The capital of the state of Western Australia, Perth is located near the southwestern corner of the continent. It is one of Australia’s larger cities, and its metropolitan area is home to nearly four-fifths of its state’s population. Situated on the Swan River estuary, Perth enjoys a mild Mediterranean-style climate and miles of sandy beaches. The city is a major industrial, commercial, and transportation hub, though it is relatively isolated from Australia’s other capital cities and major population centers.
Several institutions of higher education—the University of Western Australia, Murdoch University, Edith Cowan University, Curtin University of Technology, and the University of Notre Dame Australia—are located in the Perth area. The Western Australian Museum, established in 1891, has exhibits on science, anthropology, and history. Among the area’s annual events are the Perth International Arts Festival, which features visual art, theater, music, dance, and film; the Perth Royal Show, a fair for agriculture, industry, and commerce; and the Artrage Festival, with experimental art. Nearby Rottnest Island is a popular resort.
Perth’s economy is heavily service-oriented, with thousands of jobs in banks, business offices, retail stores, government agencies, hospitals, and schools. Its diversified industries produce machinery, processed foods, wood and paper, publications, electronics, and numerous other products. There are refineries for petroleum, nickel, and bauxite nearby. Perth is served by an agricultural hinterland dedicated to grains, vegetables, and sheep and cattle ranches. The metropolitan area’s port is at Fremantle, at the mouth of the Swan River.
The Nyoongar, or Noongar, people were the first inhabitants of the land that is now Perth. The city was established after Great Britain extended its settlement into Western Australia in the 1820s, claiming the entire continent. Captain James Stirling proclaimed the Swan River Colony in May 1829. In August of that year he founded Perth as the colony’s capital. It was named after the county of Perth, Scotland, the birthplace of Sir George Murray, who was then secretary of state for the colonies. Perth became a city in 1856.
Perth grew rapidly after gold was discovered in the late 1800s in the Coolgardie-Kalgoorlie area, about 375 miles (600 kilometers) to the east. The opening of an improved harbor at Fremantle in 1901 and the completion of the transcontinental railway in 1917 also contributed to Perth’s expansion. After the 1960s the city benefited from mineral discoveries in various Western Australian locations, including offshore oil and natural gas fields and metal deposits in the distant Pilbara region. Massive apartment and office buildings constructed during the 1970s gave the city a new skyline. In the early 21st century new booms in the state’s mining industries spurred investment and urban development. Population (2021 census), metropolitan area, 2,116,647.