Coastal regions of Western Australia

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][lower-alpha 1] 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.[3]

The coastline has some features or organisms that are found on the entire length,[4] while some others are specific to particular coastal regions.[5][6]

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.[7]

Integrated Marine and Coastal Regionalisation of Australia (IMCRA)

The IMCRA has offshore regions delineated in a systematic appraisal of ecology and geography.[8]

Coastal regions used in weather reports

Standard Bureau of Meteorology reports include the following reference points for coastal weather reports:[9]

General coastal regions

There are groupings for wider regions that are based very close to the land regions; one made in the 1980s[10] has 8 coastal regions, while the 2003 Coastal Planning and Management Manual has five regions with component sections:[11]

Fisheries bioregions

Under the Fish Resources Management Act 1994 there are four main regions on the Western Australian coast.[12]

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.[13]

See also

Australian context
Local features
Regional divisions
Plants and natural history

Notes

  1. ↑ The length of a coastline may vary significantly depending on how it is measured.
  2. ↑ Not to be confused with the tourist coast region which might have slightly different start and finish points from the fisheries designated coast

References

  1. ↑ Short, Andrew D (2005)Beaches of the Western Australian Coast: Eucla to Roeback Bay ISBN 0-9586504-3-8. page 1
  2. 1 2 "Coastline Lengths". Geoscience Australia. Commonwealth of Australia. 18 November 2010. Archived from the original on 22 January 2011. Retrieved 24 December 2016.
  3. ↑ Freycinet, Louis de, 1779-1842 (1919), [Chart of Western Australian coastline], H.J. Pether, Govt. Lithographer, retrieved 10 July 2015
  4. ↑ Wells, Fred E; Western Australian Museum (1978), The distribution of shallow-water marine prosobranch gastropod molluscs along the coastline of Western Australia, retrieved 10 July 2015
  5. ↑ Bradshaw, Elizabeth (1995-12), "Dates from archaeological excavations on the Pilbara coastline and islands of the Dampier Archipelago, Western Australia", Australian Archaeology (41): 37–38, ISSN 0312-2417 Check date values in: |date= (help)
  6. ↑ Sircombe, K.N; Freeman, M.J (1999-10-01), "Provenance of detrital zircons on the Western Australia coastline - implications for the geologic history of the Perth basin and denudation of the Yilgarn craton.(Statistical Data Included)", Geology, Geological Society of America, Inc, 27 (10): 879(4), ISSN 0091-7613, doi:10.1130/0091-7613(1999)027<0879:podzot>2.3.co;2
  7. ↑ Chape, Stuart; Hesp, P. A. (Patrick Alan); Western Australia. Coastal Management Co-ordinating Committee; Western Australia. Dept. of Agriculture; Western Australia. Dept. of Conservation and Environment (1984), Western Australian coastline, Coastal Management Coordinating Committee, retrieved 10 July 2015
  8. ↑ http://www.environment.gov.au/coasts/mbp/imcra/index.html
  9. ↑ See the map at http://www.bom.gov.au/weather/wa/wa-forecast-map.shtml for locations of the coastal forecast boundary locations
  10. ↑ 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
  11. ↑ 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. ISBN 0-7309-9383-3 - http://henrietta.liswa.wa.gov.au/record=b2151782~S2: web-based pdfs = http://www.planning.wa.gov.au/Plans+and+policies/Publications/312.aspx
  12. ↑ Recreational fishing guides published by the Department of Fisheries (W.A.) in September 2008 map titled 'Western Australia's Fisheries Bioregions'
  13. ↑ Rippey, Elizabeth and Rowland, Barbara (2004) Coast plants:Perth and the south-west region Second Edition. University of Western Australia Press. Crawley, Western Australia. ISBN 1-920694-05-6. page 245 - also Part Three: Descriptions and Illustrations of the Seagrasses pp.243-260

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. ISBN 1-86308-126-7

Locations

Government reports

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