Western Australia has the longest coastline of any state or territory in Australia, at 10,194 km or 12,889 km (20,781 km including islands). It is a significant portion of the coastline of Australia, which is 35,877 km (59,736 km including islands). The earliest full charting of the coastline occurred during exploration in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. The coastline has some features or organisms that are found on the entire length, while some others are specific to particular coastal regions. Various government map posters have been created over time, which have examples of coastal form, or types of coast such as the 1984 map with photos.

Integrated Marine and Coastal Regionalisation of Australia (IMCRA)

The IMCRA has offshore regions delineated in a systematic appraisal of ecology and geography.

Coastal regions used in weather reports

Standard Bureau of Meteorology reports include the following reference points for coastal weather reports:

General coastal regions

There are groupings for wider regions that are based very close to the land regions; one made in the 1980s has 8 coastal regions, while the 2003 Coastal Planning and Management Manual has five regions with component sections:

Ports, settlements and towns

Fisheries bioregions

Under the Fish Resources Management Act 1994 there are four main regions on the Western Australian coast.

Features

The coastal regions include a range of beaches, cliffs, and coastline features that are dependent upon the underlying geology; the geological provinces have direct relationship to the coastal forms:

Gulfs

Sounds

Specifically referring to Sound (geography)

Archipelagoes and island groups

Aquatic flora

The Western Australian coastline has the greatest diversity of seagrasses in the world, and the meadows they form are among the largest on earth.

Flora

Conferences

Title 3rd WA State Coastal Conference, Mandurah – Bunbury – Busselton, November 2005 : coastal solutions : balancing the waves of change : program and papers. Canning Bridge, W.A. : Promaco Conventions Pty Ltd, 2005. ISBN 1-86308-126-7

Locations

Government reports