Coastal regions of Western Australia explained

Western Australia has the longest coastline of any state or territory in Australia, at 10,194 km[1] or 12,889 km (20,781 km including islands).[2] It is a significant portion of the coastline of Australia, which is 35,877 km (59,736 km including islands).[2]

The earliest full charting of the coastline occurred during exploration in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.

The coastline has some features or organisms that are found on the entire length, while some others are specific to particular coastal regions.

Various government map posters have been created over time, which have examples of coastal form, or types of coast such as the 1984 map with photos.

Integrated Marine and Coastal Regionalisation of Australia (IMCRA)

The IMCRA has offshore regions delineated in a systematic appraisal of ecology and geography.[3]

Coastal regions used in weather reports

Standard Bureau of Meteorology reports include the following reference points for coastal weather reports:[4]

General coastal regions

There are groupings for wider regions that are based very close to the land regions; one made in the 1980s[5] has 8 coastal regions, while the 2003 Coastal Planning and Management Manual has five regions with component sections:[6]

Fisheries bioregions

Under the Fish Resources Management Act 1994 there are four main regions on the Western Australian coast.[7]

Features

The coastal regions include a range of beaches, cliffs, and coastline features that are dependent upon the underlying geology; the geological provinces have direct relationship to the coastal forms:

Gulfs

Sounds

Specifically referring to Sound (geography)

Archipelagoes and island groups

Aquatic flora

The Western Australian coastline has the greatest diversity of seagrasses in the world, and the meadows they form are among the largest on earth.[8]

See also

Australian context:
Local features:
Regional divisions:
Plants and natural history:

Further reading

Flora

Conferences

Title 3rd WA State Coastal Conference, Mandurah – Bunbury – Busselton, November 2005 : coastal solutions : balancing the waves of change : program and papers. Canning Bridge, W.A. : Promaco Conventions Pty Ltd, 2005.

Locations

Government reports

Notes and References

  1. Short, Andrew D (2005)Beaches of the Western Australian Coast: Eucla to Roeback Bay . page 1
  2. Web site: Coastline Lengths . 18 November 2010 . Geoscience Australia . Commonwealth of Australia . 24 December 2016 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20110122025201/http://www.ga.gov.au/education/geoscience-basics/dimensions/coastline-lengths.html . 22 January 2011 .
  3. Web site: Integrated Marine and Coastal Regionalisation of Australia (IMCRA) - Home Page . https://web.archive.org/web/20180916193732/http://www.environment.gov.au/node/18075 . 2018-09-16 . environment.gov.au.
  4. See the map at http://www.bom.gov.au/weather/wa/wa-forecast-map.shtml for locations of the coastal forecast boundary locations
  5. Woods, P.J and Eliot, Ian (1980) The Western Australian Coast being Number 6 of Coastal Management in Western Australia Bulletin Number 49 of the Department of Conservation and Environment
  6. print form: Western Australian Planning Commission.(2003) Coastal planning and management manual : a community guide for protecting and conserving the West Australian Coast Perth, W.A. : Western Australian Planning Commission. – http://henrietta.liswa.wa.gov.au/record=b2151782~S2 : web-based pdfs = http://www.planning.wa.gov.au/Plans+and+policies/Publications/312.aspx
  7. Recreational fishing guides published by the Department of Fisheries (W.A.) in September 2008 map titled 'Western Australia's Fisheries Bioregions'
  8. Rippey, Elizabeth and Rowland, Barbara (2004) Coast plants:Perth and the south-west region Second Edition. University of Western Australia Press. Crawley, Western Australia. . page 245 – also Part Three: Descriptions and Illustrations of the Seagrasses pp.243-260