropical regions. The Kimberley has an extremely hot monsoonal climate with average annual rainfall ranging from 500 to 1,500 millimetres (20–60 in), but there is a very long almost rainless season from April to November. Eighty-five percent of the state's runoff occurs in the Kimberley, but because it occurs in violent floods and because of the insurmountable poverty of the generally shallow soils, the only development has taken place along the Ord River.

Occurrence of snow in the state is rare, and typically only in the Stirling Range near Albany, as it is the only mountain range far enough south and with sufficient elevation. More rarely, snow can fall on the nearby Porongurup Range. Snow outside these areas is a major event; it usually occurs in hilly areas of southwestern Australia. The most widespread low-level snow occurred on 26 June 1956 when snow was reported in the Perth Hills, as far north as Wongan Hills and as far east as Salmon Gums.

However, even in the Stirling Range, snowfalls rarely exceed 5 cm (2 in) and rarely settle for more than one day. The highest observed maximum temperature of 50.5 °C (122.9 °F) was recorded at Mardie, Pilbara, 61.6 kilometres (38.3 mi) from Barrow Island on 19 February 1998.[10] The lowest minimum temperature recorded was -7.2 °C (19.0 °F) at Eyre Bird Observatory, 49 km (30 mi) south of Cocklebiddy.

History

The first inhabitants of Australia arrived from the north approximately 40,000 to 60,000 years ago. Over thousands of years they eventually spread across the whole landmass. These Indigenous Australians were well established throughout Western Australia by the time of European explorers began to arrive in the early seventeenth century. The first European to visit Western Australia was a Dutch explorer, Dirk Hartog who on 26 October 1616 landed at (what is now known as) Cape Inscription, Dirk Hartog Island. For the rest of the 17th century there were many other Dutch travellers who also, usually unintentionally, encountered the coast. By the late 18th century, British and French sailors had also begun to explore the Western Australian coast.

The origins of the present state began with the establishment of a British settlement at King George Sound in 1826 (later named Albany from 1832). The settlement was founded in response to British concerns about the possibility of a French colony being established on the coast of Western Australia. In 1829, the Swan River Colony was established on the Swan River by Captain James Stirling. By 1832, the British settler population of the colony had reached around 1,500.

The two separate townsites of the colony developed slowly into the port city of Fremantle and the state's capital, Perth. Population growth was very slow until significant discoveries of gold were made in the 1890s around Kalgoorlie. In 1887, a new constitution was drafted, providing for the right of self-governance and in 1890, the act granting self-government to the colony was passed by the British House of Commons. John Forrest became the first Premier of Western Australia.

In 1896, the Western Australian Parliament authorised the raising of a loan to construct a pipeline to transport five million gallons of water per day to the goldfields of Western Australia. The pipeline, known as the Goldfields Water Supply Scheme, was completed in 1903. C.Y. O'Connor, Western Australia’s first engineer-in-chief, designed and oversaw the construction of the pipeline. It carries water 530 km (330 miles) from Perth to Kalgoorlie, and is attributed by historians as an important factor driving the state's population and economic growth. Following a campaign led by Forrest, residents of the Swan River Colony voted in favour of federation, resulting in Western Australia officially becoming a state on 1 January 1901.

This page has been sited from wikipedia.org