Australia’s Department of Immigration and Citizenship has released figures showing that Britain has provided the highest number of successful Australian visa applications to Western Australia for a second year running.

Of the 11,910 people who entered WA on Australia skilled visas between 1 January and 4 December, over a third were from the UK, with 4,274 new British migrants accounting for 37 per cent of the state’s migrant intake for 2007.

However, despite remaining Western Australia’s highest migrant group over the course of the year, the number of British migrants relocating to the state was down 34 per cent from 2006, when 6,675 new migrants arrived from the UK.

South Africa was the second largest country of origin for WA migrants, followed by Malaysia, Singapore and India.