WA Australia, Wikipedia article
Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western third 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 the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east, and South Australia to the south-east. Western Australia is Australia's largest state, with a total land area of 2,527,013 square kilometres (975,685 sq mi). It is the second-largest country subdivision in the world, surpassed only by Russia's Sakha Republic. As of 2021, the state has 2.76 million inhabitants—11 percent of the national total. The vast majority (92 percent) live in the south-west corner; 79 percent of the population lives in the Perth area,leaving the remainder of the state sparsely populated.
The first Europeans to visit Western Australia belonged to the Dutch Dirk Hartog expedition, who visited the Western Australian coast in 1616. The first permanent European colony of Western Australia occurred following the landing by Major Edmund Lockyer on 26 December 1826 of an expedition on behalf of the New South Wales colonial government. Lockyer established a convict-supported military garrison at King George III Sound, at present-day Albany, and on 21 January 1827 he formally took possession for the British Crown of the western part of the continent that was not already claimed by the Crown. This was followed by the establishment of the Swan River Colony in 1829, including the site of the present-day capital, Perth.
Source: Wikipedia, Western Australia