Lands administrative divisions of Western Australia

[13] In 1831, instructions were issued from the Colonial Secretary in London for "the division of the whole of the territory of Western Australia into Counties, Hundreds and Parishes of fixed size".

[citation needed] At this time, the population of the colony was small, and the Governor had complete control over the affairs of the state, receiving advice from experts such as the Surveyor General, who was responsible for the Department of Lands and Surveys.

[citation needed] In the interim, the Department started two new files at the beginning of 1897 which ultimately recorded the correspondence between the Chief Draftsman, Surveyor General, Under Secretary for Lands and the responsible Minister in setting up a consistent means of generating and naming new land districts which would form the basis of a statutory system once one emerged, and 25 new districts had been approved by year's end.

"[19] Between 1902 and 1906, a considerable rush to gazette new districts was promoted by the desire to impress land agents in London — the Minister noted that "it will not hurt the State to show as few blanks as possible".

Download coordinates as: Historically, there were 26 counties in the south-western part of the state, designated shortly after the Swan River Colony was founded in 1829.