Western Australia (WA) is Australia’s largest state. As its name suggests it is located on the west coast of Australia. The state’s capital city is Perth.
As with all Australian state flags the Union Jack appears in the top-left corner of the flag of Western Australia. It also pictures the State Badge: a yellow circle with a Black Swan at its centre.
Western Australia’s Coat of Arms was granted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1969. The shield pictures a Black Swan on rippled water. The shield is supported by a Kangaroo on either side, each holding a Boomerang. Above the shield is a Royal Crown surrounded by Kangaroo Paw flowers.
The floral emblem of Western Australia has been the Red and Green Kangaroo Paw since 1960. The flower is named for its shape which looks like a furry paw.
Western Australia’s animal emblem is the Numbat. The striped marsupials have sharp claws and long tongues which they use to eat termites.
The bird emblem of Western Australia is the Black Swan. The Dutch navigator, Captain Willem de Vlamingh, gave the Swan River its name, due to the large number of Black Swans he found there in 1697. Indigenous Western Australians have a story that says that the ancestors of the Nyungar people were Black Swans who became men.
Western Australia even has a fossil emblem: the Gogo Fish. The long-extinct Gogo Fish lived on a barrier reef thought to have existed along the Western Australian coast 375 million years ago. The Gogo Fish has been Australia’s fossil emblem since 1995.