The wheatbelt of Western Australia

Abstract

DEVELOPMENT for broadscale wheat and sheep farming in Western Australia has produced a seemingly uniform landscape over much of the southwest of Western Australia. However, this area, commonly called the wheatbelt (Fig. 1), consists of at least four of the biogeographic regions designated on the basis of physical and biological measures (such as climate, geology, landform landuse, flora and fauna) in the Interim Biogeographic Regionalization of Australia (Thackway and Cresswell 1994). The four Interim Biogeographic Regionalization of Australia regions making up the wheatbelt are the Geraldton Sandplains, Avon Wheatbelt, Mallee and Esperance Plains, a total area of 24 766 406 ha.