Western Australia is Australia's largest state in area, covering the western third of the mainland, and is bordered by South Australia and the Northern Territory. It is, after the Sakha Republic in Russia, the second largest subnational entity (Statoid) in the world. The capital city, Perth, is one of the most isolated cities of its size on the planet, being closer to Jakarta (3007 km) than to Sydney (3284 km).

Geography

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Much of Western Australia consists of the extremely old Yilgarn and Pilbara cratons which merged with the Deccan of India, Madagascar and the Karoo and Zimbabwe cratons of South Africa, in the Archean Eon to form Ur, the oldest Supercontinent 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 today above 1245 metres (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 (1200 feet), 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.

The state capital is the city of Perth, which lies on the south-western coastline. Perth's metropolitan area had an estimated population of 1.47 million in 2005 which was almost three quarters of the state's population. The Perth metropolitan area has grown to include the port of Fremantle and the town of Rockingham. Other important or well-known centres include Mandurah (pop. 54,000), Bunbury, Kalgoorlie, Albany, Geraldton, Port Hedland and Broome, but these are all relatively small cities or towns.

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NEWS.com.au | Western Australia

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