KEY POINTS:
It is nearly 10 times the size of New Zealand, encompassing sun-baked deserts, rust-red gorges and isolated Aboriginal settlements.
The vastness of the outback seat of Kalgoorlie, the world's largest electorate, is one of the biggest hurdles faced by an army of officials as Australia heads to the polls next week.
On November 24, nearly 90 polling booths will be set up in the electorate but early voting has already started in some parts, as well as other hard to reach areas of Australia.
The first votes were cast on Monday by Aborigines living in Kybrook Farm, a tropical settlement 220km south of Darwin.
Early voting is arranged to give the Australian Electoral Commission's 37 mobile polling teams enough time to reach nearly 400 remote locations in five states and territories.
"It's a huge logistical challenge," the commission's Phil Diak said. "We've been planning it since early this year."
While most of Australia's 70,000 election officials will be confined to the suburban coastal fringe, others will travel by 4WD, helicopter and boat. Australia may only have 13.5 million eligible voters, but votes have to be collected from far-flung territories, including the coral atoll Cocos Islands in the Indian Ocean and the country's Antarctic bases, where votes will be sent in by fax. More than 20,000 expats are expected to line up at Australia House in London in the country's biggest single polling station.
Kalgoorlie covers 2.3 million sq km and has been held for nine years by Liberal Party MP Barry Haase.
The electorate is based on the gold mining town of Kalgoorlie, famous for its brothels and 'skimpy' bars, where topless young women in 'skimpy' knickers serve thirsty mine workers.
Haase, a former Royal Australian Navy sailor and catering manager, expects to have covered 200,000km by the end of the six-week campaign. By today he will have taken six flights in three days, criss-crossing the state between Kalgoorlie, Perth and the old pearling port of Broome.
"I'm on the road constantly," he said from Karratha. He spends only 50 days a year at home in Kalgoorlie, with the rest of the time divided between the electorate and Parliament in Canberra.
He attributes the Government's poor poll performance to the fact that the economic boom has made many voters complacent, convinced that the good times will continue regardless of which party is in government.
