Western Australia Western Australia (WA) is the westernmost state of Australia. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east, and South Australia to the south-east. Western Aust ...

has the longest coastline of any state or territory in

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

, at 10,194 km or 12,889 km (20,781 km including islands). It is a significant portion of the

coastline of Australia The coastline of Australia comprises the coasts of mainland Australia and Tasmania. It nominally includes a part of all Australian states and territories; the otherwise landlocked Australian Capital Territory has a coastal enclave at Jervis ...

, which is 35,877 km (59,736 km including islands). 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.

Coastal regions used in weather reports

Standard

Bureau of Meteorology The Bureau of Meteorology (BOM or BoM) is an executive agency of the Government of Australia, Australian Government that is responsible for providing Weather forecasting, weather forecasts and Meteorology, meteorological services to Australia a ...

reports include the following reference points for coastal weather reports: *North Kimberley Coast: WA/NT border (or to Kuri Bay} *West Kimberley Coast:

Kuri Bay Kuri Bay is a remote coastal bay in the far north of Western Australia in the Kimberley region, about north of Broome. It is a designated point on the Western Australian Forecast Areas, utilised by the Bureau of Meteorology as a boundary for t ...

to Wallal (

Kimberley Kimberly or Kimberley may refer to: Places and historical events Australia Queensland * Kimberley, Queensland, a coastal locality in the Shire of Douglas South Australia * County of Kimberley, a cadastral unit in South Australia Ta ...

land region) *Pilbara Coast East: Wallal Downs to

Cape Preston Cape Preston is a rocky headland located in the Pilbara region of Western Australia, situated West South West of Karratha. It lies on the tribal land of the indigenous Nhuwala. Cape Preston is a standard Bureau of Meteorology reference point ...

(

Pilbara The Pilbara () is a large, dry, sparsely populated regions of Western Australia, region in the north of Western Australia. It is known for its Indigenous Australians, Aboriginal people; wealth disparity; its ancient landscapes; the prevailing r ...

land region) *Pilbara Coast West: Cape Preston to

North West Cape North West Cape is a peninsula in the north-west of Western Australia. Cape Range National Park, Cape Range runs down the spine of the peninsula and Ningaloo Reef runs along the western edge. It is in the Gascoyne region and includes the town of ...

(Pilbara land region) *Ningaloo Coast: Northwest Cape to Carnarvon (Gascoyne land region) *Gascoyne Coast: north of Carnarvon to Kalbarri (Gascoyne land region) *Geraldton Coast: north of Kalbarri to Jurien Bay (Central west land region) *Lancelin Coast: Jurien Bay to

Two Rocks Two Rocks is a town in Western Australia, located northwest of the Perth central business district. It is part of the City of Wanneroo local authority and represents the furthest northern extent of the Perth metropolitan region. While the s ...

(Lower west land region) *Perth Local Waters: Two Rocks to Dawesville (Lower west land region and/or Perth Metropolitan region) *Perth Coast:west of Rottnest and Perth Local Waters (same limits of Two Rocks and Dawesville) *Bunbury Geographe Coast: Dawesville to

Busselton Busselton is a city in the South West (Western Australia), South West region of the States and territories of Australia, state of Western Australia approximately south-west of Perth. Busselton has a long history as a popular holiday destin ...

, (part lower west and part south west land region) *Leeuwin Coast: Busselton to west of Denmark (South west land region) *Albany Coast: west of Denmark to

Bremer Bay Bremer may refer to: People *Bremer (surname) *Bremer Ehrler (1914–2013), American politician * Bremer (born 1997), Brazilian footballer Places ;Australia *Bremer Bay, Western Australia *Bremer Marine Park * Bremer Island *Bremer River (disambig ...

( south coast coastal land region) *Esperance Coast: Bremer Bay to

Israelite Bay Israelite Bay is a bay and locality of the Shire of Esperance in the Goldfields-Esperance region of Western Australia, located along the Southern Ocean. Except for a small strip in the north-west of the locality, Israelite Bay is completely take ...

(Southeast coastal land region) *Eucla Coast: Israelite Bay to SA Border (Eucla land region)

General coastal regions

There are groupings for wider regions that are based very close to the land regions; one made in the 1980s has 8 coastal regions, while the 2003 ''Coastal Planning and Management Manual'' has five regions with component sections: * Kimberley Coast: Northern Territory / Western Australia border to Broome (2003 manual, figure 2-2 Pilbara Kimberley Region) * Canning: Broome to Port Hedland ( Cape Keraudren – east of the

De Grey River The De Grey River is a river located in the Pilbara region of Western Australia. It was named on 16 August 1861 by the explorer and surveyor Francis Gregory after Thomas de Grey, 2nd Earl de Grey, who was at the time the president of the Royal ...

delta in the 2003 manual) *

Pilbara Coast The Pilbara Coast is the coastline of Western Australia's Pilbara region. It is often referred to as the North West Coast of Western Australia. It is a complex array of river mouths, ports, peninsulas, and islands. Geography North West Cap ...

: Port Hedland to Onslow * Coral Coast or Gascoyne region – Onslow to Kalbarri (Shark Bay in the 2003 manual) * Kalbarri to Cape Naturaliste: which includes,

Batavia Coast Batavia Coast is a name attributed to a section of the coastline of Western Australia, in the region close to the vicinity of the site of the wreck of the ''Batavia (1628 ship), Batavia'' in the Houtman Abrolhos, Abrolhos Islands. It lies nort ...

, the Central West also known as the Turquoise Coast and another further south known at the Sunset Coast * South West Capes, or simply Capes Region: Cape Naturaliste to Cape Leeuwin (to Albany in the 2003 manual) * South Coast: Cape Leeuwin to Israelite Bay – incorporates the coastal region between Cape Leeuwin and

Windy Harbour Windy Harbour is a rural locality of the Shire of Manjimup in the South West region of Western Australia. It is surrounded by D’Entrecasteaux National Park. It is located 27 km south of Northcliffe, on the south coast of Western Austr ...

, usually considered part of the south west * South Coast Region or the South East: Israelite Bay (Albany in the 2003 manual) to the Western Australia / South Australian border (Eucla)

Ports, settlements and towns

Fisheries bioregions

Under the ''Fish Resources Management Act 1994'' there are four main regions on the Western Australian coast. *North Coast (Pilbara/Kimberley): from the

Western Australian Western Australia (WA) is the westernmost state of Australia. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east, and South Australia to the south-east. Western Aust ...

and Northern Territory border to 114° 50' E 21° 46' S, just west of the mouth of the Ashburton River *Gascoyne Coast: from 114° 50' E 21° 46' S, just west of the mouth of the Ashburton River Mouth to 27° S – about halfway between Kalbarri and Denham *West Coast: from 27° S: about halfway between Kalbarri and Denham south to 115 ° 30' E – Black Point east of

Cape Leeuwin Cape Leeuwin is the most south-westerly (but not most southerly) mainland point of the Australian continent, in the state of Western Australia. Description A few small islands and rocks, the St Alouarn Islands, extend further in Flinders ...

*South Coast: from 115 ° 30' E: Black Point east of

, to the South Australian Border

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: *

Eucla Basin The Eucla Basin is an artesian depression located in Western Australia and South Australia. The onshore-offshore depression covers approximately 1,141,000 km2 and slopes southward to an open bay known as the Great Australian Bight. It exte ...

– Eucla – Israelite Bay – Limestone * Yilgarn craton – Point Malcolm – Cape Arid and Point Hood to Point D'Entrecasteaux * Bremer Basin – Israelite Bay –

Point D'Entrecasteaux Point D'Entrecasteaux is a Peninsula, point on the south coast of Western Australia. The first European sighting was by the Frenchman Antoine Bruni d'Entrecasteaux in the 1700s, although there were possible sightings by Dutch navigators from s ...

Perth Basin The Perth Basin is a thick, elongated sedimentary basin in Western Australia. It lies beneath the Swan Coastal Plain west of the Darling Scarp, representing the western limit of the much older Yilgarn craton, and extends further west offshore. ...

– Augusta – Murchison River * Carnarvon Basin – Murchison River – Cape Preston * Pilbara craton – Cape Preston – Port Hedland * Canning Basin – Port Hedland – King Sound * Kimberley Basin – Kimberley Coast *

Bonaparte Basin The Bonaparte Basin is a sedimentary basin in Western Australia and the Northern Territory of Australia. Its total area is approximately , most of which is offshore. The sedimentary basin emerges at the Joseph Bonaparte Gulf and extends into ...

–

Cambridge Gulf Cambridge Gulf is a gulf on the north coast of the Kimberley region of Western Australia. Many rivers flow into the gulf, including the Ord River, Pentecost River, Durack River, King River and the Forrest River, making the environment a ...

Gulfs

Admiralty Gulf Admiralty Gulf is a gulf in the Kimberley region of Western Australia that opens into the Indian Ocean The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or approximately 20% of the water area of Earth# ...

Exmouth Gulf Exmouth Gulf is a Bay, gulf in the North West Australia, north-west of Western Australia. It lies between North West Cape and the main coastline of Western Australia. It is considered to be part of the Pilbara Coast and Northwest Shelf, and t ...

Joseph Bonaparte Gulf Joseph Bonaparte Gulf is a large body of water off the coast of the Northern Territory and Western Australia and part of the Timor Sea. It was named after Joseph Bonaparte, brother of Napoleon and King of Naples (1806–1808) and then Spain (18 ...

Sounds

Specifically referring to

Sound (geography) In geography, a sound is a smaller body of water usually connected to a sea or an ocean. A ''sound'' may be an inlet that is deeper than a bight and wider than a fjord; or a narrow sea channel or an ocean channel between two land masses, ...

* Camden Sound *

Cockburn Sound Cockburn Sound () is an inlet of the Indian Ocean on the coast of Western Australia. It extends from the south of the mouth of the Swan River at Fremantle for about to Point Peron near Rockingham. The total area of the sound is about . It ...

King Sound King Sound is a large gulf in northern Western Australia. It expands from the mouth of the Fitzroy River (Western Australia), Fitzroy River, one of Australia's largest watercourses, and opens to the Indian Ocean. It is about long, and averag ...

* Yampi Sound *

York Sound York Sound is a sound located in the Kimberley region of Western Australia opening into the Indian Ocean. The sound is bounded by Cape Pond to the North and Hardey Point with the Coronation Islands to the South. The nearest populated town to the ...

King George Sound King George Sound (Mineng ) is a sound (geography), sound on the south coast of Western Australia. Named King George the Third's Sound in 1791, it was referred to as King George's Sound from 1805. The name "King George Sound" gradually came in ...

Archipelagoes and island groups

Archipelago of the Recherche The Archipelago of the Recherche, known locally as the Bay of Isles, is a group of 105 islands, and over 1200 "obstacles to shipping", off the south coast of Western Australia. The islands stretch from east to west and to off-shore encomp ...

Bonaparte Archipelago The Bonaparte Archipelago is a group of islands off the coast of Western Australia in the Kimberley region, within the Shire of Wyndham-East Kimberley. The closest inhabited place is Kalumburu located about to the east of the island group. Th ...

Buccaneer Archipelago The Buccaneer Archipelago is a group of islands off the coast of Western Australia near the town of Derby in the Kimberley region. The closest inhabited place is Bardi located about from the western end of the island group. , a new marine p ...

Houtman Abrolhos The Houtman Abrolhos (often called the Abrolhos Islands) is a chain of 122 islands and associated coral reefs in the Indian Ocean off the west coast of Australia about west of Geraldton, Western Australia. It is the southernmost true coral r ...

Monte Bello Islands The Montebello Islands, also rendered as the Monte Bello Islands, are an archipelago of around 174 small islands, about 92 of which are named, lying north of Barrow Island (Western Australia), Barrow Island and off the Pilbara region of W ...

Thevenard Island Thevenard Island is located approximately off the coast of Onslow in the Pilbara region of Western Australia.Gazetteer of Australia (1996). Belconnen, ACT: Australian Surveying and Land Information Group. The majority of the island and the wa ...

* Direction Island (Exmouth Gulf)

Aquatic flora

The Western Australian coastline has the greatest diversity of

seagrass Seagrasses are the only flowering plants which grow in marine (ocean), marine environments. There are about 60 species of fully marine seagrasses which belong to four Family (biology), families (Posidoniaceae, Zosteraceae, Hydrocharitaceae and ...

es in the world, and the meadows they form are among the largest on earth.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 *

Amphibolis antarctica ''Amphibolis antarctica'' is a species of flowering plant in the family Cymodoceaceae. It is referred to by the common names wire weedRippey, Elizabeth and Rowland, Barbara (2004) ''Coastal Plants: Perth and the south-west region'' Second Editio ...

, Wireweed, Sea Nymph *

Amphibolis griffithii ''Amphibolis griffithii'' is a seagrass found in waters along the southwestern coasts of Western Australia, extending to Encounter Bay in South Australia . Description A common marine herb, the rhizomatous plant forms meadows which stabilise s ...

Halophila australis ''Halophila australis'', the paddle weed, is a species of seagrass in the family Hydrocharitaceae Hydrocharitaceae is a flowering plant family which includes 14 accepted genera and a total of ca 135 known species (Christenhusz & Byng 2016). Th ...

*Halophila decipiens *

Halophila ovalis ''Halophila ovalis'', commonly known as paddle weed, spoon grass or dugong grass, is a seagrass in the family Hydrocharitaceae. It is a small herbaceous plant that naturally occurs in sea beds and other saltwater environments in the Indo-Pacific ...

, Paddle Weed, Sea Wrack *Heterozostera tasmanica *Posidonia angustifolia *

Posidonia australis ''Posidonia australis'', also known as fibre-ball weed or ribbon weed, is a species of seagrass that occurs in the southern waters of Australia. It forms large meadows important to environmental conservation. Balls of decomposing detritus from ...

, Fireball Weed *

Posidonia coriacea ''Posidonia coriacea'' is a species of seagrass that occurs in the southern waters of Australia. Description A species of ''Posidonia''. A perennial rhizomatous herb that appears as stands in marine habitat. This species is found at depths from ...

*Posidonia denhartogii * Posidonia robertsoniae *Posidonia sinuosa *Syringodium isoetifolium *Thalassodendron pachyrhizum

Integrated Marine and Coastal Regionalisation of Australia (IMCRA)

Coastal regions used in weather reports

General coastal regions

Ports, settlements and towns

Fisheries bioregions

Features

Gulfs

Sounds

Archipelagoes and island groups

Aquatic flora

See also

Notes

References

Further reading

Flora

Conferences

Locations

Government reports