The Region

The Northern Agricultural Region (NAR) covers 7.5 million hectares in Western Australia’s wheatbelt, stretching across valuable agricultural land and environmental sites. The NAR extends from the Shire of Gingin in the South to the Shire of Northampton in the north as well inland to include Mullewa, Morawa, Perenjori and Dalwallinu. The coastline and waters out to three nautical miles, including the Houtman Abrolhos Islands and islands of the Turquoise Coast, also form part of the region.

Around 64 000 people live in the NAR and roughly 60% of these people are based in Geraldton and the surrounding areas. Broadacre agriculture is the predominant industry, with large economic contributions also coming from fishing, mining and tourism. The region is an enormously important producer of food for local consumption and export. It is also part of an internationally recognised biodiversity hotspot, home to a huge diversity of plants and animals unique to this part of the world.

Some of the critical natural resource management priorities in the NAR are working with local communities to build healthy and productive soils in the face of acidity, salinity and wind erosion, maintain water quality and quantity and ensure that our unique flora and fauna have access to enough good quality habitat to sustain them in the long term.