Population: 9,854 (Australian Bureau of Statistics)
Main employment sources: Horticulture, fisheries, mining, tourism, pasturalism
Main cities/towns: Carnarvon and Exmouth
Location: Carnarvon is 905 km north of Perth or 9 hours drive

Overview
"The Gascoyne has the most equable weather in Australia, if not the world," boasts Dennis Wade, manager of the Gascoyne Business Enterprise Centre. "We sometimes have up to 360 rainless days a year."

While many Australian residents may consider this more of a curse than a blessing, Mr Wade explained that the Gascoyne water catchment is fed from the River Gascoyne, which is WA's largest river. It certainly does its job. The region's 148 plantations supply WA with 70 per cent of its table vegetables.

Mr Wade told CareerOne.com.au that people choose the Gascoyne region as a place to live for its lifestyle, climate and business opportunities.

The Gascoyne's main industries are horticulture, fisheries, tourism, resources/mining and pastoralism. All areas are accessible from the region's two biggest centres - Carnarvon and Exmouth. Gascoyne's recreational include the Ningaloo Reef and Shark Bay Heritage areas like Monkey Mia.

Qualified tradespeople are always in demand due to a skills shortage and many businesses recruit labour from interstate and overseas. Local government is also a significant employer. The Gascoyne Development Commission has a team that helps local businesses and industry access the Skilled Migration Program and have developed the "Gascoyne Skills in Demand" list.
Read more about Gascoyne's Skilled Migration Program

Housing
Gascoyne's population is both "transitional" and "steady". However, the static population has not stopped house prices increasing a whopping 50 per cent in the last 12 months. Exmouth is WA's highest cyclone risk area with a cyclonic rating of "Region D Terrain Category 2", which means all engineering designs and specifications for buildings must meet this standard. As a result, buildings are all low rise.

Education
Carnarvon has four primary schools and two high schools. A number of the regions' Year 10 pupils leave Carnarvon to complete their final two years' schooling at Geraldton or Perth. Both Carnarvon and Exmouth have TAFE colleges.

Useful Links:

• Carnarvon Senior High School
• East Carnarvon Primary School
• St Mary's Star of the Sea
• Carnarvon School of the Air
• Central West TAFE (Exmouth & Carnarvon)
• Open Learning Australia

*Things to do and see

Exmouth was built primarily to service a United States naval base but its beauty has seen it developed into a major Australian tourist destination featuring beaches, coral reefs, excellent fishing and recreational diving.

Ningaloo Marine Park on the west coast is a main attraction. The world's biggest species of fish, the whale shake, appears every year from April to July following the mass spawning of coral and visitors can snorkel amongst these gentle giants. The Ningaloo Reef is one of the only places in the world where whale sharks appear regularly in large numbers. There are several charter boat businesses.
In Exmouth: Blue Horizon Charters, Exmouth Dive Centre, King's Ningaloo Reef Tours, Ningaloo Blue Charters, Ningaloo Reef Dreaming, 3 Island Marine and Village Dive Charters. In Coral Bay: Coral Bay Adventures, the Ningaloo Experience and Ningaloo Reef Dive. Coral Bay is known as home to 'the best pink snappers in the world'.

The Monkey Mia Nature Reserve is famous for its large pod of bottlenose dolphins that visit and interact with people on the beach as part of their daily activities.
The Kennedy Range National Park is about 160km from the coast and is a plateau featuring spectacular cliffs and a maze of steep-sided canyons. The road to the eastern side escarpment is suitable for two-wheel drive vehicles.
The The Gascoyne Murchison region, home to the Yamaji people for at least 30,000 years and to Europeans for more than 150 years, is rich with cultural experiences. Drives in the area offer a 'true Australian outback experience'.
Inland from Carnarvon, Mt Augustus National Park is the world's largest monocline - a rock strata that dips in one direction, and is 2.5 times the size of Uluru.

*This information was based on interviews as well as web sources including:

Backpacking Around

westernaustralia.com

Go West Now

Gascoyne Development Commission