Western Australia is two and a half million square kilometres in area - (almost four times the size of Texas), one third of the whole Australian continent. It is a huge area of land with a diversity of climates, terrain, flora and fauna. Western Australia is rich with natural resources and mining is the biggest industry (ahead of tourism); diamonds, bauxite, iron ore, gold, gas and oil are excavated from the earth and ocean floor. Western Australia is also home to huge sheep and cattle stations (some the size of Ireland!), wheatlands, national parks and contoured by 12,500km of coastline.