Darling range is situated along which of the following coasts of Australia ?

Question

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Correct — D, South-Western Coast. The Darling Range (more precisely the Darling Scarp) is a low escarpment in the far south-west of Western Australia, running roughly north-south immediately east of Perth and the Swan Coastal Plain, so it lies along Australia's south-western coast. It is a fault-line scarp — the western edge of the Western Australian plateau — not a high fold mountain range, with its highest points only around 500-580 m (e.g. Mount Cooke).

Why the other options are wrong — (a) Australia's north-east (Queensland) coast is flanked by the northern part of the Great Dividing Range with the Great Barrier Reef offshore — not by the Darling Range, which lies in the south-west.  (b) The uplands near the south-central coast are the Flinders and Mount Lofty Ranges of South Australia. The Darling Scarp is in the south-WEST (near Perth), not on the south coast.  (c) This is the tempting trap — Australia's major highland, the Great Dividing Range, runs the whole length of the EASTERN coast. The Darling Range is a separate, much smaller feature in the south-west, so 'eastern coast' is wrong.

Concept: Australia's relief has three broad divisions: the western plateau (an ancient shield), the central lowlands (Great Artesian Basin), and the eastern highlands (the Great Dividing Range). The Darling Scarp/Range is the western edge of the WA plateau, where it drops abruptly to the narrow Swan Coastal Plain on which Perth sits.

State PCS 2020 Q76 — Geography PYQ with Answer

State PCS 2020 Q76 — Geography PYQ with Answer