Qualla: Western Australia

Western Australia: Introduction

Sat, 28 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Fikri (talk) (Uploads), CC BY-SA 3.0. If Western Australia were a country, it would rank among the ten largest on Earth, bigger than Argentina, bigger than any nation in Europe or Africa, one and a half times the size of Alaska. Yet its three million residents cluster almost entirely in and around Perth, leaving the rest of this vast territory to a thin scatter of mining settlements, cattle stations, and small coastal towns where you can drive a hundred miles without seeing another soul. The state voted to secede from Australia in 1933, and a quarter of its population still likes the idea.

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Image: Fikri (talk) (Uploads) | CC BY-SA 3.0

Western Australia: The Most Isolated City

Sat, 28 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Teresa, CC BY-SA 4.0. Perth holds the strange distinction of being one of the most remote large cities in the world. Adelaide, the nearest Australian city of any size, lies more than 2,000 kilometers to the east across the Nullarbor Plain. Until the Trans-Australian Railway was completed in 1917, the ...

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Image: Teresa | CC BY-SA 4.0

Western Australia: From Dutch Sails to Gold Dust

Sat, 28 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Public domain. The first European to sight Western Australia was the Dutch explorer Dirk Hartog, blown off course in 1616 while heading for Jakarta. Other Dutch ships followed in the next decade, but finding nothing worth exploiting, they left as quickly as they came. The British and French beg...

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Image: Public domain

Western Australia: A Landscape of Extremes

Sat, 28 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit user:S19991002, CC BY 3.0. The state spans every Australian climate zone: monsoonal tropics in the Kimberley, Mediterranean warmth around Perth and Margaret River, temperate forests in the southwest, and the vast arid interior that dominates the map. The Kimberley's Bungle Bungle formations in Purnululu Na...

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Image: user:S19991002 | CC BY 3.0

Western Australia: Boom, Bust, and the Ore Beneath

Sat, 28 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Calistemon, CC BY-SA 4.0. Mining is what fuels Western Australia's economy, and mining is what makes the state contentious. Iron ore from the Pilbara, gold from Kalgoorlie, nickel, lithium, and natural gas have generated enormous wealth, transforming Perth into a city of glass towers and waterfront restau...

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Image: Calistemon | CC BY-SA 4.0

Western Australia: The Long Drive In

Sat, 28 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Melchisédech Thévenot, Public domain. There are only two sealed roads into Western Australia. In the south, the Eyre Highway crosses the Nullarbor Plain from Adelaide, a minimum three-day drive through extraordinarily barren country that includes the longest stretch of straight road on the continent. In the north, th...

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Image: Melchisédech Thévenot | Public domain