The Mid West region takes up approximately one fifth of Western Australia. The diverse landscape extends along the Indian Ocean coast from Kalbarri in the north, down to Green Head in the South. Heading east for 800 kilometres the region enters a mineral rich hinterland and borders the Pilbara and Goldfields-Esperance regions.
It has a total area of 472,336 square kilometres, and a permanent population of about 52,000 people, more than half of those in Geraldton. Geraldton is the major economic centre of the region. Geraldton is a 5 hour drive or 1 hour flight north of Perth.
Due to its relative isolation from radio-frequency interference, the Mid West region was selected to host one of two primary radiotelescope locations of the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) project. The radiotelescope antennae and the Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory (MRO) are located near Boolardy, Western Australia, approximately 315 km northeast of Geraldton, with logistics and science support provided by CSIRO from their facilities in Geraldton. High-capacity optical fibre cables connect the SKA telescope to the MRO support facility in Geraldton and to the Pawsley Supercomputing Centre in Perth, Western Australia