Australia Tourist AttractionsAbout Perth
Perth is the fourth largest city in Australia with approximately 1,700,000 inhabitants. It is the capital city of the state of Western Australia as well as being the largest city in the state. In The Economist's 2011 guide to the World's Most Livable Cities, Perth tied for eighth place. Perth is one of the largest isolated cities in the world, with the nearest large city being Adelaide in South Australia, over 2104 kilometres away. Perth is set on Swan River, named after the native black swans who bobbed on the waters by Willem de Vlamingh in 1697, although the traditional name given to the river by the indigenous people was Derbal Yerrigan. Most of the suburbs and all of the city centre are built on the Swan Coastal Plain, lying between the Indian Ocean and Darling Scarp, but the total metropolitan area extends 90 kilometres north to south and 50 kilometres east to west. With it's large population and role as capital city to the state, Perth dominates the economy of Western Australia. The economy in Perth has been changing over to more service dominated industries since the 1950s.
Perth is well-known nationally for excellence in education and research and is home to hour public universities: Curtin University, Murdoch University , Edith Cowan University and the University of Western Australia and one private school, the University of Notre Dame. Due in part to the mild climate that allows for plenty of outdoor activities, Perth has a variety of sports for it's citizens. The most popular sports in Perth are Australian rules football, association football (or soccer), cricket and netball. Perth hosted both the 1962 Commonwealth Games and the 1987 America's Cup as well as numerous state and national sporting activities and events. There is a hodgepodge of cuisines available in Perth, ranging from Turkish, Irish, Korean, Italian to japanese, Indian and Malaysian. Similarly, there is also no predominant religion in Perth, with Catholics and Christians at about 50% of the population, and the rest comprising mostly of Jews, Hindus, Latter-day Saint, Buddists and agnostics.
Perth has nine metropolitan highways, two airports, and a large metropolitan public transport system, making it easy for locals and tourists to get around. Due in part to their isolation from the rest of Australia, Perth is rarely a stop for big-ticket music acts which has led to the cultivation of a strong local music scene, which has caused some people to dub it the "new Seattle".
Perth Climate and Weather
Perth is a classic example of a Mediterranean climate, with cool and wet winters and hot and dry summers. Perth can receive anywhere from moderate to high seasonal levels of rain each winter, and is the fourth wettest Australian capital city, but receives between 2800-3000 hours of sunshine yearly, which makes it quite a sunny example of a Mediterranean climate.
Climate data for Perth, Western Australia
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Month |
Jan |
Feb |
Mar |
Apr |
May |
Jun |
Jul |
Aug |
Sep |
Oct |
Nov |
Dec |
Year |
Record high °C (°F) |
45.8 |
46.2 |
42.4 |
37.6 |
34.3 |
28.1 |
26.3 |
27.8 |
32.7 |
38.1 |
40.3 |
44.2 |
46.2 |
Average high °C (°F) |
30.8 |
31.3 |
29.5 |
25.6 |
22.4 |
19.3 |
18.3 |
18.8 |
20.1 |
23.0 |
26.4 |
28.8 |
24.5 |
Average low °C (°F) |
17.8 |
18.1 |
16.5 |
13.6 |
10.6 |
8.5 |
7.8 |
8.1 |
9.4 |
11.2 |
14.2 |
16.2 |
12.7 |
Record low °C (°F) |
8.9 |
8.7 |
6.3 |
4.1 |
1.3 |
−0.7 |
0.0 |
1.3 |
1.0 |
2.2 |
5.0 |
7.9 |
−0.7 |
Rainfall mm (inches) |
9.5 |
12.7 |
19.5 |
44.1 |
117.5 |
175.7 |
169.7 |
133.6 |
80.6 |
52.2 |
22.1 |
12.8 |
850.0 |
% Humidity |
39 |
38 |
40 |
46 |
50 |
56 |
57 |
54 |
53 |
47 |
44 |
40 |
47 |
Avg. precipitation days |
2.1 |
2.2 |
4.4 |
6.6 |
11.5 |
15.1 |
17.3 |
15.6 |
15.3 |
8.8 |
6.0 |
3.9 |
108.8 |
Sunshine hours |
359.6 |
310.8 |
294.5 |
246 |
210.8 |
177 |
186 |
220.1 |
228 |
297.6 |
321 |
359.6 |
3,211 |
Source: Bureau of Meteorology |
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Perth History
Originally inhabited by the Whadjuk Noogar people, the first documented sighting of Australian land was in 1697 by Dutch Captain Willem de Vlamingh, who thought that the land was too inhospitable to sustain a newly developing settlement. The city was named after the Scottish city of Perth in accordance with the wishes of Sir George Murray by Captain James Stirling , who remarked that the land was "as beautiful as anything of this kind I had ever witnessed". The city would develop another name centuries later, when Perth became famous worldwide as the "City of Light" because citizens lit up their houses and streets in 1962 as astronaut John Glenn passed overhead in his journey orbiting the earth, and the city repeated the act in 1998 when Glenn again passed overhead on the Space Shuttle.
Perth Classifieds
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perth.craigslist.com.au/
classifieds.perthnow.com.au/
Perth Coupons and Travel Deals
www.retailmenot.com/coupons/perth
www.groupon.com.au/deals/perth