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Today marks WA Day. A day that celebrates all things Western Australia and all those who live here, call WA home and have helped fashion the state into such a unique place. As a migrant who grew up in Belfast, lived in London for seven years and moved to Perth in 2003 I have always been struck by wonder and awe about the sheer size of WA.

We’re the largest state by land area, accounting for almost one-third of Australia! Some of WA’s “firsts”: Carmen Lawrence; Edith Cowan; Fiona Stanley; Square Kilometre Array; Ken Wyatt. Credit: Composite image To put that into perspective, WA is more than twice as big as South Africa; five times bigger than Spain and Thailand; around eight times the size of Italy and Vietnam; and 10 times the size of the UK. You could fit the lone-star state Texas into WA three times and almost have room to squeeze in California.



The vastness means it’s also a pretty diverse place too – geologically, ecologically, climatically, and culturally. On the latter issue, WA has the highest proportion of overseas-born residents at 34 per cent. Victoria and NSW come in next at 31.

7 per cent and 31 per cent respectively. Many sandgropers will be familiar with some of the labels Perth has been subjected to, from the relatively kind “a big country town” to the not so kind “Dullsville” and the quip that WA stands for “wait awhile”. It’s a turn of phrase that seeks to mock West Australians as being behind the times, and I don’t just mean time .

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