Rangelands Overview - Western Australia
- The rangelands cover 87 % of Western Australia (state's area is 2.5 million square kilometers) and include all but the south west of the state. About 980,000-sq. km. is pastoral leasehold.
- There are 20 bioregions wholly or partly within the rangelands portion of WA.
- The climate varies from hot dry desert throughout the inland parts of the state, to semi arid and more temperate areas with winter predominant rainfall in the south of the state, to sub tropical and tropical areas in the north with a distinct monsoonal wet and dry season.
- Most of the WA rangelands are flat to undulating. Distinctive geological features include the Hamersley Ranges and the rugged Kimberley region in the north.
- Major drainage divisions include the western plateau, rivers flowing to the Timor Sea, rivers flowing to the Indian Ocean, and rivers flowing to the south west.
- Land tenure is predominantly Crown leasehold, or vacant crown land. There are large areas of Aboriginal land in the desert regions adjacent to the NT and SA borders, and areas of Aboriginal land in the Kimberley region
- World Heritage areas include Shark Bay.
- Vegetation types range from tussock grasslands and shrublands to woodlands, including patches of monsoonal forests in the north.
- Pastoralism is the dominant land use across about 45% of the WA rangelands, with a greater proportion of sheep in the south and cattle in the north. There is some intensive horticultural production around the Gascoyne and Ord Rivers.
- Mining is an important industry, including gold at Kalgoorlie, iron ore in the Pilbara, oil and gas from the northwest shelf and diamonds at Argyle Diamond Mine in the Kimberley.
Administration Arrangements
Agencies with a role in land administration in the rangelands include the following:
- The Department of Conservation and Land Management (CALM) is the State Government agency responsible for the management of WA's national parks, conservation parks, marine parks, State forests and timber reserves, nature reserves, marine nature reserves, and all associated forest produce, native plants and animals. We are also responsible for conserving native plants and animals throughout the State and managing their sustainable use.
- Agriculture Western Australia provides strategic services of research, development and extension / training in partnership with industry and rural communities, to maximize agri-industries' contribution to Western Australia's sustainable development.
- The Department of Land Administration (DOLA) is the major provider of land administration products, services and information in Western Australia.
- Since 1981, the Government has co-ordinated the land and geographic information management of its agencies through the services of the Western Australian Land Information System(WALIS). WALIS is a consortium of more than twenty-five government departments, each with an interest in managing land and geographic information. The WALIS office, which leads and co-ordinates the activities of all participating agencies, is co-located with DOLA. The Office provides a Land Information Directory to help users access available data. The capture of land information is co-ordinated across WALIS to avoid duplication and a range of issues addressed to improve the efficiency of government land and geographic information systems.
Further Information
Link to photographic sequences
Link to the Map Maker to make a map using this information.
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