What cannot be denied is the remoteness of this state. It is separated from any other centres of population by the Nullarbor Plain in the south, by deserts in the centre and by rugged terrain in the north. Only in recent years has there been a sealed road from Western Australia to anywhere at all. Prior to that, hundreds of kilometres of pot-holed dirt had to be negotiated to enter or leave the state by road, although the railway has provided a link for nearly a century now.
Probably Western Australia was the first part of this continent to be inhabited by humans. The aborigines seem to have arrived in the north-west about 55,000 years ago and moved gradually across the continent from there. The first Europeans to come here were the Dutch. They discovered that the best route to Batavia ( Jakarta ) was to sail east from the southern tip of Africa and then turn north. In 1616, Dirk Hartog sailed too far east before turning north and found the northern part of what is now Western Australia.
He landed near Shark Bay at Cape Inscription and left a pewter plate nailed to a tree with an inscription recording his visit. 81 years later, in 1697, Willem de Vlamingh was skillful enough to be able to navigate to exactly the same place and retrieve the plate, which is now in the Rijksmuseum in Holland, leaving another in its place, which is now in the Maritime Museum in Fremantle.
Free camping in Western Australia.
Western Australia towns