Western Australia Day - 9 interesting facts about this enormous state

Happy Western Australia Day!
Or in short WA Day (before 2012 it was named Foundation Day). It commemorates the founding of the Swan River Colony in 1829.
In preparation to this public holiday here I would like to tell you 9 interesting facts about this really huge state. I found different figures in different sources (print version and internet), so this is only to give you a rough idea.

1) WA (formerly known as the Swan River Colony) is the largest state of Australia with over 2.5 MILLION square kilometres. In this country you could EASILY hide Germany, Japan AND Italy and you would still have land to cover.

2) The indigenous people, here mainly the Katta Dijnoong, the Noongar and the Spinifex People, have inhabited the country about 40,000 to 60,000 years ago. 

3) The first European settlement was Albany in 1826 in the very South, just three years before Perth and then as the third settlement there is York, the first inland settlement of WA in 1831. So WA Day does NOT celebrate the first settlement in WA!

 
4) BUT only about 2.3 million people live in this state. So less than one person per one square kilometre. YES, there is LOTS of space.

5) More over: out of the 2.3 million people 1.8 million live in the metropolitan area of Perth. That is about the same amount as Hamburg! The rest of the 400,000 people live mainly in the Southwest.

6) So you can imagine that to the East (towards South Australia) and to the North (towards the Northern Territory) the population is VERY sparsely... That is why Perth is the most isolated city in the world as the next bigger city Adelaide is over 2,200 km away.

7) The economy and therefore the importance and the growth hit off only in the 1980's when gold was discovered near Kalgoorlie in the Goldfields (about 600 km to the East of Perth).

8) In 1890 WA got the right of self-governance. Only since 1901 is WA a state of Australia.

9) Western Australia is mainly a exporter of iron-ore, alumina, nickel, gold and ammonia. But also wheat, wool, live sheep and cattle. Mining for the oil and gas industry has siginificantly grown over the last decade.

So, here we have it: WA in a nutshell! Interesting, don't you think? If you want to get to know WA a bit more, have a look here.
Await my next stop: the celebration of WA Day in the Perth Cultural Precinct!
Yours WA-facts-researching Stefanie