Despite its population of only 10% of the total population of Australia, Western Australia's economy has been highly successful. Even with its lack of population in comparison to other states, it already comprises 30% of our export revenues. Its position on the far west side of the continent is quite beneficial to its economy. Perth, home to the state heads of many banking and finance companies like ANZ and commonwealth, most mining or petroleum companies state wide and the main centre of Australia's mining, gas and oil administration is the only capital city in the country that can contact Europe and other countries on the northern hemisphere during normal business hours, also it is in the same time zone with Singapore, Manila, Honking and Beijing undoubtedly making trade and business better with of Asia as well. Because of its convenient position, WA can more easily negotiate trades with North America and the Euro Stock Exchange and transport goods more moderately to South-East Asia in comparison to the rest of Australia. This has resulted in more demand from countries like China.
WA is mostly dependant on the production of mined goods. Our main exported resources being those extracted from mines or petroleum commodities, such as nickel, natural gas, zinc, mineral sand, etc. Western Australia alone makes up the supply of 20% of the world's alumina and 17% of its iron ore. Also it supplies about 75% of Australia’s gold. Natural gas is also heavily exported; in 2007 Hu Jianto the president of China purchased $45 billion Australian dollars worth, the largest export of gas recorded from WA so far. Gas is also manufactured in companies into Petroleum chemicals and fertilizer for export to (mainly) Asia.
Other exported goods and services contributing to the economy include those of the fishing industry, agricultural industry and tourism. The fishing industry has been quite successful due to the biodiversity of seafood near the coastline, catches such as Western Rock Lobsters, crabs, prawns, shark, tuna and even the Patagonian toothfish. The annual harvest is about $65 million, 33% of the national total. 50% of live cattle in Australia have occurred in WA, along with the production of wheat, barley and sheep products. Agriculture is about 3% of WA’s GSP. Tourism has been becoming increasingly important as more tourist come from mainly the UK, Ireland, Japan, Malaysia and Singapore. It contribute around $6 billion to the economy and employs about 43000 people. There are also some wine breweries around the Margaret river and Perth, Along with some Aquaculture producing Barramundi. The abundance in natural resources, along with the state’s strong corporate activity and increasing demand from foreign countries will ensure that Western Australia will have a wealthy economy.
The dispersion of goods and services among regions is as followed:
Kimberley
-Pearls, harvested around the coast in Broome.
-Diamonds, from the Argyle and Ellendale mines. (1/3’s of the world’s diamond produce)
-Oil, from Blina oilfield.
-Zinc and Lead, from Pillara, Sallay Mallay and Cadjebut mines.
-Agricultural goods, near Ord River and West Kimberley.
-Fruit, in Broome.
-Live cattle, in Wyndham.
-Barramundi, Lake Argyle and Broome.
-Indigineous Art
Tourism (Bungle Bungle, Lake Argyle, etc.)
Pilbara
-Petroleum.
-Iron ore, from mines in Newman and Tom Price. (Produces the most iron ore in Australia.
-Manganeese, from the company Woodi Woodie.
-Tourism ( Karinji, the Dampier Archipelago, etc.)
Goldfields
-Gold and Nickel
-Agricultural produce, wheat and barley.
-Fish
South west
-Alumina and mineral salts
-Agricultural products
-Timber
-Grapes (viticulture)
-Tourism
Its strong ties with the global economy, mainly the developing economies in Asia makes the Western Australian economy somewhat independent to the rest of the nation. That is to say, that if the economy of Australia were to come to a halt WA, more dependant on its foreign correspondents, would continue to run to some extent. Economic booms in countries like China having a catalytical effect on our economy seeing that their demand for goods grows. Now the state exports at a faster rate than it imports and it has increased the price of its exports. This has lead to relatively high incomes, in 2007 average fulltime income reached $61,662 larger than the national average of $57,387. It has also been the cause of strong GSP growth, in 2004-2005 rising by 2.7% and the RGSI (Real Gross State Income) which is now 6.4% only after Queensland (6.9%) and Northern Territory (6.5%).
Although its dependence on the global economy might separate it from the possibly slowdown of the Australian economy, if the global economy were to fail it would drastically hinder the growth of ours. The demand for WA’s goods would decrease and it’s economy to would come to a halt.
On another note, the rapid growth of WA’s economy has also caused problems. One of which has to due with small population of the state, mainly labour shortage. Even with unemployment at a very low rate, there still aren’t enough workers, particularly skilled workers, to fill all the job that this growth in have created. Many feel that if the workers can’t be found many opportunities will be lost. That has in turn lead to another problem, lured by high wages more and more people have decided to move to WA. The growth in population has caused for a shortage in housing, increasing property values and pushing up rental prices. In 2004 the values went up by 40%. Now Perth is the second most valuable city next to Sydney. Not only that but there has been a 12% decreasion in the building of new housing so the gap between the demand for housing and supply will continue to widen and so will rental prices.
In Australia’s current economy slowing mining states, like Western Australia are expected to still perform strongly. Western Australia’s immunity to the slowdown is also helped by it’s relationship to South-east Asia. The rapid growth of the economy may cause wage breakout and inflation. As more people are flown in from elsewhere to deal with the labour shortage the rental prices will rise as well, unless something is done to ensure the production. Though if the population increase is not enough the shortage of workers could prove fatal in the economy. Even if job figures seem to be going strong they don’t necessary indicate the direction in which the economy is going.
The information in this post has been collected from various other sources.
