The Mining and Pastoral region encompasses an area of 2,200,087 km 2 , stretching from eastern side of the Great Victoria Desert to the monsoon forests of the Kimberley. The region contains four electoral districts - Kalgoorlie , Kimberley, Northwest and Pilbara.
With the bulk of the state's population in the south-west, the vast northern and eastern parts of the state are something of a mystery to most Western Australians. Successive Governments have treated the region as little more than a storehouse of resources to be plundered at will, with consequent environmental damage and social impacts. The transition to sustainability will be difficult unless local people are given more of a say in running their own affairs, and the reliance on exports of non-renewable resources will sooner or later need to be addressed if regional communities are to survive.
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Number of Electors on Roll
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Males |
35,149 |
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Total Electors |
68,480 |
The proportion of Indigenous Australians in this region is much higher than in the more populous south, with many people retaining strong ties to country and culture. Daily struggles against entrenched poverty and systematic exclusion, and continued dispossession to make way for certain kinds of ‘development', make the struggle for Aboriginal self-determination the greatest unresolved issue facing the region.
Unlike many southern areas, much of the Mining and Pastoral ecosystems are relatively intact, and it is strongly in the interests of all of us that they stay that way.
