Perth is the capital and largest city of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia. The central business district and suburbs of Perth are situated on the banks of the Swan River. 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. The nearest city to Perth is Adelaide, South Australia, which is 2,104 kilometres (1,307 mi) away.

Kings Park, located in central Perth between the CBD and the University of Western Australia, is the largest inner-city park in the world, at 4.06 square kilometres. Perth Zoo, located in South Perth, houses a variety of Australian and exotic animals from around the globe, and is home to highly successful breeding programs for orangutans and giraffes. The Western Australian Museum holds an extensive display of Aboriginal artefacts as well as numerous zoological and social exhibits. The new Western Australian Maritime Museum in Fremantle displays maritime objects from all eras and includes a former Royal Australian Navy submarine.

Celebrity musical performers from Perth have included the late AC/DC lead singer Bon Scott. Famous actors and media personalities hailing from the city include Heath Ledger, Tim Minchin, Sam Worthington and Isla Fisher.

Accommodation in Perth’s residential colleges and halls

Perth is home to four public universities, the University of Western Australia, founded in 1911, Curtin University, Murdoch University, and Edith Cowan University, and one private university, the University of Notre Dame. Some of the universities' residential colleges and residences offer casual accommodation during the vacation periods. It should be understood that these residences and colleges are designed primarily for students and not children or adults expecting a high level of luxury. However, with this in mind, they do meet a level of comfort that we expect most visitors to be happy with, and we will welcome any feedback where this is not the case.

Getting around Perth

Perth is served by Perth Airport in the city's east for regional, domestic and international flights. Perth has a road network with three freeways and nine metropolitan highways. Perth metropolitan public transport, including trains, buses and ferries, is provided by Transperth, with links to rural areas provided by Transwa. Perth provides zero-fare bus and train trips around the city centre (the "Free Transit Zone"). The Indian Pacific passenger rail service connects Perth with Adelaide and Sydney via Kalgoorlie.

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. The wetlands on the Swan Coastal Plain were particularly important to them, both spiritually and as a source of food. 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. It is one of several groups based around the Swan River and known collectively as the Whadjuk. The first documented European sighting of the region was made by the Dutch Captain Willem de Vlamingh and his crew in 1697. Subsequent sightings between then and 1829 were made by other Europeans, but as with Vlamingh, the area was considered to be inhospitable and unsuitable for the agriculture which would be needed to sustain a settlement.

Although in 1826 the British Army had established a base at King George Sound (later Albany) on the south coast of western Australia 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. In 1829, newly arriving British colonists had their first view of the mainland, and Western Australia's Foundation Day has since been recognised by a public holiday on the first Monday in June each year. Beginning in 1831, as the colony grew, hostile encounters between the British settlers and the Noongar people increased considerably. By 1843, when Yellagonga died, his people had begun to disintegrate after having been dispossessed of the land around the main settlement area of Perth.