GEOGRAPHY

http://www.about-australia.com/facts/geography/

Australia comprises a land area of almost 7.7 million square kilometres (sq km). The bulk of the Australian
land mass lies between latitudes 10 degrees 41 minutes (10° 41') south (Cape York, Queensland) and 43°
38' south (South East Cape, Tasmania) and between longitudes 113° 09' east (Steep Point, Western
Australia) and 153° 38' east (Cape Byron, New South Wales). The most southerly point on the mainland is
South Point (Wilson's Promontory, Victoria) 39° 08' south. The latitudinal distance between Cape York and
South Point is about 3,180 kilometres (km), while the latitudinal distance between Cape York and South
East Cape is 3,680 km. The longitudinal distance between Steep Point and Cape Byron is about 4,000 km.
In a jurisdictional and economic sense, however, Australia extends far beyond this land mass.

The state of Tasmania includes numerous small islands and extends to Macquarie Island which lies
approximately 1,470 km south east of the main island. The territories of Australia include the Australian
Antarctic Territory, Christmas Island, the Cocos Islands, Heard Island, the McDonald Islands, Norfolk Island,
the Coral Sea Islands, Ashmore Island, and Cartier Island. In total there are some 12,000 islands. While
most of these islands are small, the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea allows Australia
jurisdiction over large tracts of the ocean and seafloor that surround them.

Australia has an Exclusive Economic Zone that is 200 nautical miles wide (370.4 km). This is measured
from the lowest astronomical tide - the lowest level that sea level can be predicted to fall to, under normal
meteorological conditions. The Exclusive Economic Zone gives Australia jurisdiction over a marine area of
some 10 million sq km.

The land area of Australia is almost as great as that of the United States of America (excluding Alaska),
about 50% greater than Europe (excluding the former USSR) and 32 times greater than the United
Kingdom.

Australia is the lowest, flattest and, apart from Antarctica, the driest of the continents. Unlike Europe and
North America, where some landscapes date back to around 20,000 years ago, when great ice sheets
retreated, the age of landforms in Australia is generally measured in many millions of years. This gives
Australia a very distinctive physical geography.

Much of the centre of Australia is flat, but there are numerous ranges (e.g. Macdonnells, Musgrave) and
some individual mountains of which Uluru (Ayers Rock) is probably the best known. Faulting and folding in
this area took place long ago. The area was worn to a plain, and the plain was uplifted and then eroded to
form the modern ranges on today's plain. In looking at Uluru, one remarkable thing is not so much how it
got there, but that so much has been eroded from all around to leave it there.

The Australian landforms of today are thus seen to result from long continued processes in a unique
setting, giving rise to typical Australian landscapes, which in turn provide the physical basis for the
distribution and nature of biological and human activity in Australia.

HISTORY

http://www.australianexplorer.com/australian_history.htm
The first settlers are thought to have arrived around 50,000 years
ago. This would have most likely been at a time when the sea levels
were low, the land was more humid and animals larger.

Although much of Australia became populated, the central dry areas

didn't attract settlers until around 25,000 years ago. The population
grew proportionately quicker around 10,000 years ago as the
climate improved.

How to Play the

Didgeridoo
At the time of British settlement at Sydney Cove it is estimated that 300,000 aboriginal
people, speaking around 250 languages inhabited Australia.

On arrival, finding no obvious political structure, the Europeans took the land as their own.
The Indigenous people were driven out of their homes and many killed. Various new
European diseases spread rapidly amongst the indigenous people, killing many. The
introduction of feral and domestic animals contributed to the destruction of natural habitats.

Fighting wiped out the Aboriginal population in Tasmania and greatly reduced the numbers
in the rest of Australia.

During the early part of the 20th century legislation's were passed to segregate and protect
Aboriginals. This involved restrictions on where they could live and work and families being
broken up.

After World War II, assimilation became the governments aim. All rights were taken away
from the Aboriginals and attempts made to 'Europeanise' them.

During the 1960's the legislation was reviewed and the Federal Government passed
legislation for all Aboriginals to be given citizen status. However, it wasn't until 1972 that
the indigenous people were given back limited rights to their own land. The situation has
been steadily improving for Australia's Indigenous people, although many feel more needs
to be done.

17th CENTURY

1606 The first European sightings of Australia were made by a Dutchman called
Willem Janszoon on the Duyfken (Little Dove). Janszoon sailed into the
Australian waters charting 300 km of the coast on the journey. Janszoon also
met with the Aboriginal people on the journey. Janszoon was the first
recorded European to achieve such feats. Later that year Louis Vaez de Torres
sailed through the Torres Strait, named after himself. Both Captains have
been recorded as having sighted the Cape York Peninsula.
1642 Dutch explorer, Abel Tasman's, first journey to Australia. It was in 1644 that
Abel Tasman established that Australia was made up of four coasts North,
West, East and South. The Australian state of Tasmania was named after this
famous explorer.
18th CENTURY

1770 Captain Cook lands in Botany Bay on the Eastern side of Australia in the ship
named HM Bark Endeavour. and claims New South Wales for Britain.
1788 The First Fleet arrives at Sydney Cove under Captain Arthur Phillip to establish
the first settlement in Australia. This was to be a penal colony - Sydney was
founded. The date of his arrival, 26 January, went on to mark Australia Day.

19th CENTURY

1801 - 1899 The great age of exploration: coastal surveys (Bass, Flinders), interior (Sturt,
Eyre, Leichhardt, Burke and Willis, McDouall Stuart, Forrest). Also the era of the
bushrangers, overlanders, and squatters, and individuals such as William
Buckley and Ned Kelly.
1803 Mathew Flinders completes the first voyage around Australia in the
'Investigator'.
1804 Castle Hill Rising by Irish convicts in New South Wales.
1813 Barrier of the Blue Mountains Crossed.
1825 Tasmania seceded from New South Wales.
1829 Western Australia formed.
1836 South Australia formed.
1840 - 1868 Convict transportation ended.
1851 - 1861 Gold rushes (Ballarat, Bendigo).
1851 Victoria seceded from New South Wales.
1855 Victoria achieved government.
1856 New South Wales, South Australia, Tasmania achieved government.
1859 Queensland formed from New South Wales and achieved government.
1890 Western Australia achieved government.
1891 Depression gave rise to the Australian Labor Party.
1899 - 1900 South African War - forces offered by the individual colonies.

20th CENTURY

1901 Creation of the Commonwealth of Australia. This was a federation of the States of
New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania, Queensland, Western Australia and South
Australia.
1911 Site for capital at Canberra acquired.
1914 - 1918 World War I - Anzac troops in Europe including Gallipoli. Australia experiences her
first major losses in a war during in 1915 on the Gallipoli peninsula in Turkey.
1939 - 1945 World War II - Anzac troops in Greece, Crete, and N Africa (El Alamein) and the
Pacific. The Japanese bomb Darwin in 1942.
 1941 Curtin's appeal to USA for help in the World War marked the end of the special
relationship with Britain.
1944 Liberal party founded by Menzies.
1948 - 1975 Two million new immigrants, the majority from continental Europe
1950 - 1953 Korean War - Australian troops part of the United Nations forces.
1964 - 1972 Vietnam War - Comonwealth troops in alliance with US forces.
1966 - 1974 Mineral boom typified by the Posiedon nickel mine.
1967 The ASEAN was established
1973 Britain entered the Common Market, and in the 1970's Japan became Australia's
chief trading partner.
1974 Whitlam abolishes 'white Australia' policy.
1975 Constitutional crisis; Prime Minister Whitlam dismissed by the governor general.
1975 United Nations trust territory of Papua New Guinea became independent.
1975 The Liberal Party under Malcolm Fraser comes to power.
1978 Northern Territory achieved self-government.
1979 Opening of uranium mines in Northern Territory.
1983 Hawke convened first national economic summit - The Fraser Government is
defeated in the election and the Australian Labour Party under Bob Hawke forms
a government.
1988 Australia celebrates its Bicentennial - 200 years since the first European
settlement.
1991 Paul Keating replaced Bob Hawke as Labour Party leader and Prime Minister.
1994 The ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) was established
1996 Labour Party ousted in general election by Liberal-National Coalition.
1996 John Howard replaced Paul Keating as Prime Minister.
1901 - 1999 Australian Prime Ministers of the 20th Century

Cultural diversity

Overseas

Where do the overseas born come from?

In Western Australia the percentage of people born overseas (27%) has not changed since
the 2001 Census although the overall number has increased by 35,955. For usual
residents born outside Australia, nearly one third were born in the United Kingdom, with
New Zealand, South Africa, Italy, Malaysia and India comprising the other major
countries of birth.
 Figure 1 shows the top ten countries of birth for the overseas born residents of Western
Australia in 2001 and 2006.

Australian born

The 2006 Census of Population and Housing and settlement data provides the following
snapshot of cultural and linguistic diversity in Western Australia:

• Of the State’s usual resident population, 27.1 percent (531,747 persons) were born
overseas. Almost half the population (49.2%) had one or both parents born
overseas.
• Perth had the second highest proportion of people born overseas of all Australian
capital cities after Sydney (31.3% and 31.7% respectively).
• There were 58,711 people (3% of the total State population) who identified as
being of Indigenous origin.
• The three most common ancestries reported were English (30.9%), Australian
(29.8%) and Irish (6.6%).
• There were 223,166 usual residents of Western Australia (11.4% of the total State
population) who reported speaking a language other than English at home. This
figure had increased from 9.9 percent of the total resident population in 2001.
• Of the total Western Australian population who spoke a language other than
English at home, there was a relatively high proficiency in English with 84.1
percent reporting that they spoke English well or very well.
• Almost one third of the overseas born (160,651 persons, or 30.2%) reported
speaking a language other than English at home.
• Of the overseas born population who spoke a language other than English at
home, 82.6 percent reported speaking English well or very well.
 • The Western Australian population is diverse with respect to religious affiliation.
Almost six in ten usual residents (59.3%) identified with Christianity; 22.9
percent stated they had no religious affiliation while a further 12.8 percent did not
respond to this (optional) question in the Census.
• In Western Australia, the unemployment rate for the Australian born population
decreased from 7.4 percent (44,569 persons) in 2001 to 3.7 percent (23,708
persons) in 2006. In comparison, the unemployment rate for persons born
overseas decreased from 7.7 percent (21,350 persons) in 2001 to 3.9 percent
(12,064 persons) in 2006.
• The labour force participation rate for the Australian born population in Western
Australia increased from 67.5 percent in 2001 to 69.7 percent in 2006. This
represents an increase of 41,529 persons. The labour force participation rate for
those born overseas increased from 60.1 percent to 62.7 percent over the same
period, an increase of 29,545 persons.
• Western Australia continues to receive high levels of skilled migrants. In the
2006/7 financial year, Western Australia ranked third behind New South Wales
and Victoria in terms of intake in the Skilled Migration stream, receiving 8,352
(14%) of Australia’s skilled migrants. In the last three financial years from
2004/5, Western Australia received a total of 25,384 (15%) of Australia’s 168,937
Skilled Migrants. *
• In regard to humanitarian entrants, in the 2006/7 financial year, Western Australia
ranked fourth, behind New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland, receiving
1,557 (13%) of the 12,122 migrants who entered Australia under the
Humanitarian (Refugee; Special Assistance; Special Humanitarian Program)
Stream. In the last three financial years from 2004/5, Western Australia received a
total of 4,732 (13%) of Australia’s 37,329 humanitarian entrants. *

Religion

Figure 7 provides a breakdown of religious diversity for Western Australia between 1996
and 2006.

1996 2001 2006

No. % No. % No. %
Christianity 1,120,301 65.67 1,156,272 63.24 1,161,691 59.30
Buddhism 18,509 1.08 29,963 1.64 34,354 1.75
Islam 12,571 0.74 19,460 1.06 24,188 1.23
Hinduism 3,640 0.21 4,971 0.27 8,160 0.42
Judaism 4,671 0.27 5,057 0.28 5,294 0.27
Sikhism 800 0.05 1,090 0.06 1,393 0.07
Other
10,781 0.63 39,652 2.17 13,422 0.69
religions
No religion 366,837 21.50 361,088 19.75 448,434 22.89
 Not stated 165,190 9.68 196,442 10.74 250,209 12.77
Inadequately
2,649 0.16 14,298 0.78 11,942 0.61
defined
Total
1,705,949 100 1,828,293 100 1,959,087 100
population
(a) Excludes visitors from overseas. Relates to persons usually resident in
Western Australia.
Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics

Religious diversity is an important and inseparable part of Western Australia’s cultural

diversity. As indicated in the table below, religious diversity in Western Australia has
increased since 1996.

• In 2006, six out of ten Western Australians (59.3%) reported an affiliation with
Christianity (down from 65.7% in 1996 and 63.2% in 2001).
• After Christianity, the next most commonly reported religions were Buddhism
(1.8%), Islam (1.2%) and Hinduism (0.4%).
• The numbers of adherents to Buddhism (34,354 persons) and Islam (24,188
persons) had almost doubled since 1996 while, over the same period, those
affiliated with Hinduism had increased by 224% from 3,640 to 8,160 persons.
• Other religious affiliations with more than 1,000 adherents in 2006 included
Judaism and Sikhism.
• The proportion of the population with no religious affiliation increased from 19.8
percent in 2001 to 22.9 percent in 2006.

http://www.omi.wa.gov.au/omi_stats.asp

Economics

Western Australia

Economics - returns to the land and water resource base and costs of
degradation

New data sets have been developed through the National Land and Water Resources
Audit that relate to economic aspects of natural resource management in Australia. There
is a focus on resources used to support agriculture and resources impacted by agriculture.
The Australia-wide report provides:

• An overview of the economic returns from the Nation's land and water resources
used in agriculture;
• An agricultural or within pa.gifk perspective on economic aspects of salinity,
sodicity and acidity;
• A "beyond the farm gate" perspective on impacts of agriculture on local
infrastructure and downstream water users;
• Information on willingness to pay to slow rural population decline and improve
environmental attributes that are not part of the market for agricultural products;
• An overview of how the databases developed for this project are organised and
observations about ways they can be developed further to assist decision makers.

Consistent with protocols used by the Australian Bureau of Statistics and the Australian
Bureau of Agriculture and Resource Economics, the database provides a new capacity to
integrate natural resource information in Australia. The data sets are primarily built for
the 1996/97 financial year, the year of an agricultural census. Except where stated
otherwise, all dollar values given are in 1996/97 dollars.

Most of the data is represented on a 1km by 1km grid covering agricultural land. Whilst
modelled at this level of spatial detail interpretation should generally occur at coarser
levels. Data on downstream infrastructure costs of deteriorating water quality has been
assembled by river basin.

River basin scale aggregate information may be viewed to by selecting a river basin from the menu at
the top of this page or by using the links in the table or map below.

Agricultural profitability in Western Australia

Economic returns to natural resource base from agriculture are measured using profit at
full equity. This is the economic return to land, capital and management after the value of
labour provided by managers has been deducted. It does not include any debt payments to
financial institutions. Estimates of profit at full equity differ from gross margins, a
commonly used measure of agricultural financial performance, by including fixed costs
of production (e.g. depreciation of capital assets, labour).

Profit at full equity measures presented in this report are derived from survey data,
satellite data, government reports, gross margin handbooks and other sources. Profit has
been mapped on a 1km by 1km grid covering the nation, although underlying source data
is accurate at coarser levels of spatial detail. The twelve variables relating to prices,
yields and costs used to derive profit at full equity are also mapped to a 1 km grid. A
shortened version of the profit equation reads:

Profit At Full Equity=Price x Quantity - Variable Costs - Fixed Costs

To gain an appreciation for how economic returns to agriculture varied across Australia,
profit at full equity was computed based both on 1996/97 prices and at average prices
over the period 1992/93 to 1996/97.

Using 1996/97 prices and yields, the estimated total profit at full equity was roughly
$6,555 million for the Nation. An area of 311.5 million hectares, 66% of agricultural
land, made a loss and 159.9 million hectares, 34% of agricultural land, made a profit. The
bulk of the loss-making areas were the low-rainfall sheep/beef grazing lands. The
following map shows profit at full equity for 1996/97.

Soil resources: economic opportunities in Western Australia

An assessment was made of the economic opportunities associated with managing saline,
sodic and acidic soils. This assessment did not contrast current soil conditions with
pristine soil conditions. Rather, it focused on the economic opportunities arising from
future changes to soil condition.

In the assessment measures of gross benefit and impact cost are provided. The gross
benefit is the additional profit at full equity attainable in a given year if the soil constraint
were removed without cost. It can be considered an approximate investment ceiling for
soil treatment. Impact cost measures the decline in profits due to worsening salinity
extent and severity over the next 20 years (2000 to 2020). In addition to these measures, a
benefit cost analysis of lime and gypsum application to ameliorate acidic and sodic soils
was undertaken.

Costs beyond the farm gate in Western Australia

In addition to the agricultural productivity impacts, increasing concerns are being voiced
about the effects of land and soil degradation on water quality, landscape amenity values,
biodiversity, the environment and other attributes. The direct market impacts of
agriculture that occur beyond the farm gate fall into two categories:

• Local impacts on infrastructure; and

• Downstream impacts on urban and industrial water users.

Local Infrastructure Costs of Salinity and Watertable Rise

In order to estimate local infrastructure impacts, unit cost functions for salinity and water
table rise were developed for three levels of impact: slight, moderate and severe for the
following infrastructure categories:

• General urban and minor infrastructure in non-metropolitan towns and rural areas
including minor roads, bridges, underground drainage, aerodromes, public
buildings, parks and gardens, and sporting fields;
 • Private non-agricultural assets in non-metropolitan towns: domestic buildings,
commercial/retail buildings, industrial buildings, septic systems and service
stations;
• Major roads, including national highways, rural arterials and urban arterials and
bridges associated with these;
• Railways; and
• Power and communication infrastructure: power transmission, pipelines etc.

Current government of western australia

Parliament Generally
The word Parliament comes from Latin parliamentum and French parler (to speak),
and it is descriptive of the method by which members reach decisions in our Houses
of Parliament - by talking to each other.

Parliamentary Government is steeped in English history. From early times the

sovereign took counsel with the most powerful of his or her subjects. In the 14th
century, the Knights of the Shires and town representatives were also from time to
time invited to attend the King's Council in his Parliament. Soon the Knights and
burgesses began to meet separately in what became the House of Commons, and
the powerful Barons and church leaders became the House of Lords. By the middle of
the 14th century, it had been established that taxation was illegal without the
consent of the two Houses and the concurrence of the Houses was necessary for all
statutory legislation. Control over finances, or supply, was a means whereby
Parliament changed its role from petitioning the Monarch to make changes to the
laws to actually making new laws itself. Successive monarchs continually tried to
circumvent Parliament's control over money by raising revenue through other means.

The competition between Parliament and the Monarch came to a bitter conclusion
during the English Revolution which commenced in 1642 and resulted in the
beheading of Charles I outside his palace in Whitehall in 1649. Even after the
monarchy was reinstated in 1660, conflict continued until the Glorious Revolution of
1688 when King James II fled to France. At this time Parliament asserted its
authority to determine the conduct of governmental affairs. Indeed, relevant portions
of the revolutionary settlement contained in the Bill of Rights 1689 are part of
Western Australian parliamentary law today and include important provisions
regarding parliamentary sovereignty and privilege.

Parliament in Western Australia

Western Australia inherited the English system of Government and law when it was
colonised in 1829. Its first legislative body was the Legislative Council which met for
the first time on 7 February 1832 and was presided over by the Governor of Western
Australia, Captain James Stirling, who nominated the other four members.

In 1850 Western Australia was denied a two-thirds elected Legislative Council

because the convict system required the British Government to provide the bulk of
expenses for the Colony. As a compromise, in 1867 the Governor agreed to nominate
to the Legislative Council those persons elected by all free adult males who owned
property.
In 1870 Western Australia was granted representative Government with a Legislative
Council consisting of 12 elected members and 6 members nominated by the
Governor. Western Australia was not granted responsible government until 1890
when Parliament was formed with a Legislative Assembly of 30 elected members and
a Legislative Council of 15 members who initially were nominated by the Governor. In
1893 when the Colony's population reached 60,000, the Legislative Council became
an elected body of 21 members with three members elected from each of the seven
provinces.

In 1899 the Legislative Assembly increased its number of electoral districts to 50; in
1968 to 51; in 1975 to 55; and in 1981 to 57. In 1899 the Legislative Council had 10
electoral provinces, each returning three members for a term of six years. In
1963/64 this was increased to 15 provinces each returning two members, with half
of the total number of members elected every 3 years. In 1976 it was increased to
16 provinces with two members each, and in 1981 to 17 provinces with two
members each. In 1987 the Legislative Council underwent a major reform when all
members' terms were reduced to a fixed term of four years and all members retired
at the same time for an election. This reform took effect from the 1989 election.
More information on elections is contained in the relevant sections of the pages of
the Legislative Council and the Legislative Assembly and also at the Internet site for
the Western Australian Electoral Commission.

Until 1964, only those people who owned property were entitled to vote in Legislative
Council elections. Women were not entitled to vote until 1899; however, few were
able to vote because most did not own property. In 1920 women became eligible for
election. In 1921 Edith Cowan became the first Australian woman to be elected as a
Member of Parliament. The only other female Member of Parliament to be elected
before her in the British Empire was Lady Astor, who took her seat in the House of
Commons in 1919.