Western Australia

Western Australia is Australia's largest state, covering the westernmost third of the mainland, bordering South Australia and the Northern Territory. ==Geography== The state capital is the city of Perth, Western Australia which has an estimated population of 1,433,217(2003) and lies on the south-western coastline; it is the centre of a metropolitan area which is home to almost three quarters of the state's residents. The Perth metropolitan area has grown to include the port of Fremantle, Western Australia and the town of Rockingham, Western Australia. Other important or well-known centres include Mandurah, Western Australia (pop. 54,000), Bunbury, Western Australia, Kalgoorlie, Albany, Western Australia, Geraldton, Western Australia, Port Hedland, Western Australia and Broome, Western Australia, but these are all relatively small cities or towns. The Southwest corner of Western Australia is relatively temperate and forested, while much of the rest of the state is hot and semi-arid or desert, and is lightly inhabited. An exception to this is the northern tropical regions, especially the Kimberley region of Western Australia. ==People== Although Western Australia has been occupied by the Australian Aborigine people for many thousands of years, the present state has its origins in the British Empire settlement known as the Swan River Colony, founded at Perth in 1829 (although the first British settlement occurred in Albany, Western Australia in 1826). Since that time, many immigrants have continued to be of British origin, outnumbered only by arrivals from other Australian states. There has also been significant immigration from New Zealand and South Africa. Small numbers of Southeast Asian (especially ethnic Ethnic Chinese) immigrants began to arrive in Western Australia in the mid 19th century. Immigration restrictions (the "White Australia Policy") caused "non-white" immigration to cease in the 1890s. Following World War II, immigration from Europe increased, especially from Italy, Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and Greece. In the 1970s, a new wave of Asian immigrants, mostly ethnic Ethnic Chinese and Vietnamese people began to arrive in Western Australia. Perth, in particular, paralleled the multicultural experience of other large Australian cities and has become home to people from most of the countries in the world. Presently, 11.9% of Western Australian residents were born in the United Kingdom or Ireland, while 5.3% were born in Asia. In recent years, Western Australia has had the highest overseas migration rates in the nation. ==Economy== Western Australia's economy has been largely based on the extraction and export of mining and petroleum commodities, especially iron ore, alumina, natural gas, nickel and gold. Western Australia is a leading alumina extractor, producing more than 20% of the world's aluminium. It is also the world's third-largest iron ore producer, producing around 15% of the world's total iron ore output. Western Australia also extracts up to 75% of Australia's 240 tonnes of gold. Western Australia's economy recently has benefited from an unprecedented amount of foreign demand for resources, particularly from China. The Chinese have outgrown their own country's resource base and have turned to importing large quantities of foreign resources. One of the primary beneficiaries has been Western Australia, with Gross state product growth of 7.5% for the 2003/04 financial year, which makes it the fastest growing Australian state and allows it also to have the lowest unemployment rate as well. List_of_Western_Australian_highways">Image:WAHighways.png|thumb|right|290px|Western Australian cities, towns, settlements and List of Western Australian highways Agricultural exports are also important, especially wheat, barley and sheep products such as wool and meat. In recent years, tourism has grown in importance, with the majority of visitors coming from the United Kingdom and Ireland, Singapore, Japan and Malaysia. ==Government== ''Main article: Government of Western Australia'' With the federation of the Australian colonies in 1901, Western Australia became an State within Australia's federal structure; this involved ceding certain powers to the Commonwealth (or Federal) government in accordance with the Constitution; all powers not specifically granted to the Commonwealth remained solely with the State, however over time the Commonwealth has effectively expanded its powers through increasing control of taxation and financial distribution. The State legislature is bicameral, consisting of the Western Australian Legislative Assembly (or ''lower house''), and the Western Australian Legislative Council (or ''upper house''). Sufferage is universal for Australian citizens residing in Western Australia over 18 years of age. Whilst the sovereign of Western Australia is the Queen of Australia (Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom), and executive power nominally vested in her State representative the Governor (currently John Sanderson until August 2005, to be replaced by Governor-elect Ken Michael), executive power is effectively administered by the premier and ministers. The premier (currently Geoffrey Gallop) and ministers are drawn from the party or coalition of parties holding a majority of seats in the lower house of Parliament. Interestingly, in a referendum in April 1933, 68% of voters voted for the state to leave the Commonwealth of Australia with the aim of returning to the British Empire as an autonomous territory. The State Government sent a delegation to Parliament of the United Kingdom, however the British Government refused to intervene and therefore no action was taken to implement this decision. ==Media== Western Australia has only one daily newspaper, the independent tabloid ''The West Australian'', and one Sunday tabloid newspaper, News Corporation's ''The Sunday Times#Australia''. Metropolitan Perth has six broadcast television stations, while regional Western Australia is served by four broadcast networks. The regional southwest of the state is also served by pay television giant Foxtel, which acquired the Galaxy Television satellite service in the 1990s. ==See also== *History of Western Australia *List of Governors of Western Australia *Premier of Western Australia *National Parks of Western Australia *Local Government Areas of Western Australia *List of Western Australian towns *Regions of Western Australia *List of Western Australian highways *List of Statues in Western Australia *Western Plateau ==External links== * [http://www.wa.gov.au/ Official Western Australia site] * [http://www.parliament.wa.gov.au/ Parliament House Western Australia] * [http://www.govhouse.wa.gov.au/ Government House Web Site] * [http://www.onlinewa.com.au/ OnlineWA] * [http://www.slp.wa.gov.au/ State Law Publisher] Western Australia British colonies ka:დასავლეთი ავსტრალია

Western Australia

Removed because of inaccuracy: It is interesting to note that, even though the state encompasses only 10 per cent of the Australian population, it contributes around 25% of the country's wealth. What do you mean? Do you mean 25% of Australia's wealth resides in WA (I don't think so)? Do you mean that WA contributes 25% of Australia's export income (which sounds quite plausible)? If so, correct the sentence and put it back in the main article. --:Robert Merkel ---- Removed it again: ''Western Australia leads the country in wealth, with the state supplying 25% of Australia's overall wealth, despite less than 10% of the country's population residing there.'' This is a variation on a theme consistently argued by partisans of the "WA is the best state, all the other states suck" school. Needless to add, it's nonsense. There are any number of ways to calculate relative wealth and relative contribtions to the overall economy. By chosing an extreme and biased one, it is a simple matter to "demonstrate" whichever point one wishes to make. Probably the fairest overall method is to simply calculate the total paid by each state to the commonwealth and then compare it with the total of funds paid ''by'' the Commonwealth to each state. The details change a little over time, of course, but the overall picture is perfectly clear: the majority of Australia's funds come from Victoria, New South Wales, and Queensland (which should be no surprise, as there are the most populous states with the most fertile agricultural areas and the heaviest concentration of both industry and commerce). All three subsidise the smaller states ("smaller", that is, in population terms). Last time I looked at the exact figures for this, about ten years or so ago I think it was, Victoria remained the heaviest subsidiser, closely followed by NSW, and then Queensland - which had actually been a subsidisee (if you will excuse the made-up word) for a long time before its rapid economic and population growth in the 1960s and '70s and '80s. The most heavily subsidised states were Tasmania, WA, and SA. Again, this is exactly what you would expect. All of the states regularly jockey for position in the funding carve-up. Victoria, NSW and more recently Queensland complain about having to pay more than their share, and the smaller states just as regularly advance reasons why the disparity should be seen as a good thing. While the larger states usually just tote up the figues and use these as evidence for their point of view, the three smaller states (for reasons unknown to me) tend to use quite different strategies: SA just asks for more money. Tasmania claims rather hysterically that if it doesn't get more money right away something really horrible will happen! WA uses the bizarre but surprisingly effective tactic of just telling astonishingly large fibs and ignoring the numbers altogether. In consequence, for many years back in the days of the old Premiers' Conferences when the financial carve-up was decided in meetings between the states and the Commonwealth once every year a small minority of numerically-challenged but belligerantly vocal West Australians used to peddle silly untruths about how their state "supported the rest of the nation" and then argue that the between-states breakup must be made "more fair". Unfortunately, it seems that a few still believe this hoary old nonsense. It might be appropriate for Wikipedia to describe this decades-old interstate conflict somewhere (though I imagine that most other nations go through much the same sort of silliness when it comes to budget time and Oz is hardly unique), but if we are going to have state vs state productivity and expenditure figures at all, then we must insist that they be the correct ones, not imaginary things tossed out as half-remembered rhetoric from a speech by parochial politicians preaching to the choir. Now if we are going to have some figures, let's get the right ones, shall we? Proportion of revenue returned to each state or territory '''(cents in the dollar) * ''STATE - - - 1981/82 figure - - - 2001 figure - - - 2002 figure'' * Victoria: 82 88 87 * NSW: 84 92 91 * WA: 134 98 97 * Queensland: 111 103 101 * SA: 123 118 120 * Tasmania: 162 150 155 * ACT: 85 1.15 114 * NT: 165 402 424 : (Sources: Commonwealth Grants Commission, ''State revenue sharing relativities, 2002 update'' and '' ''CGC discussion paper 2001/14''.) Hmmmm .. Interesting. It seems that times have indeeed changed since I last looked at this issue a decade or two ago. Victoria (rather to my surprise) remains the state that pays the most and gets the least, NSW is close behind, and WA has now begun to pay a fraction more than its share. (For every dollar WA citizens pay in tax to the Commonwealth, in other words, they now get back 98c, as compared with 87c for Victorians, $1.01 for Queenslanders, or $1.55 for Tasmanians.) Doesn't seem to have made any difference to the prevalance of innumerate opinion though. But then, one wonders if the actual figures were ever really relevant. User:Tannin 09:38 Feb 11, 2003 (UTC) ---- From the Australian Bureau of Statistics: http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/0/737D7D065952AE3CCA25688D000ABB09?Open The gross state product of Western Australia per capita of population is greater than any other state, and greater than the gross domestic product per capita across Australia. ---- Can anyone tell me why WA celebrates its Queens Birthday holiday at a different time to the other Australian states? Its been bugging me since a friend pointed it out and asked if Australia still had a queen. :The national Queen's Birthday holiday clashes with the state Foundation Day holiday.
Foundation Day is a genuine anniversary, unlike the Queen's Birthday which is an arbitrary date, so the problem was resolved by moving the Queen's Birthday to a different arbitrary date, even though this means WA is out of sync with the rest of the country. —User:Paul A 03:03, 6 Oct 2003 (UTC)

Western Australia

Western australia

#redirect Western Australia

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