Perth

Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia, with a growth rate consistently above the national average.

Perth was founded on 12 June 1829 by Captain James Stirling as the political centre of the free settler Swan River Colony. It has continued to serve as the seat of Government for Western Australia to the present day.

The metropolitan area is located in the south west of the continent between the Indian Ocean and a low coastal escarpment known as the Darling Range. The central business district and suburbs of Perth are situated on the Swan River. Perth is ranked 4th on The Economist's 2008 list of the World's Most Livable Cities.

Rottnest, Carnac and Garden Islands were also important to the Noongar. About 5,000 years ago the sea levels were low enough that they could walk to the limestone outcrops.

The area where Perth now stands was called Boorloo by the Aboriginals living there at the time of their first contact with Europeans in 1827. Boorloo formed part of Mooro, the tribal lands of the Yellagonga, one of several groups based around the Swan River and known collectively as the Whadjuk. The Whadjuk were part of a larger group of thirteen or more tribes which formed the south west socio-linguistic block known as the Noongar (The People), also sometimes called the Bibbulmun.

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.

Perth's growth and relative prosperity, especially since the mid-1960's, has resulted from its role as the main service centre for the state's resource industries, which produce 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.

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 lines form a northern border. 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 sixth tallest building in Australia, although it is to be surpassed by the BHP Tower in 2012. With the current resources-based boom the skyline will change dramatically with at least eleven 100 m+ buildings either being currently or soon to be built.

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

The University of Western Australia is located at CrawleyThe 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.

Curtin University of Technology 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 square kilometres), necessary to accommodate Western Australia's only veterinary school.

Perth Cultural Centre is both an area of central Perth and the collective name for the main buildings of the Art Gallery of Western Australia, Western Australian Museum, Alexander Library, State Records Office and Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts (PICA).

Museums
The Western Australian Museum holds an extensive display of Aboriginal artefacts as well as numerous zoological and social exhibits.

The new (2002) Western Australian Maritime Museum in Fremantle displays maritime objects from all eras and includes a former Royal Australian Navy submarine. It also houses Australia II, the yacht that won the Americas Cup in 1983.

Population : 1,554,769 (June 2007)[1] (4th)
Density : 289/km² (748.5/sq mi) (2006)
Established : 1829
Area : 5386 km² (2,079.5 sq mi)
Time zone: : Summer (DST)
AWST (UTC+8)
AWDT (UTC+9)
Location : 2724 km (1,693 mi) from Adelaide
4045 km (2,513 mi) from Darwin
3452 km (2,145 mi) from Melbourne
4144 km (2,575 mi) from Sydney
State District : Perth (and 41 others)
Federal Division: Perth (and 10 others)