Regions of Western Australia

Regionalisations of Western Australia are systems by which Western Australia is divided into distinct geographic regions. The most commonly known regionalisation is the governmental division of the state into regions for economic development purposes.

Others regionalisations include those made for purposes of land management, such as agriculture or conservation; information gathering, such as statistical or meteorological.

Although most regionalisations were defined for specific purposes and give specific boundaries, many regions will have similar names and extents across different regionalisations. As a result, the names and boundaries of regions can vary in popular usage. There are nine regions.

Familypedia use

For locations of genealogical events, Familypedia could use the nine RDCA regions (as defined in the following section) plus Perth as the primary division of the State, corresponding to counties in the United States or the United Kingdom. That would have the advantage of probably stable boundaries. However, as Local Government Areas cover the whole State and are used as the "county" equivalent in other states, the latter should be used in WA as well.

The Regional Development Commissions Act regionalisation

Map of the regions

The most widely known regionalisation of Western Australia is the one defined by the State Government for purposes of economic development administration. Together, these constitute the whole of mainland Western Australia, with the exception of the Perth metropolitan area which is not contained in a region.

These regions were established by the Regional Development Commissions Act 1993, which defined their extents and established Regional Development Commissions to promote their economic development. In defining the regions, an attempt was made to capture distinct socio-economic communities. For example, the Goldfields-Esperance region of Western Australia has an economy based heavily on mining, whereas the Wheatbelt region is economically dependent on agriculture.

The regions as determined are:

• Gascoyne
• Goldfields-Esperance
• Great Southern
• Kimberley
• Mid West
• Peel
• Pilbara
• South West
• Wheatbelt

For the earlier land administrative divisions of Western Australia - see: - Lands_administrative_divisions_of_Western_Australia#Land_divisions

Weather bureau areas

The same terms used by the RDCA are also used by BOM - but do not directly coincide with the boundaries of the Regional Development defined boundaries above.

The BOM designates the forecast areas with finer detail on weather reports into points of the compass - as with the Interior area - southern interior, and western interior.

Numbers 7 to 13 are usually known as those forecast areas in the Southwest Land Division, and coastal zones for sea forecasts are dealt with in Coastal regions of Western Australia

BOM Map number	BOM name	RDCA name	BOM overlap areas	RDCA overlap areas	notes	fit
01	Kimberley	Kimberley		South East Kimberley in BOM 'NE Interior'	close fit
02	Pilbara	Pilbara	BOM North Interior in RDCA 'East Pilbara'
03	Gascoyne	Gascoyne	BOM South and East Gascoyne in RDCA 'Mid West'
04	Goldfields	Goldfields-Esperance
05	Eucla	Goldfields-Esperance
06	Interior	Goldfields-Esperance, Mid West, Pilbara
07	Central West	Mid West
08	Lower West	Perth, Peel
09	Southwest	South West
10	South Coastal	Great Southern
11	Southeast Coastal	Goldfields-Esperance
12	Great Southern	Great Southern
13	Central Wheat Belt	Wheatbelt

Political regionalisations

Under Australia's three-tiered system of government, Western Australia is divided into:

Federal electoral divisions

• (for election to the Australian House of Representatives)

State

• electoral districts (for election to the Western Australian Legislative Assembly)
• electoral regions (for election to the Western Australian Legislative Council)

Local

• local government areas.

Departmental regionalisations

Many government departments maintain systems of regional and district breakdowns of the state for their own internal purposes - a good example would be the Educations Departments school districts

Agriculture Department Western Australia: - see the regional focus page

Northern Agricultural Region

Rangelands Region

Southern Agricultural Region

Central Agricultural Region

South West Agricultural

Main Roads Western Australia regionalisations: - see the Road alert page

Department of Water Western Australia - the region page

Kimberley

Pilbara

Mid West Gascoyne

Goldfields

Swan-Avon

Kwinana Peel

South West

South Coast

Natural regionalisations

There are a number of regionalisations that purport or attempt to provide a regionalisation based on natural features. The best known of these are the IBRA regions, the World Wildlife Fund's ecoregions, and the "natural regions" of John Stanley Beard, all of which are based on biogeography. Other natural regionalisations included the drainage basins and catchments of river systems, and highly specialised regionalisations dealing with such matters as geology and soil systems.

Land management regionalisations

Regionalisations of Western Australia used for land management and conservation purposes include the natural regionalisations such as IBRA, and also some less natural regionalisations such as Landcare Districts and the Department of Agriculture's "Land-use Zones". However the Department of Agriculture publications - Technical Bulletins - usually titled An inventory and condition report/survey... of a particular region are very specifically focused upon land systems that are based on natural features.

Fisheries management regionalisations

The Department of Fisheries tends to separate the state into four main regions for the purpose of regulating recreational fishing: - Pilbara Kimberley, Gascoyne, WestCoast and South Coast. See - Coastal regions of Western Australia for more detail.

Land tenure regionalisations

Much of Western Australia is divided into approximately 90 land districts for the purposes of identifying land lots.

Mining

See article: Mining fields in Western Australia

Under the Mining Act - the hierarchy of Administrative Divisions for mining has in the past been divided into -

• Inspector of Mines - office and Inspectorate
• Mining Registrars - Administrative boundary and office
• State Mining Engineers Inspectorate
• Gold Field District
• Gold or Mineral Field boundary

Since the creation of the Department of Industry and Resources some rationalisation of administration has occurred, however the mineral fields and boundaries remain the same as when established.

Wine regions

Main article: West Australian wine

Australia’s biggest State extends the western third of the continent, although the winemaking regions are almost entirely situated in the south-western tip of the State. It has nine regions, and five nominated subregions for wine under the Geographical indications legislation as determined by the Australian Wine and Brandy Corporation.

These regions include:

• Greater Perth
  • Perth Hills
  • Peel
  • Swan District
• South Western Australia
  • Blackwood Valley
  • Geographe
  • Great Southern
    • Albany
    • Denmark
    • Frankland River
    • Mount Barker
    • Porongurup
  • Manjimup
  • Margaret River
  • Pemberton

Coastal regions

Main article: Coastal regions of Western Australia

Western Australia has the longest coastline of any state in Australia, at 10,194 km The regions can be determined by the underlying geology, and in the case of the Bureau of Meteorology - features such as points and capes are useful indicators of coastal water forecasts.

Coasts

Landgate - the latest name for the Land management body of the Western Australian government is currently marketing touring maps that create coastal zones - such as the:

• Batavia Coast (incorporating the area of Cervantes, Jurien Bay, Dongara, Geraldton, and Kalbarri)
• Gascoyne Coast (Carnarvon, Coral Bay, Denham, Exmouth and the Coral Coast)
• Coral Coast (at the northern end of the Gascoyne Coast)
• Sunset Coast (Perth Metropolitan beachside suburbs from Cottesloe to Yanchep)

Census and ABS

For the purposes of statistical geography, the Australian Bureau of Statistics uses the Australian Standard Geographical Classification, a hierarchical regionalisation that divides Western Australia into statistical divisions, then statistical subdivisions, statistical local areas, and finally, census collection districts.

The ABS has produced Regional profiles for the nine ABS Statistical Divisions, and the ten Development Commission regions.

See also

• List of regions of Australia
• Geography of Western Australia
• Australian Regional Rivalries

External links

• The Regional Development Commissions Act 1993 (as amended)
• Fisheries - recreational fishing regions

Further reading

• Regions Western Australia. Perth, W.A. : Dept. of Commerce and Trade. Issue 1 (Mar./June 1998)-issue 11 (February 2002)
• Regional futures: challenges and opportunities for Western Australia's regions: a discussion paper prepared by the Regional Development Council and the Department of Commerce and Trade. Perth, W.A. : The Council, Rev. June 1996.
• Western Australia: a statistical snapshot of the regions prepared by the Department of Commerce and Trade for the Regional Development Council. Perth: The Department., 1995.
• Western Australia tomorrow: population projections for the statistical divisions, planning regions and local government areas of Western Australia. Perth, W.A. : Western Australian Planning Commission, 2000. Population report (Western Australian Planning Commission) ; no. 4. ISBN 0730992225

Maps

• Streetsmart Travellers Atlas of Western Australia (2006) Department of Land Information and West Australian Newspapers,9th ed. ISBN 1-921048-13-1
• Quality Publishing Australia.(2007) Roads & tracks Western Australia: campsites directory, roads and tracks, all in one Jolimont, W.A.,Quality Publishing Australia, 5th ed ISBN 1876723351
• UBD Western Australia country road atlas (2005) Macquarie Park, N.S.W.UBD, a division of Universal Publishers, 11th ed ISBN 0-7319-1587-9

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