Half the population lives in the Perth metropolitan area. Western Australia's population of Australian aborigines numbers about 25,000. State-owned goldfields cover much of Western Australia, and there is a vast central desert. The King Leopold, Hamersley, and Stirling ranges are actually high plateaus. The climate is tropical in the north and temperate in the southwest.
Agriculture is confined primarily to the southwest and around Perth.
About one half of the cultivated land is in wheat. Sheep graze in the north and southwest, and wool is a major product. Meat, dairy products, and timber are also important. The mining of iron, gold, and bauxite has played a major role in the state's economy for many years. Dirck Hartog, a Dutchman who arrived in 1616, was the first white man known to have visited the coast.