Western Australia

Western Australia, Australia's largest state, covers one-third of the Australian continent. The Western Australian coastline (12,500 kilometres or 7,813 miles) has white sandy beaches and pristine coastline - popular with tourists looking for adventure. See some of the tours and activities available here.

To the east is desert, the goldfields, and the long trek across the Nullarbor to South Australia and Adelaide. The Indian Pacific travels from Perth to Adelaide to Sydney (Indian Ocean to Pacific Ocean) and is one of the worlds longest and greatest train journeys. The journey covers 4352kms including the worlds longest straight stretch of railway track (478 kilometres) and you spend three nights aboard the great train.

Perth, capital of Western Australia has a population of approx 1.4 million people and claims to enjoy more hours of sunshine than any other capital city in Australia.

Western Australia is on Australian Western Standard Time (AWST) which is GMT plus 8 hours. Western Australia did not had daylight saving until 2006. On 3rd December 2006, WA commenced a 3 year trial to be followed by a referendum in 2009. In 2007, they will commence on the last Sunday in October in line with other states. See more about Australian time zones and daylight saving here.

You will find more about Western Australian towns and regions in the menu on the left and in our BCL Perth site

Western Australia State Government

Parliament
Premier and Ministers
Links to political party and lobby groups sites are on the Perth Politics page

Cities and Towns in Regional Western Australia

Geraldton

Western Australia Highways

Albany Highway (State Route 30) runs northwest-southeast linking the state's capital Perth with Albany on the south coast. The highway is approximately 410 kilometres (250 miles) long, travelling south from Victoria Park in Perth through Bentley, Cannington, Maddington, Gosnells and Kelmscott, and then on to Armadale, North Bannister, WIlliams, Arthur River, Mount Barker to Albany.
Coolgardie-Esperance Highway runs from Coolgardie to Esperance, linking the WA's Kalgoorlie and the Goldfields to the coast and meets the Eyre highway at Norseman.
Eyre Highway links Western Australia to South Australia via the Nullarbor Plain. It is part of National Highway 1/A1. The Eyre Highway starts at Norseman and ends in Port Augusta.
Great Northern Highway goes north from Perth to Wyndham. It is 3,200 kilometres or 1,990 miles long and travels through Broome and Kununurra
South Western Highway leaves the Albany Highway in Armadale and travels through Pinjarra, Bunbury, Bridgetown and Manjimup to Walpole. It is about 400 kilometres long.

Useful Links

Geoscience Australia Place Name Search find the location of places in Australia.