The south-west corner drainage region of

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to t ...

is one of only two temperate and relatively fertile parts of mainland

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of , Australia is the largest country by ...

. It covers about , or a little less than 2% of the continent. For comparison, this is about the same size as

North Carolina North Carolina () is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the List of U.S. states and territories by area, 28th largest and List of states and territories of the United ...

or a little larger than

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

. The landscape is generally flat and sandy but there are several major features, in particular the

Stirling Range The Stirling Range or Koikyennuruff is a range of mountains and hills in the Great Southern region of Western Australia, south-east of Perth. It is over wide from west to east, stretching from the highway between Mount Barker and Cranb ...

near Albany, which reaches at its highest point, and the

Darling Scarp The Darling Scarp, also referred to as the Darling Range or Darling Ranges, is a low escarpment running north–south to the east of the Swan Coastal Plain and Perth, Western Australia. The escarpment extends generally north of Bindoon, to ...

. The climate is temperate Mediterranean. Summers are warm to hot and dry, winters are cool and wet. Mountains near the coast concentrate rainfall in that area, with parts of the extreme south-western corner receiving as much as per year. Away from the coast, however, precipitation drops rapidly, with inland areas averaging about per year. Other Western Australian drainage divisions include: * Pilbara freshwater ecoregion * Timor Sea drainage division in the Kimberley and the Northern Territory

Top End The Top End of Australia's Northern Territory is a geographical region encompassing the northernmost section of the Northern Territory, which aside from the Cape York Peninsula is the northernmost part of the Australian continent. It covers a ra ...

. Other Australian drainage divisions include: *

Gulf of Carpentaria The Gulf of Carpentaria (, ) is a large, shallow sea enclosed on three sides by northern Australia and bounded on the north by the eastern Arafura Sea (the body of water that lies between Australia and New Guinea). The northern boundary i ...

* Australian north-east coast drainage division * Australian south-east coast drainage division * Murray-Darling Basin *

South Australian gulf drainage division The South Australian gulf drainage division is the area surrounding the Gulf St Vincent and Spencer Gulf and a sliver of country to the immediate north. It includes 75,000 square kilometres of mostly moderately flat territory, broken only by the ...

Lake Eyre Basin The Lake Eyre basin ( ) is a drainage basin that covers just under one-sixth of all Australia. It is the largest endorheic basin in Australia and amongst the largest in the world, covering about , including much of inland Queensland, large porti ...

* Western Plateau

References

* Beard, J. S. (1999) ''Evolution of the river systems of the south-west drainage division, Western Australia.'' Journal of the Royal Society of Western Australia, Dec. 1999, p. 147-164' * Olsen, Graeme. and Skitmore, E. ''The state of the rivers of the South West Drainage Division'' Leederville, W.A : Western Australian Water Resources Council, 1991. Water resource perspectives Publication ; no. 2/91 * Schofiled, N.J. et al. ( 1989) ''Vegetation strategies to reduce stream salinities of water resource catchments in southwest Western Australia : prepared for the Steering Committee for Research on Land Use and Water Supply'' Leederville, W.A : Water Authority of Western Australia . Report (Water Authority of Western Australia) ; no. WS 33. * South West Catchments Council ''South West regional strategy for natural resource management'' Bunbury, W.A.: South West Catchments Council {{coord missing, Western Australia Drainage basins of Australia Regions of Western Australia Southwest Australia

See also

References