Portal:Western Australia
|
Western Australia is a state of Australia occupying the western third of the country. It covers some of the most arid parts of the continent and with a total land area of 2,529,875 km2 (976,790.2 sq mi), it is the largest of Australia's states and territories. It is bordered to the east by South Australia and the Northern Territory, to the west by the Indian Ocean and to the south by the Southern Ocean. With 2 million people, the state comprises around 10 percent of the Australian population and ranks fourth in population among the states and territories. The majority of its people reside in the capital city Perth, with most of the remainder settled in the South West region.
The state has been inhabited by Indigenous Australians for around 40,000 years. The first European to visit Western Australia was a Dutch explorer, Dirk Hartog who on 26 October 1616 landed at (what is now known as) Cape Inscription, Dirk Hartog Island. In 1829, the Swan River Colony was established on the Swan River by Captain James Stirling. The colony eventually became a state of Australia on 1 January 1901. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Box-header/colours' not found. The Narrows Bridge is a freeway crossing of the Swan River in Perth, Western Australia, at The Narrows between Mill Point and Mount Eliza. Made up of two road bridges and a railway bridge, it connects the Mitchell and Kwinana Freeways, linking the city's northern and southern suburbs. The original road bridge was opened in 1959 and was the largest precast prestressed concrete bridge in the world. Construction of the northern interchange for this bridge necessitated the reclamation of a large amount of land from the river.The bridge formed part of the Kwinana Freeway which originally ran for only 2.4 miles (3.9 km). Over the following decades, the freeway system was expanded to the north and south, greatly increasing the volume of traffic using the bridge. As a result, in 2001, a duplicate traffic bridge was opened to the west of the original bridge, and in 2005, the railway bridge was constructed in the gap between the two traffic bridges. Passenger trains first traversed the Narrows in 2007 with the opening of the Mandurah Railway Line. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Box-header/colours' not found. 
Photo credit: Gnangarra Featured articlesGood articles
Template:/box-header Template:Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Western Australia/to do Template:/box-footer The following Wikimedia sister projects provide more on this subject:
|
- What are portals?
- List of portals
- Featured portals
