WESTERN AUSTRALIA

state of western Australia, occupying that part of the continent most isolated from the major cultural centres of the east. Western Australia is bounded on the north by the Timor Sea, on the northwest and west by the Indian Ocean, and on the south by the Antarctic Ocean. To the east lie the deserts of the Northern Territory and South Australia. The state occupies one-third of the total area of the continent. The capital is Perth. Western Australia extends about 1,490 miles (2,400 kilometres) from the monsoonal, tropical north to the windswept coastal heaths of the far south. Much of the landscape consists of an ancient, gently undulating, low-lying plateau between about 1,000 and 2,000 feet (300 and 600 metres) above sea level. The plateau is characterized by infertile, deep-weathered soils and saline remnants of drainage systems that are thought to have been active some 40 to 60 million years ago. Most of the state is subarid, and the combination of low rainfall and high temperatures restricts most of the population, and agricultural activities, to the so-called comfortable portion southwest of a line drawn from north of Geraldton on the Indian Ocean to Esperance on the Southern Ocean. More than 70 percent of the population lives in Perth metropolitan region, which is the fourth largest metropolis in Australia. Perhaps the most isolated of the world's capital cities, Perth is closer in distance, time zone, and flying cost to Jakarta and Singapore than to Sydney. Area 975,100 square miles (2,525,500 square km). Pop. (1996) 1,726,095. Australia state of western Australia, occupying the part of the continent most isolated from the major cultural centres of the east. Western Australia is bounded on the north by the Timor Sea, on the northwest and west by the Indian Ocean, and on the south by the Antarctic Ocean. To the east lie the Northern Territory and South Australia. The state has an area of 975,100 square miles (2,525,500 square km), constituting one-third of the total area of the continent. Additional reading The best source of current data on the state is the Western Australian Year Book. Neil Jarvis (ed.), Western Australia: An Atlas of Human Endeavour, 2nd ed. (1986), contains an excellent series of thematic maps and accompanying text. The Sesquicentenary Celebrations Series comprises a number of authoritative contributions dealing with a wide range of topics, including J. Gentilli (ed.), Western Landscapes (1979), on land use; Ralph Pervan and Campbell Sharman (eds.), Essays on Western Australian Politics (1979); and Rex T. Prider (ed.), Mining in Western Australia (1979). George Seddon, Sense of Place: A Response to an Environment: The Swan Coastal Plain, Western Australia (1972), is readable and still informative. C.T. Stannage (ed.), A New History of Western Australia (1981), is a general history. F.K. Crowley, Australia's Western Third (1960, reissued 1970), is chronological and informative. J.S. Battye, Western Australia (1924, reprinted 1978), a 19th-century history, is still useful for political and constitutional issues. G.C. Bolton, A Fine Country to Starve In (1972), describes the state in the 1930s depression. C.T. Stannage, The People of Perth: A Social History of Western Australia's Capital City (1979), is largely 19th-century history. Arthur J. Conacher Geoffrey C. Bolton