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Perth is the capital and largest city of the
Australian state of Western Australia. With a
population of 1,650,000 (2009), Perth ranks fourth
amongst the nation's cities, 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. Its port, Fremantle is a city in its
own right and slightly older than Perth.
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 tied for fifth
place in The Economist's 2009 list of the World's
Most Livable Cities.
Perth became known worldwide as the "City of Lights"
as 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 its feat as Glenn passed
overhead on the Space Shuttle in 1998.
Geography
Perth is one of the most isolated metropolitan areas
on earth. The nearest city to Perth with a
population over one million is Adelaide in South
Australia, which is 2,104 kilometres (1,307 mi)
away. Perth is geographically closer to Dili (East
Timor), Singapore and Jakarta (Indonesia), than it
is to Sydney, Melbourne, and Brisbane. The antipode
of Hamilton, Bermuda is located 45 kilometres
offshore from Point Peron in Perth's southern
suburbs.
Central business district
The central business district of Perth is bounded by
the Swan River to the south and east, with Kings
Park on the western end, while the railway lines
form a northern border. St Georges Terrace is the
prominent street of the area with 1.3 million m˛ 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,[26] although it is to be surpassed by
City Square in 2012.
Climate
Perth receives moderate though highly seasonal
rainfall. Summers are generally hot and dry, lasting
from December to late March, with February generally
being the hottest month of the year, making Perth a
classic example of a Mediterranean climate. Summer
is not completely devoid of rain with sporadic
rainfall in the form of short-lived thunderstorms,
weak cold fronts and on very rare occasions decaying
tropical cyclones from Western Australia's
north-west which can bring significant falls. The
hottest ever recorded temperature 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, also known
as "The Fremantle Doctor", blows from the
south-west, providing relief from the hot
north-easterly winds. Temperatures often fall below
30 degrees a few hours after the arrival of the wind
change.
Winters are relatively cool and wet, with most of
Perth's annual rainfall falling between May and
September. The coldest temperature recorded in Perth
was −0.7 °C (31 °F) on 17 June 2006.[31] The coldest
temperature within the Perth metropolitan area was
-3.4 °C (25.9 °F) on the same day at Jandakot
Airport.
Though most rainfall occurs during winter, the
wettest day ever was on 9 February 1992 when 120.6
millimetres (4.75 in) fell.[31] 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.
Economy
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 are 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 and 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 where parking, access and traffic
congestion were minimal. "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, heavy industry has dominated the location
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 [50],
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.
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