MATTISKE CONSULTING

The metropolitan region of Perth is bounded on the west by the Indian Ocean and on the east by the Darling Ranges. If you head due west from Perth, you will keep travelling over ocean until you hit the east coast of South Africa, about midway between Durban and East London. The nearest major cities from Perth are Adelaide in South Australia, about 2,100 kilometres to the east, and Denpassar (Bali), about 3,000 kilometres to the north. Perth is thought to be one of the most isolated major cities in the world.

The State of Western Australia is absolutely huge, covering an area of about 2,500,000 square kilometres (975,000 square miles). It has a population of over 1,600,000, with about 1,200,000 living in the Perth metropolitan area. The scenery in Western Australia can only be described as fantastic, ranging from the wild Southern Coast (the next stop south from Western Australia is the Continent of Antarctica), to the inland deserts and arid zones, and to the tropics of the Kimberley region in the extreme north of the State (the next stop north of the Kimberleys are the islands of the Indonesian Archipelago).

It is over 2,000 kilometres from Albany on the South Coast of Western Australia to Kununurra on the North Coast.

This State includes thousands of kilometres of the cleanest beaches that you will ever see anywhere in the world. About 300 kilometres south of Perth is Margaret River, where you will find world class surfing (the Australian championships are often held there) and wind-surfing.

Kalamunda lies in the Darling Ranges, a low range of hills which runs roughly north-south for a distance of about 400 kms from north of Perth to Northcliffe, on the south coast of Western Australia. The Darling Ranges include the unique Jarrah Forests of Western Australia, which give rise to the slogan of the Shire of Kalamunda, namely A Home in the Forest.

About 40,000 people live in the Shire of Kalamunda. Most work in or near the Perth metropolitan area, but the shire also includes small farms, orchards, vineyards and a couple of wineries. There are many small businesses operating in this Shire.

Kalamunda is also the start of the Bibbulmun Track which is a 960 kilometre walking trail that ends on the south coast of Western Australia.
(See! We told you that everything is big in Western Australia.)

Mattiske Consulting has its offices here because

• some of the people who work in this team live nearby (including the owners!),
• the office is relatively close to Perth International Airport (about 15 minutes by car),
• we happen to think that Kalamunda is a great place in which to work (we apologise if we seem to be biased), and
• there are some good bakeries and restaurants nearby (which means that some of us have to make difficult decisions at times about the amounts of rich food which we eat).