Perth

This article is about the capital of Western Australia. For the city in Scotland, see Perth, Scotland. For other uses, see Perth (disambiguation).

Perth Western Australia
Perth's skyline, viewed from South Perth.
Perth
Coordinates
Population	2,021,200 (2014) (4th)
• Density	310/km2 (800/sq mi)
Established	1829
Area	6,417.9 km2 (2,478.0 sq mi)(GCCSA)
Time zone	AWST (UTC+8)
Location	2,130 km (1,324 mi) from Adelaide 2,652 km (1,648 mi) from Darwin 2,721 km (1,691 mi) from Melbourne 3,288 km (2,043 mi) from Sydney
State electorate(s)	Perth (and 41 others)
Federal Division(s)	Perth (and 10 others)
Mean max temp Mean min temp Annual rainfall 24.6 °C 76 °F 12.7 °C 55 °F 850.0 mm 33.5 in

Perth /ˈpɜːrθ/ is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth-most populous city in Australia, with an estimated population of 2.02 million (as of 30 June 2014) living in Greater Perth. Perth is part of the South West Land Division of Western Australia, with the majority of the metropolitan area of Perth located on the Swan Coastal Plain, a narrow strip between the Indian Ocean and the Darling Scarp, a low coastal escarpment. The first areas settled were on the Swan River, with the city's central business district and port (Fremantle) both located on its shores. Perth is formally divided into a number of local government areas, which themselves consist of a large number of suburbs, extending from Two Rocks in the north to Rockingham in the south, and east inland to The Lakes.

Perth was originally founded by Captain James Stirling in 1829 as the administrative centre of the Swan River Colony. It gained city status (currently vested in the smaller City of Perth) in 1856, and was promoted to the status of a Lord Mayorality in 1929. The city is named after Perth, Scotland, due to the influence of Sir George Murray, then British Secretary of State for War and the Colonies. The city's population increased substantially as a result of the Western Australian gold rushes in the late 19th century, largely as a result of emigration from the eastern colonies of Australia. During Australia's involvement in World War II, Fremantle served as a base for submarines operating in the Pacific Theatre, and a US Navy Catalina flying boat fleet was based at Matilda Bay. An influx of immigrants after the war, predominantly from Britain, Greece, Italy and Yugoslavia, led to rapid population growth. This was followed by a surge in economic activity flowing from several mining booms in the late 20th and early 21st centuries that saw Perth become the regional headquarters for a number of large mining operations located around the state.

As part of Perth's role as the capital of Western Australia, the state's Parliament and Supreme Court are located within the city, as is Government House, the residence of the Governor of Western Australia. Perth became known worldwide as the "City of Light" when city residents lit their house lights and streetlights as American astronaut John Glenn passed overhead while orbiting the earth on Friendship 7 in 1962. The city repeated the act as Glenn passed overhead on the Space Shuttle in 1998. Perth came 8th in the Economist Intelligence Unit's August 2015 list of the world's most liveable cities, and was classified by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network in 2010 as a world city.

History

Main article: History of Perth, Western Australia

Indigenous history

Before European colonisation, the area had been inhabited by the Whadjuk Noongar people for over 40,000 years, as evidenced by archaeological findings on the Upper Swan River. These Noongar people occupied the southwest corner of Western Australia and lived as hunter-gatherers. The wetlands on the Swan Coastal Plain were particularly important to them, both spiritually, featuring in local mythology, and as a source of food. Rottnest, Carnac and Garden Islands were also important to the Noongar people.

The area where Perth now stands is also known as Boorloo by the Noongar people. Boorloo formed part of Mooro, the tribal lands of Yellagonga's group, one of several based around the Swan River and known collectively as the Whadjuk. The Whadjuk were part 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. On 19 September 2006, the Federal Court of Australia brought down a judgment recognising Noongar native title over the Perth metropolitan area, in the case of Bennell v State of Western Australia [2006] FCA 1243. The judgment was overturned on appeal.

Early European sightings

The first documented sighting of the region was made by the Dutch Captain Willem de Vlamingh and his crew on 10 January 1697. Subsequent sightings between this date and 1829 were made by other Europeans, but as in the case of the sighting and observations made by Vlamingh, the area was considered to be inhospitable and unsuitable for the agriculture that would be needed to sustain a settlement.

Swan River Colony

The Foundation of Perth 1829 by George Pitt Morison is a historically accurate reconstruction of the official ceremony by which Perth was founded.

Main article: Swan River Colony

Although the British Army had established a base at King George Sound (later Albany) on the south coast of Western Australia in 1826 in response to rumours that the area would be annexed by France, Perth was the first full-scale settlement by Europeans in the western third of the continent. The British colony would be officially designated Western Australia in 1832, but was known informally for many years as the Swan River Colony after the area's major watercourse.

On 4 June 1829, newly arriving British colonists had their first view of the mainland, and Western Australia's founding has since been recognised by a public holiday on the first Monday in June each year. Captain James Stirling, aboard Parmelia, said that Perth was "as beautiful as anything of this kind I had ever witnessed". On 12 August that year, Helen Dance, wife of the captain of the second ship, Sulphur, cut down a tree to mark the founding of the town.

It is clear that Stirling had already selected the name Perth for the capital well before the town was proclaimed, as his proclamation of the colony, read in Fremantle on 18 June 1829, ended "given under my hand and Seal at Perth this 18th Day of June 1829. James Stirling Lieutenant Governor". The only contemporary information on the source of the name comes from Fremantle's diary entry for 12 August, which records that they "named the town Perth according to the wishes of Sir George Murray". Murray was born in Perth, Scotland, and was in 1829 Secretary of State for the Colonies and Member for Perthshire in the British House of Commons. The town was named after the Scottish Perth, in Murray's honour.

Beginning in 1831, hostile encounters between the British settlers and the Noongar people – both large-scale land users with conflicting land value systems – increased considerably as the colony grew. The hostile encounters between the two groups of people resulted in a number of events, including the execution of the Whadjuk elder Midgegooroo, the death of his son Yagan in 1833, and the Pinjarra massacre in 1834.

The racial relations between the Noongar people and the Europeans were strained due to these happenings. Because of the large amount of building in and around Boorloo, the local Whadjuk Noongar people were slowly dispossessed of their country. They were forced to camp around prescribed areas, including the swamps and lakes north of the settlement area including Third Swamp, known to them as Boodjamooling. Boodjamooling continued to be a main camp-site for the remaining Noongar people in the Perth region, and was also used by travellers, itinerants, and homeless people. By the gold-rush days of the 1890s they were joined by miners who were en route to the goldfields.

In 1850, Western Australia was opened to convicts at the request of farming and business people looking for cheap labour. Queen Victoria announced the city status of Perth in 1856.

Federation and beyond

Perth looking across the Perth train station c. 1955

After a referendum in 1900, Western Australia joined the Federation of Australia in 1901. It was the last of the Australian colonies to agree to join the Federation, and 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.

In 1933, Western Australia voted in a referendum to leave the Australian Federation, with a majority of two to one in favour of secession. However, an election held shortly before 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 Agent General of the United Kingdom for independence, where the request was simply ignored.

City skyline from Kings Park

Perth's growth and relative prosperity, especially since the mid-1960s, 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. 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.

Geography

Central business district

Main article: Perth (suburb)

The central business district of Perth is bounded by the Swan River to the south and east, with Kings Park on the western end, while the railway reserve formed a northern border. A state and federally funded project named Perth City Link sunk a section of the railway line, to link Northbridge and the CBD for the first time in 100 years. The Perth Arena is a building in the city link area that has received a number of architecture awards. St Georges Terrace is the prominent street of the area with 1.3 million m² of office space in the CBD. Hay Street and Murray Street have most of the retail and entertainment facilities. The tallest building in the city is Central Park, which is the seventh tallest building in Australia. The CBD has recently been 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 Billiton.

Perth skyline, viewed from Mill Point

Geology and landforms

Perth is set 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. Traditionally, this water body had been known by Aboriginal inhabitants as Derbarl Yerrigan. The city centre and most of the suburbs are located 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. The metropolitan area extends along the coast to Two Rocks in the north and Singleton to the south, a total distance of approximately 125 kilometres (78 mi). From the coast in the west to Mundaring in the east is a total distance of approximately 50 kilometres (31 mi). The Perth metropolitan area covers 6,418 square kilometres (2,478 sq mi).

Satellite image of Perth

Much of Perth was originally built on a series of freshwater wetlands running from Herdsman Lake in the west through to Claisebrook Cove in the east.

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: the first is made up of the Swan and Canning Rivers; the second is that of the Serpentine and Murray Rivers, which discharge into the Peel Inlet at Mandurah.

Climate

Perth receives moderate though highly seasonal rainfall, making it the fourth wettest Australian capital city after Darwin, Sydney and Brisbane. Summers are generally very hot and dry, lasting from December to late March, with February generally being the hottest month of the year. Winters are relatively mild and wet, making Perth a classic example of a Mediterranean climate (Köppen climate classification Csa). Perth is a particularly sunny city for this type of climate; it has an average of 8.8 hours of sunshine per day, which equates to around 3200 hours of annual sunshine, and 138.7 clear days annually, making it the sunniest capital city in Australia.

Summer is not completely devoid of rain and humidity, with sporadic rainfall in the form of short-lived thunderstorms, weak cold fronts and on occasions decaying tropical cyclones from Western Australia's north-west, which can bring significant rainfall. Winters are also known to be clear and sunny. 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. On most summer afternoons a sea breeze, known locally as the "Fremantle Doctor", blows from the southwest, providing relief from the hot north-easterly winds. Temperatures often fall below 30 °C (86 °F) a few hours after the arrival of the wind change. In the summer, the 3 pm dewpoint averages at around 12 °C (54 °F).

Winters are wet but mild, with most of Perth's annual rainfall being between May and September. The lowest temperature recorded in Perth was −0.7 °C (30.7 °F) on 17 June 2006. The lowest temperature within the Perth metropolitan area was −3.4 °C (25.9 °F) on the same day at Jandakot Airport. However, temperatures at or below zero are very rare occurrences and it seldom gets cold enough for frost to form.

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 months, such as the slow-moving storms on 8 February 1992 that brought 120.6 millimetres (4.75 in) of rain, the highest recorded in Perth, and a severe thunderstorm on 22 March 2010, which brought 40.2 millimetres (1.58 in) of rain and caused significant damage in the metropolitan area.

Climate data for Perth, Western Australia
Month	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Year
Record high °C (°F)	45.8 (114.4)	46.2 (115.2)	42.4 (108.3)	37.6 (99.7)	34.3 (93.7)	28.1 (82.6)	26.3 (79.3)	27.8 (82)	34.2 (93.6)	37.3 (99.1)	40.3 (104.5)	44.2 (111.6)	46.2 (115.2)
Average high °C (°F)	31.2 (88.2)	31.7 (89.1)	29.6 (85.3)	25.9 (78.6)	22.3 (72.1)	19.4 (66.9)	18.4 (65.1)	19.1 (66.4)	20.4 (68.7)	23.4 (74.1)	26.6 (79.9)	29.1 (84.4)	24.8 (76.6)
Daily mean °C (°F)	25.0 (77)	25.1 (77.2)	23.1 (73.6)	19.9 (67.8)	16.4 (61.5)	14.0 (57.2)	13.1 (55.6)	13.7 (56.7)	15.0 (59)	17.5 (63.5)	20.5 (68.9)	22.8 (73)	18.8 (65.8)
Average low °C (°F)	18.1 (64.6)	18.4 (65.1)	16.6 (61.9)	13.8 (56.8)	10.5 (50.9)	8.6 (47.5)	7.7 (45.9)	8.3 (46.9)	9.6 (49.3)	11.5 (52.7)	14.3 (57.7)	16.4 (61.5)	12.8 (55)
Record low °C (°F)	8.9 (48)	8.7 (47.7)	6.3 (43.3)	4.1 (39.4)	1.3 (34.3)	−0.7 (30.7)	0.0 (32)	1.3 (34.3)	1.0 (33.8)	2.2 (36)	5.0 (41)	7.9 (46.2)	−0.7 (30.7)
Average rainfall mm (inches)	15.4 (0.606)	8.8 (0.346)	20.5 (0.807)	36.5 (1.437)	90.2 (3.551)	126.7 (4.988)	144.7 (5.697)	122.4 (4.819)	88.0 (3.465)	38.6 (1.52)	23.7 (0.933)	9.9 (0.39)	730.5 (28.76)
Average precipitation days	2.4	2.1	4.1	6.7	11.1	15.2	16.9	15.7	15.3	8.7	6.3	3.9	108.4
Average relative humidity (%)	39	38	39	46	50	56	57	54	53	46	44	41	47
Mean monthly sunshine hours	360.6	314.9	295.5	246.0	211.7	180.6	188.4	219.8	232.4	299.8	320.4	359.4	3,229.5
Mean daily sunshine hours	11.5	11.0	9.6	8.3	6.9	5.9	6.1	7.2	7.7	9.6	10.6	11.5	8.8
Source: Bureau of Meteorology Temperatures: 1993–2015; Extremes: 1897–2015; Rain data: 1876–2012

For the suburb, see Fremantle (suburb). For other uses, see Fremantle (disambiguation).

Fremantle Western Australia
File:Aerial view of Fremantle.JPG Aerial view of Fremantle
Coordinates
Population	28,893 (2016 census)
• Density	1,521/km2 (3,939/sq mi)
Established	1829
Postcode(s)	6160
Area	19.0 km2 (7.3 sq mi)
Time zone	AWST (UTC+8)
Location	19 km (12 mi) SW of Perth CBD
LGA(s)	City of Fremantle
State electorate(s)	Fremantle
Federal Division(s)	Fremantle

Fremantle (/ˈfriːmæntəl/) is a port city in Western Australia, located at the mouth of the Swan River in the metropolitan area of Perth, the state capital. Fremantle Harbour serves as the port of Perth. In 2016, Fremantle had a population of approximately 29,000. The Western Australian vernacular diminutive for Fremantle is Freo.

Prior to British settlement, the indigenous Noongar people inhabited the area for millennia, and knew it by the name of Walyalup ("place of the woylie"). Visited by Dutch explorers in the 1600s, Fremantle was the first area settled by the Swan River colonists in 1829, and is named after Captain Charles Fremantle, an English naval officer who claimed the west coast of New Holland as British territory. The settlement struggled in its first decades, and in 1850, with the advent of penal transportation to the colony, Fremantle became Australia's primary destination for convicts. The convict-built Fremantle Prison operated long after transportation ended in 1868, and is now a World Heritage Site.

Fremantle was charted as a municipality in 1883, and the following decade its harbour was deepened for commercial shipping, transforming the port into a bustling trade centre and gateway at the height of the Western Australian gold rushes. Declared a city in 1929, Fremantle played a key role in World War II as the largest submarine base in the Southern Hemisphere. Post-war immigration from Europe, particularly Italy, helped shape Fremantle's character, and it rapidly gentrified after hosting the 1987 America's Cup. Today, Fremantle is recognised for its well-preserved Victorian and Edwardian streetscapes and convict-era heritage, and is known as a bohemian enclave with a thriving arts and culinary scene. It is also the traditional home of the Fremantle Football Club, one of two Australian Football League teams based in Western Australia.

History

Indigenous Australians

The original inhabitants of the land on which the city of Fremantle is built are the Whadjuk Noongar people, who called the area Walyalup ("place of the woylie"). To the local Noongar people, Fremantle is a place of ceremonies, significant cultural practices and trading. For millennia the Noongar people met there in spring and autumn to feast on fish and game.

Anglesea Point and the limestone hill area at Arthur Head (where the Round House prison stands) to Point Marquis was called Manjaree, an important meeting place where bush paths converged and a major trading place for Whadjuk and neighbouring Noongars. Today, Whadjuk and other Noongars continue to gather and meet in Walyalup and at Manjaree.

European settlement and convict era

See also: Swan River Colony and Convict era of Western Australia

215px

Completed in 1831, the Round House is the oldest public building in Western Australia. It can be seen atop Arthur Head in the painting below.

215px

Jane Eliza Currie (wife of explorer Mark John Currie), Panorama of the Swan River Settlement, ca. 1831

The first Europeans to visit the site of modern-day Fremantle were Dutch explorers captained by Willem de Vlamingh, in 1697. They mapped the area and went up the Swan River, and Vlamingh reported that it would be an ideal place for a settlement, although no attempts were made at the time.

The area was considered as a site for possible British settlement in 1827, when Captain James Stirling, in HMS Success, explored the coastal areas near the Swan River. His favourable report was welcomed by the British Government, who had for some time been suspicious of French colonial intentions towards the western portion of Australia. As a result of Stirling's report, Captain Charles Fremantle of HMS Challenger, a 603-ton, 28-gun frigate, was instructed to sail to the west coast of Australia to establish a settlement there.

On 2 May 1829, Fremantle hoisted the Union Flag in a bay near what is now known as Arthur Head, and in accordance with his instructions, took formal possession "of the whole of the West Coast of New Holland" in the name of Britain's King George IV.

Western Australia Day (formerly Foundation Day) is observed on the first Monday in June, although it was actually on 2 June 1829 that Captain James Stirling on the Parmelia arrived with Surveyor-General Roe and the first contingent of immigrants to set up the Swan River Colony. The settlement of Perth began on 12 August 1829.

Captain Fremantle left the colony on 25 August after providing much assistance to Stirling in setting up the colony. It was then that Stirling decided to name the port settlement "Fremantle".

In early September 1829, the merchant vessel Anglesea grounded at Gage Roads, at the mouth of the Swan River. She did not break up, as had been expected, but instead survived to become Western Australia's first prison hulk. Lotus, which arrived on 10 October 1829, became the second vessel to land immigrants at Fremantle.

On 1 June 1850, the first convicts arrived at Fremantle aboard the Scindian. The thirty-seventh and last convict ship to dock at Fremantle was the Hougoumont on 10 January 1868, signalling the end of penal transportation to Australia. Among the 280 convicts on board were 62 Fenian military and political prisoners—members of the Irish Republican Brotherhood—six of whom managed to escape the Convict Establishment in the Catalpa rescue of 1876. During this period, notorious South Sea pirate Bully Hayes lived in Fremantle with his fiancée Miss Scott, daughter of the Fremantle Harbour Master.

Gateway to the West

See also: Fremantle Harbour and Western Australian gold rushes

File:CY OConnor Statue Fremantle.jpg

Pietro Porcelli's statue of engineer C. Y. O'Connor, who designed Fremantle Harbour, at Fremantle Port

In 1897, Irish-born engineer C. Y. O'Connor deepened Fremantle Harbour and removed the limestone bar and sand shoals across the entrance to the Swan River, thus rendering Fremantle a serviceable port for commercial shipping. This occurred at the height of the late 19th-century Western Australian gold rush, transforming Fremantle into a capital of trade and gateway for thousands of gold miners to the inland boom towns of Coolgardie, Kalgoorlie and Southern Cross. Camels and their Afghan drivers were familiar sights, and by-laws regulating the driving of camels through the streets of Fremantle were enacted. The wealth generated during this period resulted in the construction of several prestigious hotels throughout Fremantle (see heritage buildings). Fremantle still serves as the chief general seaport for Western Australia, though far greater tonnages are exported from the iron-ore ports of the Pilbara.

Naval operations

Further information: Fremantle submarine base

During the Second World War, Fremantle was the home of the largest base for Allied submarines in the Southern Hemisphere, and the second largest in the Pacific War after Pearl Harbor. In the lead-up to and during the war, the port's existing batteries were upgraded and new ones were constructed, forming a coastal defence system referred to as Fremantle Fortress. There were up to 125 US, 31 British and 11 Free Dutch submarines operating out of Fremantle, until the Americans moved forward to the Philippines. One of the first US submarines to arrive in Fremantle, the USS Sargo (SS-188), was bombed by an Australian Lockheed Hudson, which mistook it for a Japanese vessel. The movements and presence of USS Sturgeon (SS-187) is a good example of such activity.

Fremantle was considered a "veritable Shangri-la" among submariners during the war, however tensions between transient American and non-American soldiers often led to alcohol-fuelled violence. On 11 April 1944, a brawl between American and New Zealand servicemen at the National Hotel resulted in many injuries and the death from stab wounds of two Māori soldiers.

Post-Second World War

The City of Fremantle introduced several urban renewal projects in 2012, encouraging mixed-use development by increasing the maximum building height on key sites in the CBD, including Kings Square and the inner East End. In January 2013, the City of Fremantle became the first council in Australia to outlaw the use of non-degradable plastic bags within their local area.

The distinctive WA Maritime Museum building on Victoria Quay

Geography

File:Fremantle Bathers Beach.jpg

Bathers Beach from a limestone hill

Fremantle lies on a series of limestone hills known by the Nyungar people as Booyeembara; the sandplain to the east is Gardoo. The original vegetation of the area was mainly Xanthorrhoea and eucalyptus trees, which were traditionally fired annually by the Aboriginal people.

The suburb of Fremantle is bounded by the Swan River to the north and north-west, the Indian Ocean to the west, South Street to the south, and the suburbs of East Fremantle and White Gum Valley to the east. The central part of the suburb extends eastwards to include Royal Fremantle Golf Club and a suburban area south of Marmion Street and west of Carrington Street. The City of Fremantle local government area also includes the suburbs of Beaconsfield, Hilton, North Fremantle, O'Connor, Samson, South Fremantle, and White Gum Valley. East Fremantle has its own town council and is not governed by the City of Fremantle.

Fremantle is the end of the Fremantle railway line which runs from Perth to Fremantle, run by the Western Australia's Public Transport Authority. Major highways including Stirling Highway, Canning Highway and Leach Highway have Fremantle as their start point and/or terminus.

Climate

Fremantle has a Mediterranean climate (Köppen: Csa). The regular sea breeze is known as the Fremantle Doctor, as it provides cooling relief from the summer heat when it arrives between noon and 3pm. Fremantle is generally a few degrees cooler than Perth in summer.

Climate data for Fremantle
Month	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Year
Record high °C (°F)	42.4 (108.3)	41 (106)	39.4 (102.9)	35.8 (96.4)	28.3 (82.9)	26.3 (79.3)	25.5 (77.9)	26 (79)	26.8 (80.2)	36.3 (97.3)	39 (102)	40 (104)	42.4 (108.3)
Average high °C (°F)	27.3 (81.1)	27.9 (82.2)	26.4 (79.5)	23.6 (74.5)	20.3 (68.5)	18.1 (64.6)	17.1 (62.8)	17.3 (63.1)	18.5 (65.3)	20.1 (68.2)	23 (73)	25.4 (77.7)	22.1 (71.8)
Average low °C (°F)	17.8 (64)	18.1 (64.6)	17 (63)	14.9 (58.8)	12.7 (54.9)	11.1 (52)	10 (50)	10.2 (50.4)	11 (52)	12.3 (54.1)	14.5 (58.1)	16.5 (61.7)	13.8 (56.8)
Record low °C (°F)	11.7 (53.1)	10.2 (50.4)	7.4 (45.3)	5.1 (41.2)	5.1 (41.2)	4 (39)	3 (37)	3.1 (37.6)	2.2 (36)	5.1 (41.2)	6.7 (44.1)	9.4 (48.9)	2.2 (36)
Average precipitation mm (inches)	6.3 (0.248)	11.3 (0.445)	16.3 (0.642)	41.3 (1.626)	112.8 (4.441)	165.5 (6.516)	156.2 (6.15)	117.7 (4.634)	69.2 (2.724)	42.2 (1.661)	18.2 (0.717)	11.4 (0.449)	764.6 (30.102)
Average precipitation days (≥ 0.2 mm)	2.6	2.6	4.2	7.8	14.1	17.8	19.3	17.4	14.4	10.9	6.8	3.9	121.8
Average relative humidity (%) (at 1500)	57	55	57	59	62	64	66	63	62	62	59	60	61
Source: Bureau of Meteorology

Politics

See also: List of mayors of Fremantle

File:Fremantle Town Hall, Western Australia.jpg

Fremantle Town Hall

The Fremantle state seat was continuously held by the Australian Labor Party from 1924 until 2009, when it was lost at a by-election to Greens candidate Adele Carles. The seat was returned to Labor (Simone McGurk) in the 2013 state election. The federal electorate has returned Labor members continuously since 1934, including former Prime Minister John Curtin, and is represented by Josh Wilson.

The local government of the City of Fremantle consists of a mayor and council. Brad Pettitt has been the mayor since the 2009 local government elections.

File:John Curtin Fremantle.jpg

Member for Fremantle and wartime prime minister John Curtin (left) at the launch of HMAS Fremantle, 1942

Fremantle has been represented by some significant Australian political figures. John Curtin served as Prime Minister during the Second World War, and is often described as one of the nation's greatest political leaders. The state's largest university and a major secondary school in Fremantle are named after him, and his statue stands in Kings Square near the Fremantle Town Hall. A long-serving mayor of the town, Sir Frank Gibson (1919–1923 and 1926–1952), was also a Liberal parliamentarian from 1942 to 1956. Gibson, a pharmacist with a shop in High Street, was admired by all sides of politics for his civic leadership and tireless work for the city, especially during the Second World War, when he is said to have visited every ship that called at the port. He was a leading figure in many civic organisations and his stepson, Dr Roger Dunkley, was medical officer with the 2nd/2nd Independent Company during the Timor campaign in the Second World War. Carmen Lawrence, the first female premier of an Australian state, later represented Fremantle in the federal House of Representatives.

Fremantle has seen many industrial conflicts, the most famous of which occurred in 1919 when rioting broke out during the Battle of the Barricades, resulting in one death and many injuries.

On 10 November 2006, Australian state and territory attorneys general met in Fremantle to sign the Fremantle Declaration, a restatement and affirmation of legal and human rights principles in Australia. In 2011, Prime Minister Julia Gillard launched the Commonwealth Youth Forum in Fremantle as part of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting 2011, held in Perth 28–30 October.

Heritage buildings

Further information: List of heritage places in Fremantle

See also: Fremantle walking tours and trails

Looking east along High Street, one of many streets in Fremantle's West End Heritage area with well-preserved 19th century architecture

Fremantle is renowned for its well-preserved architectural heritage, including convict-built structures and hundreds of gold rush-era buildings, presenting a variety and unity of historic buildings and streetscapes. These were often built in limestone with ornate façades in a succession of architectural styles. Rapid development following the harbour works gave rise to an Edwardian precinct as merchant and shipping companies built in the west end and on reclaimed land.

The Round House, the oldest remaining intact building in Western Australia, was built as a gaol between 1830 and 1831. The Round House had eight cells and a gaoler's residence, which all opened up into a central courtyard. In the 1800s, bay whaling was carried out from Bathers Beach below the Round House. As part of the whaling operations, a tunnel was constructed under the Round House to provide whalers with access to the town from the jetty and beach. The Round House is located in what is now known as Fremantle's West End: a collection of streets characterised by late Victorian and Edwardian architecture. A process of gentrification in the early 1990s was accelerated by the establishment of the University of Notre Dame Australia that occupies, and has restored, many of the buildings in the West End.

Fremantle Prison

UNESCO World Heritage Site
Part of	Australian Convict Sites
Criteria	Cultural: iv, vi
Reference	1306-011
Inscription	2010 (34th Session)
Area	6 ha
Buffer zone	18 ha

When the first 75 convicts arrived from Britain in 1850 to support the colony's dwindling population, it became apparent that the Round House was inadequate to house them. The convicts built a new gaol, Fremantle Prison, which was completed in the 1850s and continued to be used as Fremantle's prison until 1991. Fremantle Prison was once one of the most notorious prisons in the British Empire. It housed British convicts, local prisoners, military prisoners, enemy aliens and prisoners of war. On 1 August 2010, a meeting of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee in Brazil placed Fremantle Prison and 10 other "Australian Convict Sites" on the World Heritage List - making it the first built environment in Western Australia to be bestowed this honour. It continues to be accessible to the public for guided tours and as a venue for artistic and cultural activities.

Other convict-built buildings in Fremantle include the 1850s Fremantle School building and Commissariat Buildings, and the Fremantle Arts Centre, constructed in the 1860s from locally quarried limestone. It is a former lunatic asylum building on Ord Street, and is one of Fremantle's most significant landmarks. Today, the imposing Victorian Gothic building and its historic courtyards are used for art exhibitions and music concerts.

The Fremantle Markets opened in 1897, forming a precinct providing handicrafts, specialty foods, dining halls and fish and vegetable markets. The area also hosts buskers and other street performers. The then premier, Sir John Forrest, laid the foundation stone for the markets on Saturday 6 November 1897. Over 150 stalls are housed in the Victorian-era building, which was listed by the National Trust of Australia and the state's Heritage Council in 1980. The Fremantle Markets are adjacent to several other historic buildings, including the Sail & Anchor Hotel (which contains a microbrewery), the Norfolk Hotel, the Warders Cottages, the Fremantle Technical School and Scots Presbyterian Church.

Some key historical buildings have been lost to development, while others are only extant thanks to community activism that went against the wishes of developers. For example, the art deco Oriana Cinema on the corner of Queen and High streets was demolished in 1972, after only 34 years of operation. This was done to make way for the widening of High Street, but that project was stopped thanks to the campaigning of the Fremantle Society and other community members, and the buildings along the southern side of High Street were retained. The Fremantle Markets nearly suffered a similar fate in the late 1970s due to another road-widening proposal.

The National Hotel, one of the city's historic buildings, was almost destroyed by fire on the night of Sunday, 11 March 2007. Though the interior was gutted, the façade was saved and the building has since been fully restored with an additional rooftop bar.

Demographics

St Patrick's Basilica

In the 2016 Australian census conducted by the Australian Bureau of Statistics, Fremantle had a population of 28,893 people. 61% of the population was born in Australia, compared with the national average of 67%. Indigenous Australians make up 1.6% of the population, and the largest overseas-born groups come from England (8.8%), Italy (3.1%), New Zealand (2.4%), Scotland (1.1%) and Ireland (1.0%). After English, the most common language spoken at home is Italian (4.5%), followed by French (1.0%), Portuguese (0.9%), German (0.9%) and Spanish (0.8%).

In 2016, Fremantle had an unemployment rate of 7.4%. The city has an above-average proportion of rented dwellings (33.5%, vs 30.9% nationally). 42% of the population had no religion, 23% of the population was Catholic, 10% Anglican and 1.6% Buddhist.

Education

Tertiary institutions

Fremantle's tertiary education institutions are:

The University of Notre Dame's Tannock Hall, located in Fremantle's West End.

• University of Notre Dame Australia – Located in the historic West End of Fremantle, the university's presence has contributed to Fremantle often being referred to as a "university town" typical of the older university towns of Europe and the only one of its type in Australia. The restored historic buildings of the campus lend a distinctive character to Notre Dame and with a growing student community, Notre Dame contributes actively to the city.

• South Metropolitan TAFE – South Metropolitan TAFE has multiple campuses in Fremantle, including its main campus in Beaconsfield, the WA Maritime Training Centre at Victoria Quay, and the E-Tech campus located within the city centre. South Metropolitan TAFE offers a broad range of courses from Certificate I to Advanced Diploma level across multiple campuses and across a diverse range of disciplines.
• Curtin University Sustainability Policy Institute (CUSP) - CUSP was established in January 2008 and is headed by sustainability expert, Professor Peter Newman. CUSP has a strong affinity with Fremantle, which in itself is widely regarded as being at the forefront of sustainable practices. The institute welcomes PhD and Masters by Research students, and is offering a coursework Masters in Sustainability.

The city centre is also home to a major teaching hospital, Fremantle Hospital.

Secondary schools

• John Curtin College of the Arts
• South Fremantle Senior High School
• Christian Brothers' College (CBC)
• Seton Catholic College

Primary schools

• Lance Holt School
• Fremantle Primary School
• Beaconsfield Primary School
• North Fremantle Primary School
• St Patrick's Primary School

Economy

Locals and tourists travel to the Fremantle Fishing Boat Harbour for seafood

Fremantle has a diverse economy, with over 2,000 registered businesses operating across a wide range of sectors. Many of the city's enterprises are small businesses, with 75% employing fewer than five people.

Fremantle's biggest employment sector is health care and social assistance – 17.5% of the city's workers are employed in this area, reflecting the important influence of Fremantle Hospital. The transport, postal and warehousing sector employs 12.6% of workers, followed by retail, employing 10.2%. The Local Gross Product of Fremantle was $3,677 million in 2011.

Media

Fremantle is served by a Community Newspaper Group paper, The Fremantle - Cockburn Gazette, and by an independent local newspaper, the Fremantle Herald.

Fremantle also has two radio stations: Radio Fremantle on 107.9FM and 91.3 SportFM.

Online reporting and reviews of events and places within Fremantle are comprehensively covered by a group of local designers on their popular blog, known as 'Love Freo', and by a local photographer with his daily updated blog Freo's View.

Culture

File:Shipwreck Galleries, Fremantle, WA.JPG

The Western Australian Museum's Shipwreck Galleries contain many artefacts from the infamous Batavia, which wrecked off the Western Australian coast in 1629.

Fremantle offers a wide variety of dining experiences, with a strong emphasis on Italian and Asian cuisine as well as seafood. Various cafés and coffee shops are situated around Fremantle, particularly on the 'Cappuccino Strip', a section of South Terrace known for its al fresco dining culture. The Fishing Boat Harbour has become a tourist precinct, with a mixture of microbreweries, restaurants and some of Australia's largest fish and chip shops. A number of old buildings on the harbour have been renovated, including Little Creatures Brewery, which occupies a former boat shed and crocodile farm, and contains a café and art gallery. The harbour's annual Fremantle Sardine Festival on Esplanade Park attracts thousands of seafood lovers every year. Other annual events held at the harbour include Araluen's Fremantle Chilli Festival, the Fremantle Boat Show, and the traditional Italian Blessing of the Fleet ceremony.

Fremantle—along with the inner suburbs Northbridge, Leederville and Subiaco—is one of Perth's major nightlife hubs. It attracts people from all over the metropolitan region for its pubs, bars and nightclubs.

There are several major annual festivals in Fremantle. First held in 1906, the Fremantle Festival is Australia's longest running community festival. International street performers converge for the Fremantle Street Arts Festival, held over the Easter holiday period. The Fremantle Heritage Festival celebrates local history with a variety of events, tours, concerts and workshops.

Fremantle is also home to several galleries and museums. The Western Australian Museum has two branches in Fremantle: the Shipwreck Galleries, housed in convict-constructed commissariat buildings and known for its artefacts from the Batavia and other 17th-century Dutch ships; and the Maritime Museum on Victoria Quay, which contains exhibits related to maritime trade and the Indian Ocean. The Army Museum of Western Australia is housed in an historic Fremantle artillery barracks.

Arts

File:Fremantle Arts Centre 2009.jpg

Fremantle Arts Centre

File:Grave of Bon Scott, Fremantle Cemetery, Western Australia - 20060218.jpg

Bon Scott's gravesite at Fremantle Cemetery is reputedly the most visited grave in Australia.

The city has a large arts community, with a number of small art galleries and musical venues and a community theatre company, Harbour Theatre Inc., which has been performing in the city since 1963. There is also the J Shed situated on Bathers' Beach. J Shed houses four artists studios. Old Customs House, a heritage building just across from the working Fremantle Ports, is home to a not-for-profit artists agency, Artsource, and provides 23 artist studios, and houses several other arts organisations.

Known as a music hub, Fremantle has given rise to many notable musicians, including AC/DC frontman Bon Scott, who grew up in the city and whose gravesite at Fremantle Cemetery has become a cultural landmark. A statue of Scott was erected in 2009 at the Fishing Boat Harbour. Dom Mariani also grew up in Fremantle, as did James Baker, and in the mid-1970s, fellow punk rock pioneer Kim Salmon resided at the Tarantella Night Club, where he made his first public performances. John Butler of the John Butler Trio started his music career busking in Fremantle in the 1990s. Alternative rock and folk groups Little Birdy, The Waifs and Eskimo Joe all have Fremantle connections, and belong to what has been dubbed the 'Freo Sound'. Other notable Fremantle musicians include bassist Martyn P. Casey, psychedelic rock groups Tame Impala and Pond, and indie pop band San Cisco. Songs about Fremantle include the title track of Paul Kelly's 1987 album Under the Sun, The Waifs' 2004 single "Bridal Train", and much of Eskimo Joe's 2004 album A Song is a City. Fremantle is home to a number of independent labels, including Redline Records, co-run by Jebediah frontman and Fremantle-native Kevin Mitchell, and Jarrah Records, co-founded by the John Butler Trio and The Waifs. Music festivals held in Fremantle include the West Coast Blues & Roots Festival, the Fremantle Winter Music Festival, and the St Jerome's Laneway Festival. The Fremantle Eisteddfod, running annually at the Fremantle Town Hall, supports young artists with prizes and concerts.

Fremantle has served as the setting for several films. Windrider (1986) was shot in Fremantle and starred Nicole Kidman. In the 2004 film Thunderstruck, four devoted AC/DC fans travel across Australia from Sydney to Fremantle to bury their best friend next to Bon Scott's grave. Shooting for the 2006 film Last Train to Freo took place outside Fremantle railway station, while scenes in the 2010 musical film Bran Nue Dae were shot in Fremantle's West End. Other films shot and/or set in Fremantle include Wind (1992), Teesh and Trude (2003) and Two Fists, One Heart (2008).

The children's television series The Sleepover Club and Streetsmartz were set and shot in Fremantle. In 2006, Fremantle Prison was featured on an episode of the American version of The Amazing Race. Episodes of the BBC World documentary television series Peschardt's People have been filmed in Fremantle, including an episode with Australian actress Toni Collette and another with Fremantle-based English comedian Ben Elton.

Actors from Fremantle include Emma Booth, Ewen Leslie, David Frankflin, Mary Ward and Simon Lyndon. Sam Worthington and Megan Gale attended their first acting classes at John Curtin College of the Arts in Fremantle. In 2009, Fremantle model Tahnee Atkinson won the fifth cycle of Australia's Next Top Model.

Sport and recreation

Yachts compete in the annual Fremantle Harbour Classic, held within the confines of the Inner Harbour

Global attention turned to Fremantle when it hosted the America's Cup yachting race in 1987, after Australia was the first country to ever win the race, aside from the US, in 1983. The unsuccessful cup defence was conducted on the waters in Gage Roads, and is considered a hallmark event of the late 20th century revitalisation and gentrification of the city. Fremantle has subsequently served as a stopover in the Clipper, Velux and Volvo round-the-world yacht races, and hosted the 2011 ISAF Sailing World Championships, a major qualifying event for the 2012 Summer Olympics.

Statue of John Gerovich's spectacular mark in the 1956 WAFL preliminary final. Fremantle Oval's 1890s Victoria Pavilion is in the background.

Organised Australian rules football was first played in Fremantle in the early 1880s with the Fremantle Football Club, a founding member of the West Australian Football Association in 1885. The club disbanded at the end of the 1886 season after winning its first premiership. Founded in 1882, the Fremantle-based Unions Football Club entered WAFA in 1886, attracting many players from the original Fremantle club, and went on to dominate the competition with ten premiership victories. The Unions folded in 1899 and were superseded by East Fremantle (1898–), South Fremantle (1900–), and North Fremantle (1901–1915). The East Fremantle Sharks are by far the most successful club in the West Australian Football League, winning a total of 29 premierships. East Fremantle Oval has been the team's home ground since 1953. Today, Fremantle is represented in the Australian Football League by the Fremantle Dockers, who previously trained at the heritage-listed Fremantle Oval, shared with South Fremantle, and play their home matches at Perth Stadium (also known as Optus Stadium) in Burswood. The club's main rivalry is with the Perth-based West Coast Eagles. In 2013, the Dockers played in (and lost) their first Grand Final.

Founded in 1887, the Fremantle District Cricket Club competes in the Western Australian Grade Cricket competition, and plays its home fixtures at Fremantle's Stevens Reserve. The club has produced a number of Test players including Graeme Wood, Brad Hogg, Geoff Marsh and sons Shaun Marsh and Mitchell Marsh. Three Fremantle soccer teams compete in Football West State League competitions: Fremantle Spirit, Fremantle United and the Fremantle Croatia Soccer Club.

Bathers and kite surfers at Port Beach

Fremantle is home to five beaches: Bathers Beach, River Beach, South Beach, Leighton Beach and Port Beach. The city's strong afternoon sea breeze, known locally as the Freo Doctor, has made its beaches a prime location for wind and kite surfing. The Fremantle Surf Life Saving Club has been active since the 1930s. Fishing takes place at the many jetties and groynes surrounding Challenger, Success Boat and Fishing Boat harbours, and along Blackwall Reach at the Swan River, which is also used for canoeing, rock climbing and cliff diving. A chain of islands listed as A Class nature reserves lie within 20 km (12 mi) of Fremantle, and are accessible by ferry or private boat. The largest and most well-known island is Rottnest Island, followed by Garden Island and Carnac Island. Each island is home to endemic flora and fauna, and provide opportunities for water-based activities such as sunbathing, surfing, snorkelling and scuba diving.

Transportation

See also: Trams in Fremantle

Fremantle railway station

Fremantle is home to Western Australia's largest working port. The Inner Harbour, in Fremantle itself, handles almost the entire container trade for the state, as well as livestock exports, motor vehicle imports and general cargo. Located fifteen kilometres south of Fremantle, at Kwinana, the Outer Harbour is one of Australia's major bulk cargo ports, handling a variety of bulk commodities, from grain to LPG.

The city is the western terminus of the direct, electrified passenger railway service from the Perth CBD. Fremantle was the starting point of railways in the metropolitan area of Perth, the Fremantle railway line being the starting point of the first railway in 1881 to Guildford.

Major highways, the Stirling Highway, Canning Highway and Leach Highway connect Fremantle to the Perth CBD.

Passenger ferries operate from the port, travelling to Rottnest Island, 22 kilometres off of the coast in the Indian Ocean, and upriver to Perth city centre. Fremantle's free Central Area Transit (CAT) bus services are popular and practical ways to get around, with one service (Blue CAT) linking key points in the city and to Fremantle's inner suburbs.

Health

The major health service facility in Fremantle is Fremantle Hospital, located at Alma Street, a short walk from the city centre. Fremantle Hospital is a 450-bed major acute-care teaching hospital with important tertiary links. The 24-hour emergency department was closed in 2015. It is Western Australia's referral hospital for diving and hyperbaric medicine, and has a cardiothoracic surgery centre and nuclear medicine department. It also has a 66-bed mental health facility.

As a tertiary teaching hospital, Fremantle Hospital provides almost all specialty services on site and clinical services are backed by an extensive teaching program. As well as routine departmental and hospital-wide teaching, formal postgraduate courses are offered. Emergency nursing, critical care nursing, perioperative nursing and infection control courses are held regularly and a postgraduate weekend for general practitioners is held every October.

Sister and friendship cities

Fremantle has sister city relationships with five cities and friendship city relationships with three cities. Some of the relationships reflect Fremantle's historic migrant population. They are (in chronological order):

• Seberang Perai, Malaysia (since 1978)
• Yokosuka, Japan (since 1979)
• Capo d'Orlando, Italy (since 1983)
• Molfetta, Italy (since 1984)
• Funchal, Portugal (since 1996)

Fremantle also has friendship-city relationships with three cities:

• Padang, Indonesia (since 1996)
• Surabaya, Indonesia (since 1996)
• Korčula, Croatia (since 1999)

See also

• List of people from Fremantle

References

• Favenc, Ernest (1908) The Explorers of Australia and Their Life-work. (Whitcombe and Tombs).
• Goulding, Dot (2007) Recapturing Freedom: Issues Relating to the Release of Long-term Prisoners into the Community. (Hawkins Press). ISBN 978-1876067182

External links

• Fremantle Chamber of Commerce
• Fremantle Local Tourist Guide
• Fremantle Port Authority
• Fremantle Tourism

Climate data for Kalamunda
Month	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Year
Average high °C (°F)	30.4 (86.7)	30.3 (86.5)	27.7 (81.9)	23.8 (74.8)	19.0 (66.2)	16.4 (61.5)	15.4 (59.7)	16.3 (61.3)	18.3 (64.9)	20.6 (69.1)	24.5 (76.1)	28.0 (82.4)	22.6 (72.7)
Average low °C (°F)	16.2 (61.2)	16.3 (61.3)	15.3 (59.5)	13.4 (56.1)	10.8 (51.4)	9.1 (48.4)	8.0 (46.4)	8.1 (46.6)	9.2 (48.6)	10.1 (50.2)	12.5 (54.5)	14.6 (58.3)	12.0 (53.6)
Average precipitation mm (inches)	11.9 (0.469)	17.6 (0.693)	22.7 (0.894)	55.7 (2.193)	144.3 (5.681)	216.2 (8.512)	213.8 (8.417)	165.9 (6.531)	102.1 (4.02)	70.5 (2.776)	28.6 (1.126)	19.6 (0.772)	1,065.9 (41.965)
Source:

Climate data for Jandakot Airport
Month	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Year
Record high °C (°F)	45.7 (114.3)	46.6 (115.9)	43.0 (109.4)	37.0 (98.6)	33.4 (92.1)	25.4 (77.7)	25.9 (78.6)	27.0 (80.6)	34.2 (93.6)	37.4 (99.3)	40.0 (104)	44.0 (111.2)	46.6 (115.9)
Average high °C (°F)	31.4 (88.5)	31.7 (89.1)	29.7 (85.5)	25.8 (78.4)	22.0 (71.6)	19.0 (66.2)	17.9 (64.2)	18.7 (65.7)	22.0 (71.6)	22.8 (73)	26.2 (79.2)	29.1 (84.4)	24.5 (76.1)
Average low °C (°F)	16.8 (62.2)	17.1 (62.8)	15.4 (59.7)	12.4 (54.3)	9.4 (48.9)	7.4 (45.3)	6.77 (44.19)	7.1 (44.8)	8.3 (46.9)	9.6 (49.3)	12.6 (54.7)	14.6 (58.3)	11.5 (52.7)
Record low °C (°F)	4.7 (40.5)	6.5 (43.7)	1.6 (34.9)	2.3 (36.1)	−0.6 (30.9)	−3.4 (25.9)	−2.8 (27)	−1.4 (29.5)	−1.3 (29.7)	−1.0 (30.2)	0.8 (33.4)	3.2 (37.8)	−3.4 (25.9)
Average rainfall mm (inches)	13.8 (0.543)	16.3 (0.642)	16.1 (0.634)	42.3 (1.665)	107.3 (4.224)	156.6 (6.165)	173.7 (6.839)	126.0 (4.961)	88.0 (3.465)	46.0 (1.811)	29.1 (1.146)	10.5 (0.413)	821.0 (32.323)
Source: Australian Bureau of Meteorology

Isolation

Perth is one of the most isolated major cities in the world. The nearest city with a population of more than 100,000 is Adelaide, 2,104 kilometres (1,307 mi) away. Only Honolulu (population 953,000), 3,841 kilometres (2,387 mi) from San Francisco, is more isolated.

Perth is geographically closer to both Dili, East Timor (2,785 kilometres (1,731 mi)), and Jakarta, Indonesia (3,002 kilometres (1,865 mi)), than to Sydney (3,291 kilometres (2,045 mi)), Brisbane (3,604 kilometres (2,239 mi)), or Canberra (3,106 kilometres (1,930 mi)).

Demographics

Historical populations

Perth Statistical Division Year Pop. ±% 1854 4,001 —     1859 6,293 +57.3% 1870 8,220 +30.6% 1881 9,955 +21.1% 1891 16,694 +67.7% 1901 67,431 +303.9% 1911 116,181 +72.3% 1921 170,213 +46.5% 1933 230,340 +35.3% 1947 302,968 +31.5% 1954 395,049 +30.4% 1961 475,398 +20.3% 1966 559,298 +17.6% 1971 703,199 +25.7% Source: ABS Greater Perth Statistical Area Year Pop. ±% 1971 744,600 —     1976 845,700 +13.6% 1981 941,479 +11.3% 1986 1,075,959 +14.3% 1991 1,226,115 +14.0% 1996 1,344,378 +9.6% 2001 1,452,058 +8.0% 2006 1,590,007 +9.5% 2008 1,687,815 +6.2% 2010 1,785,076 +5.8% Source: ABS Note: Greater Perth includes the City of Mandurah and part of the Shire of Murray, south of Perth.

Perth is Australia's fourth-most populous city, having overtaken Adelaide's population in the early 1980s. At the 2006 Census 1,445,079 residents in the Perth statistical area were counted. In 2014 there were approximately 2.02 million residents in the metropolitan area.

Ethnic groups

Overseas-born populations
Country of birth	Population (2006)
United Kingdom	168,483
New Zealand	33,751
Malaysia	28,939
Italy	18,701
South Africa	18,683
India	14,007
Singapore	11,199
Vietnam	10,081
Ireland	7,706
China	7,681
Germany	7,617
Netherlands	7,570
Indonesia	7,392
United States	5,524

One dot represents 100 persons born in:
United Kingdom (dark blue),
China (red),
Italy (light green),
Malaysia (dark green),
South Africa (brown),
Singapore (purple) and
Vietnam (yellow), based on 2006 Census.

In 2006, the largest ancestry groups in the Perth metropolitan areas were: English (534,555 or 28.6%), Australian (479,174 or 25.6%), Irish (115,384 or 6.2%), Scottish (113,846 or 6.1%), Italian (84,331 or 4.5%) and Chinese (53,390 or 2.9%). There were 26,486 Indigenous Australians in the city.

Perth's population is notable for the high proportion of British and Irish born residents. At the 2006 Census, 142,424 England-born Perth residents were counted, narrowly behind Sydney (145,261), despite the fact that Perth had just 35% of the overall population of Sydney.

The ethnic make-up of Perth changed in the second part of the 20th century, when significant numbers of continental European immigrants arrived in the city. Prior to this, Perth's population had been almost completely Anglo-Celtic in ethnic origin. As Fremantle was the first landfall in Australia for many migrant ships coming from Europe in the 1950s and 1960s, Perth started to experience a diverse influx of people, including Italians, Greeks, Dutch, Germans, Croats. The Italian influence in the Perth and Fremantle area has been substantial, evident in places like the "Cappuccino strip" in Fremantle featuring many Italian eateries and shops. In Fremantle the traditional Italian blessing of the fleet festival is held every year at the start of the fishing season. In Northbridge every December is the San Nicola (Saint Nicholas) Festival, which involves a pageant followed by a concert, predominantly in Italian. Suburbs surrounding the Fremantle area, such as Spearwood and Hamilton Hill, also contain high concentrations of Italians, Croatians and Portuguese. Perth also has a small Jewish community – numbering 5,082 in 2006 – who have emigrated primarily from Eastern Europe and more recently from South Africa.

Another more recent wave of arrivals includes white minorities from Southern Africa. South African residents overtook those born in Italy as the fourth largest foreign group in 2001. By 2006, there were 18,825 South Africans residing in Perth, accounting for 1.3% of the city's population. Many Afrikaners and Anglo-Africans emigrated to Perth during the 1980s and 1990s, with the phrase "packing for Perth" becoming associated with South Africans who choose to emigrate abroad, sometimes regardless of the destination. As a result, the city has been described as "the Australian capital of South Africans in exile". The reason for Perth being so popular among white South Africans has often been the location, the vast amount of land, and the slightly warmer climate compared to other large Australian cities – Perth has a Mediterranean climate reminiscent of Cape Town.

Since the late 1970s, Southeast Asia has become an increasingly important source of migrants, with communities from Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Singapore, Hong Kong, Mainland China, and India all now well-established. There were 53,390 persons of Chinese descent in Perth in 2006 – 2.9% of the city's population. These are supported by the Australian Eurasian Association of Western Australia, which also serves a community of Portuguese-Malacca Eurasian or Kristang immigrants.

The Indian community includes a substantial number of Parsees who emigrated from Bombay – Perth being the closest Australian city to India – and the India-born population of the city at the time of the 2006 census was 14,094 or 0.8%. Perth is also home to the largest population of Anglo-Burmese in the world; many settled here following the independence of Burma in 1948 and the city is now the cultural hub for Anglo-Burmese worldwide. There is also a substantial Anglo-Indian population in Perth, who also settled in the city following the independence of India.

Religion

Protestants, predominantly Anglican, make up approximately 28% of the population. Perth is the seat of the Anglican Diocese of Perth and of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Perth. Roman Catholics make up about 23% of the population, and Catholicism is the most common single denomination. Perth is also home to 12,000 Latter-day Saints and the Perth Australia Temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Perth is also home of the seat of the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of the Southern Cross as the Church of St Ninian and St Chad in Perth was named the principal church of the ordinariate.

Buddhism and Islam each claim more than 20,000 adherents. Perth has one of the larger Jewish populations in Australia, numbering approximately 20,000, with both Orthodox and Progressive synagogues and a Jewish Day School. The Bahá'í community in Perth numbers around 1,500. Hinduism has over 20,000 adherents in Perth; the Diwali (festival of lights) celebration in 2009 attracted over 20,000 visitors. There are Hindu temples in Canning Vale, Anketell and a Swaminarayan temple north of the Swan River.

Approximately one in five people from Perth profess to having no religion, with 11% of people not specific as to their beliefs.

Governance

Supreme Court of Western Australia

Government House, Western Australia

Parliament House, Perth

Perth houses the Parliament of Western Australia and the Governor of Western Australia. As of the 2008 state election, 42 of the Legislative Assembly's 59 seats and 18 of the Legislative Council's 36 seats are based in Perth's metropolitan area. Perth is represented by 9 full seats and significant parts of three others in the Federal House of Representatives, with the seats of Canning, Pearce and Brand including some areas outside the metropolitan area. The metropolitan area is divided into over 30 local government bodies, including the City of Perth which administers Perth's central business district.

The state's highest court, the Supreme Court, is located in Perth, along with the District and Family Courts. The Magistrates' Court has six metropolitan locations. The Federal Court of Australia and the Federal Circuit Court of Australia (previously the Federal Magistrates Court) occupy the Commonwealth Law Courts building on Victoria Avenue, which is also the location for annual Perth sittings of Australia's High Court.

The Metropolitan Region Scheme is the statutory town planning scheme for land use in the Perth metropolitan area, and has been in operation since 1963.

Economy

See also: Economy of Western Australia

By virtue of its population and role as the administrative centre for business and government, Perth dominates the Western Australian economy, despite the major mining, petroleum, and agricultural export industries located elsewhere in the state. Perth's function as the state's capital city, its economic base and population size have also created development opportunities for many other businesses oriented to local or more diversified markets.

Perth's economy has been changing in favour of the service industries since the 1950s. Although one of the major sets of services it provides is related to the resources industry and, to a lesser extent, agriculture, most people in Perth are not connected to either; they have jobs that provide services to other people in Perth.

As a result of Perth's relative geographical isolation, it has never had the necessary conditions to develop significant manufacturing industries other than those serving the immediate needs of its residents, mining, agriculture and some specialised areas, such as, in recent times, niche ship building and maintenance. It was simply cheaper to import all the needed manufactured goods from either the eastern states or overseas.

Industrial employment influenced the economic geography of Perth. After WWII, Perth experienced suburban expansion aided by high levels of car ownership. Workforce decentralisation and transport improvements made it possible for the establishment of small-scale manufacturing in the suburbs. Many firms took advantage of relatively cheap land to build spacious, single-storey plants in suburban locations with plentiful parking, easy access and minimal traffic congestion. "The former close ties of manufacturing with near-central and/or rail-side locations were loosened."

Industrial estates such as Kwinana, Welshpool and Kewdale were post-war additions contributing to the growth of manufacturing south of the river. The establishment of the Kwinana industrial area was supported by standardisation of the east-west rail gauge linking Perth with eastern Australia. Since the 1950s the area has been dominated by heavy industry, including an oil refinery, steel-rolling mill with a blast furnace, alumina refinery, power station and a nickel refinery. Another development, also linked with rail standardisation, was in 1968 when the Kewdale Freight Terminal was developed adjacent to the Welshpool industrial area, replacing the former Perth railway yards.

With significant population growth post-WWII, employment growth occurred not in manufacturing but in retail and wholesale trade, business services, health, education, community and personal services and in public administration. Increasingly it was these services sectors, concentrated around the Perth metropolitan area, that provided jobs.

Education

See also: Education in Western Australia

Education is compulsory in Western Australia between the ages of six and seventeen, corresponding to primary and secondary school. Tertiary education is available through a number of universities and technical and further education (TAFE) colleges.

Primary and secondary education

Students may attend either public schools, run by the state government's Department of Education, or private schools, usually associated with a religion.

The Western Australian Certificate of Education (WACE) is the credential given to students who have completed Years 11 and 12 of their secondary schooling.

In 2012 the minimum requirements for students to receive their WACE changed.

Tertiary education

The University of Western Australia, located in Crawley

Perth is home to four public universities: the University of Western Australia, Curtin University, Murdoch University, and Edith Cowan University. There is also one private university, the University of Notre Dame.

The University of Western Australia, which was founded in 1911, is renowned as one of Australia's leading research institutions. The university's monumental neo-classical architecture, most of which is carved from white limestone, is a notable tourist destination in the city. It is the only university in the state to be a member of the Group of Eight, as well as the Sandstone universities. It is also the state's only university to have produced a Nobel Laureate – Barry Marshall who graduated with a Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery in 1975 and was awarded a joint Nobel Prize for physiology or medicine in 2005, together with Robin Warren.

Curtin University in Bentley

Curtin University (known as Curtin University of Technology until 2010) is Western Australia's largest university by student population, and was known from its founding in 1966 until 1986 as the Western Australian Institute of Technology (WAIT) and had amalgamated with Western Australian School of Mines and the Muresk Institute. It has a rapidly growing research reputation and is the only Western Australian university to produce PhD recipients of the AINSE gold medal, the highest possible recognition for PhD level science and engineering research excellence in Australia and New Zealand.

Murdoch University was established in the 1970s, and is Australia's largest campus in geographical area (2.27 km² (0.88 sq mi)), necessary to accommodate Western Australia's only veterinary school.

Edith Cowan University was established in the early 1990s from the existing Western Australian College of Advanced Education (WACAE) which itself was formed in the 1970s from the existing Teachers Colleges at Claremont, Churchlands, and Mount Lawley. It incorporates the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA).

The University of Notre Dame Australia was established in 1990. Notre Dame was established as a Catholic university with its lead campus in Fremantle and a large campus in Sydney. Its campus is set in the west end of Fremantle, using historic port buildings built in the 1890s, giving Notre Dame a distinct European university atmosphere. Though Notre Dame shares its name with the University of Notre Dame in Indiana USA, it is a separate institution, claiming only "strong ties" with its American namesake.

Colleges of TAFE provide trade and vocational training, including certificate- and diploma-level courses. TAFE began as a system of technical colleges and schools under the Education Department, from which they were separated in the 1980s and ultimately formed into regional colleges. Four exist in the Perth metropolitan area: Central Institute of Technology (formerly Central TAFE); West Coast Institute of Training (northern suburbs); Polytechnic West (eastern and south-eastern suburbs; formerly Swan TAFE); and Challenger Institute of Technology (Fremantle/Peel).

Media

ABC Perth studios in East Perth, home of 720 ABC Perth radio and ABC television in Western Australia

Perth is served by twenty digital free-to-air television channels:

1. ABC,
2. ABC News 24,
3. ABC2,
4. ABC3,
5. SBS,
6. SBS HD (SBS broadcast in HD),
7. SBS2,
8. Seven,
9. 7mate,
10. 7Two,
11. Nine,
12. GEM,
13. Go!,
14. Ten,
15. One,
16. Eleven,
17. West TV,
18. TVSN,
19. National Indigenous Television,
20. TV4ME.

ABC, SBS, Seven, Nine and Ten were also broadcast in an analogue format until 16 April 2013, when the analogue transmission was switched off. Community station Access 31 closed in August 2008. In April 2010 a new community station, West TV, began transmission (in digital format only).

Foxtel provides a subscription-based satellite and cable television service. Perth has its own local newsreaders on ABC (James McHale), Seven (Rick Ardon, Susannah Carr), Nine (Emmy Kubainski, Tim McMillan) and Ten (Narelda Jacobs).

Television shows produced in Perth include local editions of the current affair program Today Tonight, and other types of programming such as The Force. An annual telethon has been broadcast since 1968 to raise funds for charities including Princess Margaret Hospital for Children. The 24-hour Perth Telethon claims to be "the most successful fundraising event per capita in the world" and raised more than A$20 million in 2013, with a combined total of over A$153 million since 1968.

The main newspapers for Perth are The West Australian and The Sunday Times. Localised free community papers cater for each local government area. There are also many advertising newspapers, such as The Quokka. The local business paper is Western Australian Business News.

Radio stations are on AM, FM and DAB+ frequencies. ABC stations include News Radio (585AM), 720 ABC Perth, Radio National (810AM), Classic FM (97.7FM) and Triple J (99.3FM). The six local commercial stations are: 92.9, Nova 93.7, Mix 94.5, 96fm, on FM and 882 6PR and 1080 6IX on AM. DAB+ has mostly the same as both FM and AM plus national stations from the ABC/SBS, Radar Radio and Novanation, along with local stations My Perth Digital and HotCountry Perth. Major community radio stations include RTRFM (92.1FM), Sonshine FM (98.5FM), SportFM (91.3FM) and Curtin FM (100.1FM).

Online news media covering the Perth area include TheWest.com.au backed by The West Australian, Perth Now from the newsroom of The Sunday Times, WAToday from Fairfax Media and other outlets like TweetPerth on social media.

Culture

Arts and entertainment

See also: Music of Perth; List of musical acts from Western Australia; and People from Perth, Western Australia

Public art by artist Akio Makigawa outside the State Library of Western Australia

The Perth Cultural Centre is the location of the city's major arts, cultural and educational institutions, including the Art Gallery of Western Australia, Western Australian Museum, State Library of Western Australia, State Records Office, and Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts (PICA). The State Theatre Centre of Western Australia is also located there, and is the home of the Black Swan State Theatre Company and the Perth Theatre Company. Other performing arts companies based in Perth include the West Australian Ballet, the West Australian Opera and the West Australian Symphony Orchestra, all of which present regular programmes. The Western Australian Youth Orchestras provide young musicians with performance opportunities in orchestral and other musical ensembles.

Perth is also home to the internationally regarded Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts at Edith Cowan University, from which many successful actors and broadcasters have launched their careers. The city's main performance venues include the Riverside Theatre within the Perth Convention Exhibition Centre, the Perth Concert Hall, the historic His Majesty's Theatre, the Regal Theatre in Subiaco and the Astor Theatre in Mount Lawley. Perth Arena can be configured as an entertainment or sporting arena, and concerts are also hosted at other sporting venues, including Subiaco Oval, HBF Stadium, and nib Stadium. Outdoor concert venues include Quarry Amphitheatre, Supreme Court Gardens, Kings Park and Russell Square.

Soundwave Perth in 2010

A number of annual events are held in Perth. The Perth International Arts Festival is a large cultural festival that has been held annually since 1953, and has since been joined by the Winter Arts festival, Perth Fringe Festival, and Perth Writers Festival. Perth also hosts annual music festivals including Future Music, Stereosonic and Soundwave. The Perth International Comedy Festival features a variety of local and international comedic talent, with performances held at the Astor Theatre and nearby venues in Mount Lawley, and regular night food markets throughout the summer months across Perth and its surrounding suburbs. Sculpture by the Sea showcases a range of local and international sculptors' creations along Cottesloe Beach. There is also a wide variety of public art and sculptures on display across the city, throughout the year.

The Noodle Night Markets in March at the Perth Cultural Centre

Perth has featured in a variety of artistic works in various mediums. An early novel, Moondyne, set in the Swan River Colony, was written by a former Fenian convict, John Boyle O'Reilly, and a A Faithful Picture, edited by Peter Cowan, gives a good idea of the early days of the colony. Songs that refer to the city include "I Love Perth" (1996) by Pavement, and "Perth" (2011) by Bon Iver, while a number of films feature Perth: Last Train to Freo, Two Fists, One Heart, Thunderstruck, Bran Nue Dae, Japanese Story and Nickel Queen. The industrial metal band Fear Factory recorded the video for their single "Cyberwaste" in South Fremantle.

Because of Perth's relative isolation from other Australian cities, overseas artists often exclude it from their Australian tour schedules. This isolation, however, has developed a strong local music scene, and the development of local music groups such as John Butler Trio, The Triffids, Pendulum, Eskimo Joe, Pond, Tame Impala, Karnivool, Gyroscope, Jebediah, Little Birdy, The Panics and Birds of Tokyo. Celebrity musical performers from Perth have included the late AC/DC lead singer Bon Scott, who has been remembered with a statue in Fremantle, and veteran performer and artist Rolf Harris, given the nickname "The Boy From Bassendean". The largest performance area within the State Theatre Centre, the Heath Ledger Theatre, is named in honour of Perth-born film actor Heath Ledger.

Tourism and recreation

Main article: Tourism in Perth

Fremantle is known for its well-preserved architectural heritage.

Tourism in Perth is an important part of the state's economy, with approximately 2.8 million domestic visitors and 0.7 million international visitors in the year ending March 2012. Tourist attractions are generally focused around the city centre, Fremantle, the coast, and the Swan River. In addition to the Perth Cultural Centre, there are a number of museums across the city. The Scitech Discovery Centre in West Perth is an interactive science museum, with regularly changing exhibitions on a large range of science and technology based subjects. Scitech also conducts live science demonstration shows, and operates the adjacent Horizon planetarium. The Western Australian Maritime Museum in Fremantle displays maritime objects from all eras. It houses Australia II, the yacht that won the 1983 America's Cup, as well as a former Royal Australian Navy submarine. Also located in Fremantle is the Army Museum of Western Australia, situated within a historic artillery barracks. The museum consists of several galleries which reflect the Army's involvement in Western Australia, and the military service of Western Australians. The museum holds numerous items of significance, including three Victoria Crosses. Aviation history is represented by the Aviation Heritage Museum in Bull Creek, with its significant collection of aircraft, including a Lancaster bomber and a Catalina of the type operated from the Swan River during WWII. There are many heritage sites in Perth's CBD, Fremantle, and other parts of the metropolitan areas. Some of the oldest remaining building, dating back to the 1830s, include the Round House in Fremantle, the Old Mill in South Perth, and the Old Court House in the city centre. Registers of important buildings are maintained by the Heritage Council of Western Australia and local governments. A late heritage building is the Perth Mint.

The Murray Street mall, at the corner of Forrest Place

Retail shopping in the Perth CBD is focused around Murray Street and Hay Street. Both of these streets are pedestrian malls between William Street and Barrack Street. Forrest Place is another pedestrian mall, connecting the Murray Street mall to Wellington Street and the Perth railway station. A number of arcades run between Hay Street and Murray Street, including the Piccadilly Arcade, which housed the Piccadilly Cinema until it closed in late 2013. Other shopping precincts include Harbour Town in West Perth, featuring factory outlets for major brands, the historically significant Fremantle Markets, which date back to 1897, and the Midland townsite on Great Eastern Highway, combining historic development around the Town Hall and Post Office buildings with the modern Midland Gate shopping centre further east. Joondalup's central business district is largely a shopping and retail area lined with townhouses and apartments, and also features Lakeside Joondalup Shopping City. Joondalup was granted the status of "tourism precinct" by the State Government in 2009, allowing for extended retail trading hours. The Swan Valley, with fertile soil, uncommon in the Perth region, features numerous wineries such as the large complex at Houghtons, the state's biggest producer, Sandalfords and many smaller operators, including microbreweries and rum distilleries. The Swan Valley also contains specialised food producers, many restaurants and cafes, and roadside local-produce stalls that sell seasonal fruit throughout the year. Tourist Drive 203 is a circular route in the Swan Valley, passing by many attractions on West Swan Road and Great Northern Highway.

Kings Park, located in central Perth between the CBD and the University of Western Australia, is one of the world's largest inner-city parks, at 400.6 hectares (990 acres). There are many landmarks and attractions within Kings Park, including the State War Memorial Precinct on Mount Eliza, Western Australian Botanic Garden, and children's playgrounds. Other features include DNA Tower, a 15m high double helix staircase that resembles the deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) molecule, and Jacob's Ladder, comprising 242 steps that lead down to Mounts Bay Road. Hyde Park is another inner-city park located 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) north of the CBD. It was gazetted as a public park in 1897, created from 15 hectares (37 acres) of a chain of wetlands known as Third Swamp. Avon Valley, John Forrest and Yanchep national parks are areas of protected bushland at the northern and eastern edges of the metropolitan area. Within the city's northern suburbs is Whiteman Park, a 4,000-hectare (9,900-acre) bushland area, with bushwalking trails, bike paths, sports facilities, playgrounds, a tram on a 4-kilometre (2.5 mi) circular track, motor and tractor museums, and Caversham Wildlife Park.

Hyde Park

Perth Zoo, located in South Perth, houses a variety of Australian and exotic animals from around the globe. The zoo is home to highly successful breeding programs for orangutans and giraffes, and participates in captive breeding and reintroduction efforts for a number of Western Australian species, including the numbat, the dibbler, the chuditch, and the western swamp tortoise. More wildlife can be observed at the Aquarium of Western Australia in Hillarys, which is Australia's largest aquarium, specialising in marine animals that inhabit the 12,000-kilometre-long (7,500 mi) western coast of Australia. The northern Perth section of the coastline is known as Sunset Coast; it includes numerous beaches and the Marmion Marine Park, a protected area inhabited by tropical fish, Australian sea lions and bottlenose dolphins, and traversed by humpback whales. Tourist Drive 204, also known as Sunset Coast Tourist Drive, is a designated route from North Fremantle to Iluka along coastal roads.

Sport

Main article: Sport in Western Australia

Domain Stadium, the home stadium of Australian rules football and many other sports in Perth

The climate of Perth allows for extensive outdoor sporting activity, and this is reflected in the wide variety of sports available to residents of the city. Perth was host to the 1962 Commonwealth Games and the 1987 America's Cup defence (based at Fremantle). Australian rules football is the most popular spectator sport in Perth – nearly 23% of Western Australians attended a match at least once in 2009–2010. The two Australian Football League teams located in Perth, the West Coast Eagles and the Fremantle Football Club, have two of the largest fan bases in the country. The Eagles, the older club, is one of the most successful teams in the league, and one of the largest sporting clubs in Australia.The next level of football is the Western Australian Football League, comprising nine clubs each having a League, Reserves and Colts team. Each of these clubs has a junior football system for all genders, and ages from 7 up to 17. The next level of football is the Western Australian Amateur Football League, comprising 68 clubs servicing senior footballers within the metropolitan area. Other popular sports include cricket, basketball, association football (soccer), and rugby union.

Current sport teams

Active sports teams in Perth

Club	League	Sport	Venue	Established
Fremantle Dockers	Australian Football League	Australian rules	Domain Stadium	1994
West Coast Eagles	Australian Football League	Australian rules	Domain Stadium	1986
Perth Wildcats	National Basketball League	Basketball	Perth Arena	1982
Perth Lynx	Women's National Basketball League	Basketball	Bendat Basketball Centre	1988
Perth Glory FC	A-League	Association football	nib Stadium	1996
Perth Glory FC W-League	W-League	Association football	Ashfield Reserve	2008
Western Force	Super Rugby	Rugby union	nib Stadium	2005
Perth Spirit	National Rugby Championship	Rugby union	UWA Sports Park	2007
Perth Heat	Australian Baseball League	Baseball	Barbagallo Ballpark	1989
West Coast Fever	ANZ Championship	Netball	HBF Stadium Perth Arena	1997
West Coast Pirates	S.G. Ball Cup	Rugby league	nib Stadium	2012
Western Warriors	Sheffield Shield	Cricket	WACA Ground	1893
Perth Scorchers	Big Bash League/Women's Big Bash League	Cricket	WACA Ground	2011
Western Fury	Women's National Cricket League	Cricket	WACA Ground	1996
Perth Thunder	Australian Ice Hockey League	Ice Hockey	Perth Ice Arena	2010

The exterior of Perth Arena

Perth has hosted numerous state and international sporting events. Ongoing international events include the Hopman Cup during the first week of January at the Perth Arena. In addition to these Perth has hosted international Rugby Union games, including qualifying matches for 2003 Rugby World Cup. The 1991 and 1998 FINA World Championships were held in Perth. Four races (2006, 2007, 2008 and 2010) in the Red Bull Air Race World Championship have been held on a stretch of the Swan River called Perth Water, using Langley Park as a temporary air field. Several motorsport facilities exist in Perth including Perth Motorplex, catering to drag racing and speedway, and Barbagallo Raceway for circuit racing and drifting. Perth also has two thoroughbred racing facilities: Ascot, home of the Railway Stakes and Perth Cup; and Belmont Park.

The WACA Ground opened in the 1890s and has hosted Test cricket since 1970. The Western Australian Athletics Stadium opened in 2009.

Infrastructure

Health

Royal Perth Hospital, on either side of Wellington Street in the centre of Perth

See also: List of hospitals in Western Australia

Perth has ten large hospitals with emergency departments. As of 2013, Royal Perth Hospital in the city centre is the largest, with others spread around the metropolitan area: Armadale Kelmscott District Memorial Hospital, Joondalup Health Campus, King Edward Memorial Hospital for Women in Subiaco, Rockingham General Hospital, Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital in Nedlands, St John of God Murdoch Hospital, Swan District Hospital in Middle Swan, and Fiona Stanley Hospital in Murdoch. Princess Margaret Hospital for Children is the state's only specialist children's hospital, and Graylands Hospital is the only public stand-alone psychiatric teaching hospital. Most of these are public hospitals, with some operating under public-private partnerships. St John of God Murdoch Hospital is privately owned and operated.

New hospitals are under construction to replace ageing facilities. A new children's hospital, due to open in 2015, is being constructed next to Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital, and will replace Princess Margaret Hospital. Midland Health Campus, a public and a private hospital, is under construction in Midland. St John of God Health Care will build and operate the new hospitals under a public-private partnership with the state government. Midland Health Campus will open in late 2015, and replace the nearby Swan District Hospital.

A number of other public and private hospitals operate in Perth.

Transport

Main article: Transport in Perth

Further information: Transperth

The Kwinana Freeway links Perth and its surrounding suburbs to the city of Mandurah.

Perth is served by Perth Airport in the city's east for regional, domestic and international flights and Jandakot Airport in the city's southern suburbs for general aviation and charter flights.

Perth has a road network with three freeways and nine metropolitan highways. The Northbridge tunnel, part of the Graham Farmer Freeway, is the only significant road tunnel in Perth.

Perth metropolitan public transport, including trains, buses and ferries, are provided by Transperth, with links to rural areas provided by Transwa. There are 70 railway stations and 15 bus stations in the metropolitan area.

Perth Underground Train Station

Perth provides zero-fare bus and train trips around the city centre (the "Free Transit Zone"), including four high-frequency CAT bus routes.

The Indian Pacific passenger rail service connects Perth with Adelaide and Sydney once per week in each direction. The Prospector passenger rail service connects Perth with Kalgoorlie via several Wheatbelt towns, while the Australind connects to Bunbury, and the AvonLink connects to Northam.

Rail freight terminates at the Kewdale Rail Terminal, 15 km (9 mi) south-east of the city centre.

Perth's main container and passenger port is at Fremantle, 19 km (12 mi) south west at the mouth of the Swan River. A second port complex is planned to be developed in Cockburn Sound primarily for the export of bulk commodities.

Utilities

Perth's electricity is generated, supplied, and retailed by three Western Australian Government corporations. Verve Energy operates coal and gas power generation stations, as well as wind farms and other power sources. The physical network is maintained by Western Power, while Synergy, the state's largest energy retailer, sells electricity to residential and business customers.

Alinta Energy, which was previously a government owned company, had a monopoly in the domestic gas market since the 1990s. However, in 2013 Kleenheat Gas began operating in the market, allowing consumers to choose their gas retailer.

The Water Corporation is the dominant supplier of water, as well as wastewater and drainage services, in Perth and throughout the Western Australia. It is also owned by the state government.

Water supply

Reduced rainfall in the region in recent years has lowered inflow to reservoirs by two-thirds over the last 30 years, and affected groundwater levels. Coupled with the city's relatively high growth rate, this had led to concerns that Perth could run out of water in the near future. The Western Australian State Government responded by introducing mandatory household sprinkler restrictions in the city. The Kwinana Desalination Plant was opened in November 2006, able to supply over 45 gigalitres (10 billion imperial or 12 billion US gallons) of potable water per year; its power requirements were met by the construction of the Emu Downs Wind Farm near Cervantes. Consideration was given to piping water from the Kimberley region, but the idea was rejected in May 2006 due primarily to its high cost. Other proposals under consideration included the controversial extraction of an extra 45 gigalitres of water a year from the Yarragadee Aquifer in the south-west of the state. However, in May 2007, the state government announced that a second desalination plant will be built at Binningup, on the coast between Mandurah and Bunbury. A trial winter (1 June – 31 August) sprinkler ban was introduced in 2009 by the State Government, a move which the Government later announced would be made permanent. In September 2009 Western Australia's dams reached 50% overall capacity for the first time since 2000.

See also

• City of Perth, local government area within Perth metropolitan area
• List of Perth suburbs

External links

• Watch historical footage of Perth and Western Australia from the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia's collection.
• Historical photos of Perth from the State Library of Western Australia