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the principal natural harbours, but excellent and commodious artificial harbours have been formed at Fremantle within the mouth of the Swan River and at Bunbury in Koombana Bay.
The most prominent capes along the coast are Capes Domet and Dusséjour, on the opposite sides of the entrance to Cambridge Gulf; Cape Londonderry, the most northerly point of the State; Cape Talbot, at the entrance to Napier Broome Bay; Cape Bougainville to the east, and Cape Voltaire to the west, of Admiralty Gulf; Cape Levêque, at the western entrance to King Sound; Cape Latouche Tréville; Sloping Head, near Nickol Bay, a place of considerable importance to pearlers; North-West Cape, forming the western side of Exmouth Gulf; Steep Point, to the south of Dirk Hartog Island, and the most westerly point of the mainland; Capes Naturaliste and Leeuwin, at the south-west corner, that area of extreme danger to navigation; Point d'Entrecasteaux, and Capes West Cape Howe, Peak Head, Hood Point, Legrande, and Arid, along the southern coast.
Along the north and north-west coasts there are islands almost without number, many of which have not been closely examined, but which appear to present the same characteristics as the adjacent mainland. Bigge and Augustus Islands are the largest in extent in the extreme north, and Barrow Island, to the north of Onslow, on the north-west. Opposite King Sound we find the Buccaneer Archipelago, and west of Cossack the Dampier Archipelago, both names reminiscent of that great buccaneering Englishman, William Dampier. On the west coast are Dirk Hartog Island and the Houtman Abrolhos, which share the honour of being the first Australian land seen by civilized man. The latter, which now are noted for guano deposits, were the bugbear of the early navigators, and on them more than one rich Dutch trading vessel came to an untimely end. Opposite Fremantle are Rottnest and Garden Islands, the first of which was named by Vlaming, while the latter was the depot for stores in the infancy of the State. Along the south coast are Chatham Island, Breaksea Island (upon which a signalling station and lighthouse for passing vessels have been erected), and the Recherche Archipelago.
The cities and towns will be more fully dealt with elsewhere: they may be divided into two classes―those that arose gradually after the colonization of the State in 1829 and those that sprang up almost magically after the great gold discoveries of the early nineties. Of the first, Perth (1829), Fremantle (1829), Guildford (1830), Albany (1831), and Northam (1833) stand as types, while of the second, Coolgardie (1893), Kalgoorlie (1894), and Boulder (1896) are prominent examples. How great a part gold has played in the development of Western Australia may be gauged in some degree from the fact that the largest towns in the State at present are Perth and Kalgoorlie, the capital city and the principal goldfields centre.
From an economic standpoint the geography of the State is such that every indication points to the fact that its development must rest on the great primary industries—mining and agricultural, timber and pastoral, as well as pearling, which is so largely carried on off the coast in the north-west. While the question of rainfall has no connection with either mining or pearling, it is so great a factor in the other pursuits that an article dealing with the geography and physical features of the territory must make some reference to it. That it varies considerably we may readily understand must be the case in a country which stretches well up into the tropics and far down into the temperate zone, with an interior hundreds of miles from the sea, and absolutely devoid of anything in the way of fresh-water rivers or lakes.
In the extreme north we find the abundant rainfall usual in tropical coastal areas, bringing about a luxurious growth of grass which makes that district so fit a country for the development of every kind of pastoral pursuit. In the south-west the yearly average rainfall varies from 30 to 40 in., according to locality, thus producing those conditions necessary for the growth of large timbers, most of which have a high commercial value. As we go inland the amount of rain rapidly decreases, but it is still sufficient in quantity and so certain of appearance as to make practically the whole western strip extending southward from the 28th parallel of latitude and eastward for over a hundred miles suitable for the production of cereals. Though the fact has been recognized only during recent years the work of opening up this vast area for agricultural development has been so steadily and enthusiastically pursued by the Government that in a very few years the State bids fair to become one of the great wheat- and fruit-producing countries of the world.
We have thus briefly outlined the geography of Western Australia and incidentally referred to her great resources. Captious critics have termed her the Cinderella of the Group, the land of sand and barrenness: but "the wings of dawn are beating at the gates of day."
What is Western Australia? The largest of the six States of the Commonwealth; the nearest to the great Eastern communities; the first and last port of call on the great ocean highway between the Southern and Northern Hemispheres. So situated and so endowed she must in the ripeness of time become one of the greatest of those great free communities privileged to carry on under the Southern Cross the noblest traditions of the British race.