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Perth Boorloo (Nyungar) Western Australia
Perth CBD skyline Perth Town Hall Yagan Square Swan Bells Elizabeth Quay bridge WA Museum Boola Bardip Perth Stadium Historic district of Fremantle
Perth
Coordinates	31°57′21″S 115°51′35″E / 31.9558°S 115.8597°E / -31.9558; 115.8597 (Perth)
Population	2,309,338 (2023)[1] (4th)
• Density	359.8277/km2 (931.949/sq mi)
Established	4 June 1829
Area	6,417.9 km2 (2,478.0 sq mi)(GCCSA)[2]
Time zone	AWST (UTC+08:00)
Location	2,130 km (1,324 mi) from Adelaide[3] 2,652 km (1,648 mi) from Darwin[3] 2,721 km (1,691 mi) from Melbourne[3] 3,088 km (1,919 mi) from Canberra[3] 3,298 km (2,049 mi) from Sydney[3]
State electorate(s)	Perth (and 41 others)[4]
Federal division(s)	Perth (and 11 others)[5]
Mean max temp Mean min temp Annual rainfall 24.8 °C 77 °F 12.8 °C 55 °F 731.1 mm 28.8 in

Perth (Nyungar: Boorloo, [buɭu]) is the capital city of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia, with a population of over 2.3 million within Greater Perth. It is part of the South West Land Division of Western Australia, with most of Perth's metropolitan area on the Swan Coastal Plain between the Indian Ocean and the Darling Scarp. The city has expanded outward from the original British settlements on the Swan River, upon which its central business district and port of Fremantle are situated.

Perth was founded by Captain James Stirling in 1829 as the administrative centre of the Swan River Colony. The city is situated on the traditional lands of the Whadjuk Noongar people, where Aboriginal Australians have lived for at least 45,000 years. Perth was named after the city of Perth in Scotland. Perth was proclaimed as a city by Queen Victoria in 1856, although the City of Perth currently governs only a small area around the central business district. Substantial population growth occurred during the late 19th-century Western Australian gold rushes, and the city has continued to expand, particularly after World War II due to a high net migration rate. Post-war immigrants were predominantly from the British Isles and Southern Europe, while more recent arrivals see a growing population of Asian descent. During the late 20th and early 21st centuries, a series of mining booms in various regions of Western Australia propelled Perth into the role of the regional headquarters for significant mining operations.

Ranked as one of the world's most liveable cities, Perth was classified by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network as a Beta global city in 2020. As of 2021,^[update] Perth is divided into 30 local government areas, comprising over 350 suburbs. The metropolitan contours span 115 kilometres (71 mi) from Two Rocks in the north to Singleton in the south, and 45 kilometres (28 mi) from the west coast to Sawyers Valley in the east. Beyond the central business district, predominant urban centres within the metropolitan area include Armadale, Fremantle, Joondalup, Midland, and Rockingham. Most of those were originally established as separate settlements and retained a distinct identity after being subsumed into the wider metropolitan area. Mandurah, Western Australia's second-largest city, forms a conurbation with Perth along the coastline. Despite this, it is generally regarded as an independent city for practical purposes.

Perth features several important public buildings, as well as cultural and heritage sites. The city has various notable government buildings, including the Parliament House, Government House, the Supreme Court Buildings and the Perth Mint. The city is served by Fremantle Harbour and Perth Airport. It was a naval base for the Allies during World War II and today, the Royal Australian Navy's Fleet Base West is located on Garden Island. All five of Western Australia's universities are based in Perth.

Toponymy

The name of the city is taken from Perth, Scotland in honour of the Secretary of State for War and the Colonies, and Member for Perthshire in the British House of Commons, Sir George Murray.^[6][7] Murray's association with the city was included in Stirling's proclamation of the colony, read in Fremantle on 18 June 1829, which concluded with the statement, "Given under my hand and Seal at Perth this 18th Day of June 1829. James Stirling Lieutenant Governor".^[8] The only contemporary information on the source of the name comes from Charles Fremantle's diary entry for 12 August 1829, which records that they "named the town Perth according to the wishes of Sir George Murray".^[9][10]

Since 2019, the Noongar name Boorloo has been recognised as denoting the central business district,^[11][12] the local government area,^[13] or the capital city in general.^[14][15][16] The name Boorloo was initially recorded by Robert Menli Lyon as Boorlo in 1833,^[17] which was interpreted as "Perth, properly Point Fraser" (a location in East Perth). He also gave the name Byerbrup for "the highland stretching along from Mount Eliza through the centre of the town of Perth".^[18] In 1947, Ludwig Glauert posited that Lyon may have misunderstood his sources and that "boorloo" or "belo" (now transcribed as "bilya") is simply the Noongar word for "river".^[19] Another source has interpreted Boorloo to mean "big swamp",^[20] describing the chain of lakes where the central business district and Northbridge are situated.^[21]

History

Prehistory

Archaeological evidence attests to human habitation in the Perth area for at least 45,000 years;^[22]: 105 according to Noongar tradition, they have occupied the area since "time immemorial".^[23] Noongar country encompasses the southwest corner of Western Australia, with particular significance attached to the wetlands on the Swan Coastal Plain, both spiritually (featuring in local mythology) and as a source of food.^[24]

The current central business district location in within the traditional territory of the Mooro, a Noongar clan, led by Yellagonga at the time of the British settlement. The Mooro was one of several Noongar clans based around the Swan River, known collectively as the Whadjuk. The Whadjuk themselves were one of a larger group of fourteen tribes that formed the south-west socio-linguistic block known as the Noongar (meaning "the people" in their language), also sometimes called the Bibbulmun.^[25][26][27]

On 19 September 2006, the Federal Court of Australia ruled in the case of Bennell v State of Western Australia FCA 1243 that Noongar native title persisted over Perth metropolitan area.^[28] An appeal was subsequently filed, and in 2008, the Full Court of the Federal Court upheld parts of the appeal by the Western Australian and Commonwealth governments.^[29] Following this appeal, the Western Australian Government and the South West Aboriginal Land and Sea Council negotiated the South West Native Title Settlement. This settlement, including the Whadjuk Indigenous Land Use Agreement over the Perth region, was finalised by the Federal Court on 1 December 2021.^[30] As part of this agreement, the Noongar (Koorah, Nitja, Boordahwan) (Past, Present, Future) Recognition Act was passed in 2016, officially recognising the Noongar people as the traditional owners of the south-west region of Western Australia.^[31]

European contact

On 10 January 1697, Dutch Captain Willem de Vlamingh conducted the first documented exploration by a European of the present-day Perth region. His crew initially explored the area on foot, leading them to what is now central Perth.^[32] Continuing, they travelled up the Swan River in search of native inhabitants.^[33] They named the river Swarte Swaene-Revier, a reference to the black swans prevalent in the region.^[33] After Vlamingh's observations, other Europeans conducted further voyages of exploration in the period between 1697 and 1829. However, as with Vlamingh's assessments, they judged the area inhospitable and unsuitable for the agriculture necessary to sustain a European-style settlement.^[34]

Swan River Colony

Despite the Colony of New South Wales establishing a convict-supported settlement at King George's Sound (later Albany) on the south coast of Western Australia in 1826, responding to rumours of potential French annexation, Perth marked the first comprehensive European settlement in the western third of the continent of Australia in 1829. Officially designated as "Western Australia" in 1832, the colony retained the informal moniker "Swan River Colony" for many years, after the area's major watercourse.^[35]

On 4 June 1829, newly arriving British colonists had their first view of the mainland. Captain James Stirling, aboard Parmelia, noted that the site was "as beautiful as anything of this kind I had ever witnessed".^[36] On 12 August that year, Helen Dance, wife of the captain of the second ship, Sulphur, felled a tree to commemorate the town's founding.^[37] From 1831 onward, confrontations between British settlers and the Noongar people escalated due to conflicting land-value systems and increased land use as the colony expanded. These confrontations resulted in multiple events, including the murder of settlers (such as Thomas Peel's servant Hugh Nesbitt^[38]), the execution of Whadjuk elder Midgegooroo,^[39] the death of his son Yagan in 1833,^[40] and the Pinjarra massacre in 1834.^{[22]: 114 [41]}

The strained relations between the Noongar people and the Europeans arose due to these events. Agricultural development on the land restricted the traditional hunter-gatherer practices of the native Whadjuk Noongar, compelling them to camp in designated areas, including swamps and lakes north of the European settlement. Third Swamp, known to them as Boodjamooling, remained a primary campsite for the remaining Noongar people in the Perth region, also accommodating travellers, itinerants, and homeless individuals. During the gold rush in the 1890s, miners en route to the goldfields joined this community.^[42]

Convict era and gold rushes

In 1850, at a time when penal transportation to Australia's eastern colonies had ceased, Western Australia was opened to convicts at the request of farming and business people due to a shortage of labour.^[43] Over the next eighteen years, 9,721 convicts arrived in Western Australia aboard 43 ships.^[44][45]

The designation of Perth as a city was formally announced by Queen Victoria in 1856. However, despite this recognition, Perth remained a tranquil town. A description from 1870 by a Melbourne journalist depicted it as:^[46]

"...a quiet little town of some 3000 inhabitants spread out in straggling allotments down to the water's edge, intermingled with gardens and shrubberies and half rural in its aspect ... The main streets are macadamised, but the outlying ones and most of the footpaths retain their native state from the loose sand — the all pervading element of Western Australia — productive of intense glare or much dust in the summer and dissolving into slush during the rainy season."^[47]

With the discovery of gold at Kalgoorlie and Coolgardie in the late 19th century, Western Australia experienced a mining boom,^[48] and Perth's population grew from approximately 8,500 in 1881 to 61,000 in 1901.^[49]

Federation and beyond

After a referendum in 1900,^[50] Western Australia joined the Federation of Australia in 1901,^[46] and "became a founding state of Australia".^[22] It was the last of the Australian colonies to agree to join the Federation, and it did so only after the other colonies had offered several concessions, including the construction of a transcontinental railway line from Port Augusta in South Australia to Kalgoorlie to link Perth with the eastern states.^[51]

In 1927, Indigenous people were prohibited from entering large swathes of Perth under penalty of imprisonment, a ban that lasted until 1954.^[52]

In 1933, two-thirds of Western Australians voted in a referendum to secede from the Australian Federation. However, the state general election held at the same time as the referendum had voted out the incumbent "pro-independence" government, replacing it with a government that did not support the independence movement. Respecting the result of the referendum, the new government nonetheless petitioned the Imperial Parliament at Westminster. The House of Commons established a select committee to consider the issue but after 18 months of negotiations and lobbying, finally refused to consider the matter, declaring that it could not legally grant secession.^[50][53]

Perth entered the post-war period with a population of approximately 280,000 and an economy that had not experienced sustained growth since the 1920s. Successive state governments, beginning with the Willcock Labor Government (1936–1945), determined to change this. Planning for post-war economic development was initially driven by Russell Dumas, who as Director of Public Works (1941–1953) drew up plans for Western Australia's major post-war public-works projects, including the raising of the Mundaring and Wellington Dams, the development of the new Perth Airport, and the development of a new industrial zone centred on Kwinana. The advent of the McLarty Liberal Government (1947–1953) saw the emergence of something of a consensus on the need for continuing economic development. Economic growth was fuelled by large-scale public works, the post-war immigration program, and the success that various state governments had in attracting substantial foreign investment into the state, beginning with the construction of the Anglo-Iranian Oil Refinery at Kwinana in 1951–52.^[54]

The result of this economic activity was the rapid growth of the population of Perth and a marked change in its urban design. Commencing in the 1950s, Perth began to expand along an extensive highway network laid out in the Stephenson-Hepburn Report, which noted that Perth was beginning to resemble a pattern of development less in line with the British experience and more in line with North America.^[55] This was encouraged by the opening of the Narrows Bridge and the gradual closure of the Perth-Fremantle Tramways. The mining-pastoral boom of the 1960s only accelerated the pace of urban growth in Perth.

In 1962, Perth received global media attention when city residents lit their house lights and streetlights as American astronaut John Glenn passed overhead while orbiting the Earth on Friendship 7. This led to its being nicknamed the "City of Light".^[56][57][58] The city repeated the act as Glenn passed overhead on the Space Shuttle in 1998.^[59][60]

Perth's development and relative prosperity, especially since the mid-1960s,^[61] has resulted from its role as the main service centre for the state's resource industries, which extract gold, iron ore, nickel, alumina, diamonds, mineral sands, coal, oil, and natural gas.^[62] Whilst most mineral and petroleum production takes place elsewhere in the state, the non-base services provide most of the employment and income to the people of Perth.^[63]

Geography

Central business district

The central business district of Perth is bounded by the Swan River to the south and east, with Kings Park on the western end and the railway reserve as the northern border.^{[citation needed]} A state and federally funded project named Perth City Link sank a section of the railway line to allow easy pedestrian access between Northbridge and the CBD. The Perth Arena is an entertainment and sporting arena in the city link area that has received several architectural awards from institutions such as the Design Institute of Australia, the Australian Institute of Architects, and Colorbond.^[64] St Georges Terrace is the area's prominent street, with a large amount of office space in the CBD. Hay Street and Murray Street have most of the retail and entertainment facilities. The city's tallest building is Central Park, the twelfth tallest building in Australia.^[65] The CBD until 2012 was the centre of a mining-induced boom, with several commercial and residential projects being built, including Brookfield Place, a 244 m (801 ft) office building for Anglo-Australian mining company BHP.^[66]

Metropolitan area

Perth's metropolitan area extends along the coast to Two Rocks in the north and Singleton to the south,^[67] a distance of approximately 125 kilometres (80 mi).^[68] From the coast in the west to Mundaring in the east is a distance of approximately 50 km (30 mi). The Perth metropolitan area covers 6,418 km² (2,478 sq mi).^[2] The built-up urban area of Perth is 1,722 km² (665 sq mi), the same as Wuhan or Salt Lake City and slightly smaller than London, making Perth the 67th largest urban area in the world. Perth is also the 50th least densely populated out of the 990 urban areas in the world with a population above 500,000.^[69]

The metropolitan region is defined by the Planning and Development Act 2005 to include 30 local government areas, with the outer extent being the City of Wanneroo and the City of Swan to the north, the Shire of Mundaring, City of Kalamunda and the City of Armadale to the east, the Shire of Serpentine-Jarrahdale to the southeast and the City of Rockingham to the southwest, and including Rottnest Island and Garden Island off the west coast.^[70] This extent correlates with the Metropolitan Region Scheme, and the Australian Bureau of Statistics' Perth (Major Statistical Division).^[70]

The metropolitan extent of Perth can be defined in other ways – the Australian Bureau of Statistics Greater Capital City Statistical Area, or Greater Perth in short, consists of that area, plus the City of Mandurah and the Pinjarra Level 2 Statistical Area^[71] of the Shire of Murray,^[72][73] while the Regional Development Commissions Act 1993 includes the Shire of Serpentine-Jarrahdale in the Peel region.^[74]

Geology and landforms

Perth is on the Swan River, named for the native black swans by Willem de Vlamingh, captain of a Dutch expedition and namer of WA's Rottnest Island, who discovered the birds while exploring the area in 1697.^[75] This water body was known by Aboriginal inhabitants as Derbarl Yerrigan.^[76] The city centre and most of the suburbs are on the sandy and relatively flat Swan Coastal Plain, which lies between the Darling Scarp and the Indian Ocean. The soils of this area are quite infertile.

Much of Perth was built on the Perth Wetlands, a series of freshwater wetlands running from Herdsman Lake in the west through to Claisebrook Cove in the east.^[77]

To the east, the city is bordered by a low escarpment called the Darling Scarp. Perth is on generally flat, rolling land, largely due to the high amount of sandy soils and deep bedrock. The Perth metropolitan area has two major river systems, one made up of the Swan and Canning Rivers, and one of the Serpentine and Murray Rivers, which discharge into the Peel Inlet at Mandurah. The Perth-Gingin Shrublands and Woodlands and Banksia Woodlands of the Swan Coastal Plain straddle the metropolitan area.

Climate

Perth receives moderate, though highly seasonal, winter-based rainfall. Summers are generally hot, sunny and dry, lasting from December to March, with February generally the hottest month. Winters are relatively mild and wet, giving Perth a hot-summer Mediterranean climate (Köppen climate classification Csa).^[78][79] Perth has an average of 8.8 hours of sunshine per day, which equates to around 3,200 hours of sunshine and 138.7 clear days annually, making it Australia's sunniest capital city.^[80]

Summers are typically hot and dry but not completely devoid of rain, with sporadic rainfall in the form of short-lived thunderstorms, weak cold fronts and on occasions decaying tropical cyclones from Western Australia's northwest, which can bring heavy rain. Temperatures above 35 °C (95 °F) occur, on average, 26 days per year and rise above 40 °C (104 °F) on 5 days per year. The highest temperature recorded in Perth was 46.2 °C (115.2 °F) on 23 February 1991, although Perth Airport recorded 46.7 °C (116.1 °F) on the same day.^[80][81] On most summer afternoons a sea breeze, known locally as the "Fremantle Doctor", blows from the southwest, providing relief from the hot northeasterly winds. Temperatures often fall below 30 °C (86 °F) a few hours after the arrival of the wind change.^[82] In the summer, the 3 p.m. dewpoint averages at around 12 °C (54 °F).^[80]

Winters are mild and wet, with most of Perth's annual rainfall between May and September. Winters see significant rainfall as frontal systems move across the region, interspersed with clear and sunny days where minimum temperatures tend to drop below 5 °C (41 °F). The lowest temperature recorded in Perth was −0.7 °C (30.7 °F) on 17 June 2006.^[81] The lowest temperature within the Perth metropolitan area was −3.4 °C (25.9 °F) on the same day at Jandakot Airport, although temperatures at or below zero are rare occurrences. The lowest maximum temperature recorded in Perth is 8.8 °C (47.8 °F) on 26 June 1956. It occasionally gets cold enough for frost to form.^[83] While snow has never been recorded in the Perth CBD, light snowfalls have been reported in outer suburbs of Perth in the Perth Hills around Kalamunda, Roleystone and Mundaring. The most recent snowfall was in 1968.

The rainfall pattern has changed in Perth and southwest Western Australia since the mid-1970s. A significant reduction in winter rainfall has been observed with a greater number of extreme rainfall events in the summer,^[84] such as the slow-moving storms on 8 February 1992 that brought 120.6 millimetres (4.75 in) of rain,^[81][82] heavy rainfall associated with a tropical low on 10 February 2017, which brought 114.4 millimetres (4.50 in) of rain,^[85] and the remnants of ex-Tropical Cyclone Joyce on 15 January 2018 with 96.2 millimetres (3.79 in).^[86] Perth was also hit by a severe thunderstorm on 22 March 2010, which brought 40.2 mm (1.58 in) of rain and large hail and caused significant damage in the metropolitan area.^[87]

The average sea temperature ranges from 18.9 °C (66.0 °F) in October to 23.4 °C (74.1 °F) in March.^[88]