The relevence of each state

Western Australia [WA] (10%) and South Australia [SA] (7%) have much smaller populations (see below) than [QLD] Queensland and the other combined states of [NSW/ACT] and [Vic/Tas].

So these two states have a much smaller impact on total sales, and therefore the national chart.

This explains why with the much lower chart position in [WA] the national chart result was still No. 4.

In addition Western Australia [WA] is a huge part of Australia in land mass, as you can see from the image below. so making advertising even less viable. Clearly Sony do not do a lot based on the results we present for both Elvis By Request The Australian Edition CD and Elvis Presley : 50 Australia Top Ten Hits 1956-1977.

Population per Australian State and/or Teritory

1. [NSW] New South Wales 7,247,700 32.23%
2. [Vic] Victoria 5,574,500 24.79%
3. {QLD] Queensland 4,513,000 20.7%
4. [WA] Western Australia 2,387,200 10.61%
5. [SA] South Australia 1,645,000 7.31%
6. [tas] Tasmania 511,700 2.28%
7. [ACT] Australian Capital Territory 370,700 1.64%
8. Northern Territory 232,400 1.03%
9. Australian Antarctic Territory 1,000 0.0%
10. Jervis Bay Territory 495 0.0%
    

Total : Australia : 22,485,300

Detailed Explanation on how the Australian State and National Charts Work from ARIA

Every now and then a single or album will rise in most or all state charts, but fall nationally. Is there an error in that week's chart? While it is not common, this happens every now and again.

The ARIA chart is based on recorded music sales across Australia. Titles are ranked according to their sales in each state and the national position is determined by ranking the summed sales totals across the five ARIA state charts. However, titles don't always sell consistently across the country.

Here is a simplified example to illustrate the concept.

Assume that there are only four titles competing for positions, titles A, B, C and D.

[The ARIA charts date back to the middle of 1983 but their database only goes back to mid 1988 when they started calculating the charts in-house.]

On the first week, the titles charted and (sold) as follow:

Title	NSW	VIC/TAS	QLD	SA	WA	(Total Sales)	Position
A	1 (10)	3 (4)	3 (4)	1 (6)	1 (6)	(30)	1
B	2 (5)	2 (5)	2 (5)	2 (5)	2 (5)	(25)	3
C	3 (4)	1 (8)	1 (7)	3 (4)	3 (4)	(27)	2
D	4 (1)	4 (1)	4 (1)	4 (1)	4 (1)	(5)	4

On the following week, the scenario changes to this:

Title	NSW	VIC/TAS	QLD	SA	WA	(Total Sales)	Position
A	1 (10)	10 (1)	10 (1)	1 (6)	1 (6)	(24)	4
B	3 (8)	3 (6)	3 (5)	3 (4)	3 (4)	(27)	1
C	10 (2)	1 (8)	2 (6)	2 (5)	2 (5)	(26)	2
D	2 (9)	2 (7)	1 (7)	10 (1)	10 (1)	(25)	3

From this scenario, it can be seen that title B, despite falling from No.2 to No.3 in every State actually climbs to No.1 nationally, while title A suffers almost the opposite fate.

Of course, the order of the weeks could be reversed and title B's national fate would also be reversed.

Source : ARIA