Perth, capital of Western Australia has a population of approx 1.4 million people and claims to enjoy more hours of sunshine than any other capital city in Australia.
Western Australia, Australia's largest state, covers one-third of the Australian continent. The Western Australian coastline (12,500 kilometres or 7,813 miles) has white sandy beaches and pristine coastline.
To the east is desert, the goldfields, and the long trek across the Nullarbor to South Australia and Adelaide. The Indian Pacific travels from Perth to Adelaide to Sydney (Indian Ocean to Pacific Ocean) and is one of the world's longest and greatest train journeys. The journey covers 4352kms including the world's longest straight stretch of railway track (478 kilometres) and you spend three nights aboard the great train.
The sparkling capital of Western Australia, Perth is situated on the southwest coast, and is the most remote of Australia's cities, but also one of the prettiest. The Swan River, which connects Perth to the port of Fremantle some 20kms away, underscores Perth's outdoor lifestyle and offers a huge reflection pool for the city. Here the Swan becomes Perth Water and widens to allow all kinds of water activities, such as sailing and water skiing. The river also provides a shimmering complement to the city when viewed from King's Park Botanic Gardens, high above the Narrows Bridge, which connects the city to the south.
To the west of the city are the coast and the beachside suburbs that give so many urban West Australians their easy, laid-back lifestyle. Swanbourne, Cottesloe and Scarborough are just a few of the string of ocean beaches to which most West Australians are addicted. Here the waters of the Indian Ocean are warm enough to swim all the year round, with good surf breaks and plentiful water sport opportunities.
Perth is home to millionaires, mining barons and property tycoons. Its modern skyline showcases the mining and banking industry wealth in the eponymous skyscrapers. The boom years of the 1960s and 1970s meant economic wealth for the state, but also shrugged aside the old and historic in favour of the new and progressive. Nevertheless, Perth does still have some historic buildings, notably the Barracks Arch, St Georges Cathedral, Perth Town Hall and the Old Mill in South Perth.
Known as the City of Light, Perth connects to Fremantle in a sprawling urban mass, the lights of which can be seen from space at night. Astronaut John Glenn observed the city from his spacecraft while orbiting the earth in 1962. Perth had left its lights on for the occasion and the isolation of the city helped make it visible. This was probably the earliest incident of Perth establishing an international reputation. In 1979 Prince Charles visited Perth for the celebration of WA's 150th birthday and was photographed on Cottesloe beach with bikini-clad girls. Then in 1983 perhaps the most famous incident of all put Perth on the map: Australia won the America's Cup, thanks to the brilliant designer, Ben Lexcen.
Although the Cup was lost in the next challenge, millions of dollars had been poured into Fremantle and the rather rundown and shabby port city was smartened up: new marinas, refurbished wharfs, renovated houses and public buildings and the establishment of hundreds of new businesses. Fremantle had been lucky to escape the bulldozers of the 1960s and 1970s and much of its original nineteenth-century streetscapes survive as a result. Now gentrified, Fremantle is a vibrant, lively place of street markets, cafe strips, funky shops and fashionable restaurants, without the corporate towers of Perth.
Apart from the metropolitan area, WA is Australia's largest state, covering over a million square miles and showcasing a vast array of natural beauty, unique landforms and unusual fauna. It encompasses tall forests, wheatfields, stony desert, saltpans, pure white sandy beaches and rugged red gorges. So diverse is the landscape, from Albany and Esperance in the south to Kununurra and Broome in the north, that to see the whole state thoroughly would take several months. From the Timor Sea to the Southern Ocean, Western Australia stretches over several thousand kilometers, and has been divided into 'regions' (which have no political autonomy) such as: the Kimberley, the Pilbara, the Gascoyne, the Midwest, the Wheatbelt, the Goldfields, the SouthWest, and the Great Southern. Despite the distances, all these regions are easily accessible by air, train, coach and/or car from Perth. All you need is time and an adventurous spirit.
In a dry, brown land it is a great pleasure to see flowers anywhere, and Western Australia has an abundance of them, far more than other Australian states. Spring (September/ October) is the best time to see the famous wildflowers all over the state. However, the wide climatic variation means that the flowering seasons vary from as early as July in the north to as late as November in the south. However, you need venture only to Kings Park overlooking the city of Perth to see a lovely array of flowers, including the spectacularly beautiful flowering gum trees and the state's floral emblem, the red and green kangaroo paw.
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Perth
