North West Australia

The terms North West Australia, The North West and North Western Australia have been used as a regular label for the region of the North of Western Australia.

Offshore

The term is also used for offshore oil and gas area of the North West Shelf.

The offshore islands include the groups of islands - Barrow Island, Monte Bello Islands and the Dampier Archipelago

Variations of boundary

There are some variations

• north of latitude 26° south — a definition widely used in law and State government policy The North West of Western Australia 1963 edition - issued by the Western Australian Government Tourist Bureau, Perth - pages 12 and 13 - 26th Parallel as boundary, however on page 13, separates into sub-areas - Gascoyne, De Grey and Fortescue, Kimberley, and the 'dry interior'
• the official Kimberley, Pilbara and Gascoyne regions of Western Australia, or two or more of these.
• during the 19th century, the whole area north of the Murchison River was referred to as the North District, and during the 1860s it was officially administered by a Government Resident, Robert John Sholl, based in Roebourne.

• In the 1960s the Department of Industrial Development defined it as:-

<blockquote> The region is bounded in the west by the Indian Ocean, in the east by the Central Division, in the north-east by the Pilbara, and in the south by the Northern Agricultural Division. It covers and area of and has a population of about 10,000...
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