Western Australia embraces the western third of Australia. The Indian Ocean is to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to the south, South Australia, with its Northern Territory, to the east. It extends from 13° to 35° S. lat. and 113° to 129° E. long., being 1500 miles long by 1000 broad. The area is 1,060,000 sq. m., or 678,400,000 acres—i.e. nearly twenty times the size of England. While the central portions are stony or sandy, with the north and south coasts poor in soil, there is good land at the west and in the north-east. Less hilly than eastern Australia, it is not so well watered. The Darling Range, 300 miles in length, has few peaks of 3000 feet; Koikyeenerup, north of King George's Sound, is 3500 feet; and the King Leopold Mountains are north-east. Few rivers run in the dry season; the Swan, Blackwood, Murchison, Irwin, Gascayne, and Greenough are in the south-west, Fortescue, Ashburton, and De Grey north-west, Fitzroy and Glenelg north-east. Several shallow salt lakes are inland. The chief islands are Rottnest, near the Swan River; Dirk Hartog, off Shark's Bay; the Abrolhos Guano Isles, west; Dampier Archipelago, north-west; Buccaneer Archipelago, north-east; Nuyt's Archipelago, south-east. Besides the south-western counties, there are the western Gascayne division, the north-west division, the eastern division, the north-eastern Kimberley division, and the southern Eucla division. Perth, the capital, has Fremantle for its port. Albany, on King George's Sound, is south-east of Perth; Bunbury, south-west; Geraldton,
Guildford, and Northampton are north; York, Northam, and Beverley, east. Carnarvon is the Shark's Bay port of the Gascoyne. Roebourne and Cossack are east of North-west Cape. Broome, Derby, and Wyndham are in the north-east division. Eucla port is in the extreme south-east.
The climate is, from its dryness, brightness, and freedom from miasma, much admired, though the north and north-west are less comfortable than the south-west, from excessive heat. The tropical interior has considerable cold on winter nights. Perth, during a year, varied from 38° to 106° in the shade; Cossack, 50° to 115°; Albany, 40° to 80°. The wet season south of Shark's Bay is in winter; north of it, in summer, or December to April. Cyclones often mark the changes. The average annual rainfall in Perth is 33 inches. In the wet year 1890, however, it was 47; Bunbury, 53; Cossack, 8. The trade-winds bring little rain to the northern coast.
In the geology two features are prominent, granite and recent limestone. The first prevails about King George's Sound, the north-west and north-east ranges, and in many parts of the desert interior. Paleozoic rocks crop out in the mountains; they are chiefly Silurian, and are much metamorphosed in the mining districts. The tablelands of Kimberley and about the Ashburton are of Devonian age. Carboniferous country is recognised by Stigmaria and Lepidodendron, though there are coal-measures of Mesozoic type, and non-caking coal of good quality is being dug between Bunbury and Albany. Workable beds exist on the Collie, Murchison, Gascoyne, and Irwin rivers. Tablelands, so common inland, are of sandstone, one kind older than the other. The flat-topped hills of the north are not conformable with the Carboniferous sandstones beneath. The desert sandstone, disintegrating, is the source of the red, shifting sand-dunes. Coralline limestone Tertiary formations abound around the coast. The limestone beneath the desert sandstone is rich in springs. Mesozoic fossils are Oolitic, Jurassic, and Lias; the Tertiary comprise the huge quadrupeds Dinotherium and Nototherium. Volcanic rocks are not uncommon, and Plutonic ones permeate the more ancient sedimentary strata.
Spaniards and Portuguese had the western and northern coasts in their maps about 1530. The Dutch re-discovered these parts. Dirk Hartog, in the ship Eendracht, was at Shark's Bay in 1616; Edel, north, 1619; De Witt, 1628; the ship Leeuwin or Lioness, 1622; the Gulde Zeepard, at the Swan and Nuytsland, 1627. Vlaming of the Geelvinck brought the black swan to Europe. Tasman sailed along the north in 1644. Dampier was there in 1688 and 1696; Vancouver, at the Sound, 1791; D'Entrecasteaux, 1792; Baudin, of the Géographie and Naturaliste, 1801; Flinders, 1801; King, 1820-22; the Beagle survey later. Captain Grey explored in 1838; Eyre, 1841; followed by Roe, Austin, A. and F. Gregory, John and A. Forrest, Warburton, &c. A temporary settlement was made from Sydney, at the Sound, in 1825. A private association in 1828 obtained land, on certain conditions, from the government, and established themselves at the Swan River in 1829. In that year a governor was appointed, but the crown-colony made little progress till 1839. Transportation hither ceased in 1867; but responsible government was granted only in 1890. The population at end of 1891 (without reckoning some thousands of aborigines) was 53,285; in 1898 it was estimated at 162,500. The revenue in 1891 was £497,670, and in 1897, £2,843,775; while the expenditure was £3,236,044. The debt is over £7,600,000.
The natural history is not unlike that of the rest of Australia, though some quadrupeds are peculiar, as the peragalea or native rabbit. The Moloch (q.v.) or mountain devil is an insect-feeding lizard. Alligators and turtles are found northward. The tarsipes is a peculiar honey-eating bird. The sea-mullet is preserved. Pearl-oyster beds are better off Cossack than at Shark's Bay. Trepang (q.v.), or bêche-de-mer, furnishes an export.
Baron von Mueller calls Western Australia the floral land. Timber of excellent quality abounds to the south-west, towards Cape Leeuwin. The jarrah, or mahogany, is the Eucalyptus marginata, which withstands white ants and ship-worms. The kari, or E. diversicolor, may be 100 feet to the first branch. The wandoo and tuart are hard white gums. York gums favour poor soil. The red gum, E. calophylla, yields much gum. The E. ficifolia displays a mass of crimson flowers. There are 150 acacias, of which the raspberry gum-tree is one. Sandalwood grows from Shark's Bay to the Bight. Poison plants may sometimes kill stock. The colony's vegetation is of the oldest type in Australia, and of far higher antiquity than that of Europe.
State aid is given to both schools and churches. The system in government schools is secular; in assisted schools, denominational. Higher education is aided by the state. While the average attendance at Church of England worship was 4820, it was 3880 at Roman Catholic, 3920 at Wesleyan, 1500 elsewhere.
There are six pastoral districts in the colony. The desert has some good oases. Pasturage land is leased by the government. Of 230,000 acres in crop, wheat and other cereals do well. The gardens have twenty-five sorts of fruits, grapes being fine and abundant. Land is sold in ten annual payments of 1s. per acre, subject to conditions of improvement. But the western portion only has moisture enough for ordinary husbandry.
Geraldine, in the Victoria district, had lead and copper mines in 1842. Tin, coal, and silver are also found; but the metal to which in late years 'Westralia' has owed most is gold, which began to attract attention about 1885. In 1886, 302 oz., of a value of £1147, were exported. In 1892 the value was £226,284; in 1893, £421,385; in 1894, £787,099; in 1895, £879,748; in 1896, £1,068,808; in 1897, £2,564,977. The total value of exports increased from £799,466 in 1891 to £3,940,098 in 1897—including wool, skins, timber, pearls, mother-of-pearl, gold, lead, and copper, sandalwood and eucalyptus oils, fruits, guano, dried fish, &c. Meanwhile the rapid growth of imports showed, in spite of some disappointments to gambling speculators, steadily increasing prosperity. The imports in 1891 had a value of £1,286,093, and in 1897 of £6,418,585. The length of railway increased from 200 miles to 1500, and there are 6000 miles of telegraph. Great efforts are being made to extend the railways by means of land grants. Camels help to serve in transport to the less accessible regions. Gold reefs extend over 1200 miles. Coolgardie and Kalgoorlie are great centres. Western Australia, after some hesitation, joined in 1900 with the other Australian colonies to form the Commonwealth of Australia.
See, besides the annual year-books and blue-books, works on Western Australia by Favenc (1887), Calvert (1893), Mennell (2d ed. 1894), Hart (1894), Tiele (1894), and J. M. Price, The Land of Gold (1896).