A surprisingly large amount of people are calling for Western Australia to secede from the rest of the country.
Market research group Utting Research has conducted a poll to investigate people's attitudes towards the largest state in the country becoming its own country - and the number was much higher than many thought.
The research company asked 3,500 residents what they thought and a whopping 28 percent of people agreed it would be a good idea. On the flipside, 55 percent - so a clear majority, then - said they want to stay a part of the federation and 17 percent said they didn't know.
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Interestingly, 35 percent of men and 21 percent of women are keen on the idea and the age group that was most supportive was those aged between 40 and 59.
The state has been doing its own thing since April, when it closed its borders to everyone unless for a specific reason.
While WAxit (aka the West Australian version of Brexit - which was Britain's exit from the European Union) is highly unlikely to happen, one politician is concerned that the numbers show a growing discontent in the state.
Perth Labor MP Patrick Gorman told the West Australian that residents feel like they already are in their own country.
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"This poll shows those in the eastern states need to understand the secessionist undertones which have always existed in WA," he said.
"The tyranny of distance between Perth and Canberra often leaves West Australians feeling isolated and ignored by our east coast allies, fuelling the discussion."
Former WA politician, Norman Moore, countered that idea by saying residents definitely feel a part of the wider Australia.
"I don't think people see themselves so much as Western Australians anymore, as opposed to being Australians. As the world's got smaller I think a lot of Western Australians now think, 'We're now part of Australia,'" he said.
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It's likely people in the state will feel the isolation for some time as Premier Mark McGowan revealed the border will stay closed for the foreseeable future.
Despite going 180 days without a single case of community transmission, the Premier reckons there is nothing to gain from opening up to states that have little to no active infections.
He said last week: "There is no benefit. All we'll do is lose jobs were we to open to those [jurisdictions]. The other states want us to open the border so that West Australian tourists will flood east, not so that people from the east will come here.
"They're only saying all this for very self-interested reasons because we have higher incomes, we have people that are more used to travelling and therefore we'll have more tourists go from Western Australia to the east."
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