Perth Australia

Category: File - :Perth locator-MJC.png|thumb|200px|right|Location of Perth within Australia

Category: File - :Major islands off Perth, Western Australia.svg|thumb|200px|right|Rottnest, Carnac and Garden Islands

Perth ("perth." Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1). Random House, Inc. 05 Jul. 2009. ., locally Macquarie Dictionary, Fourth Edition (2005). Melbourne, The Macquarie Library Pty Ltd. ISBN 1-876429-14-3) 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. It has also been named the remotest city on the planet.

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 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 ranked 4th on The Economist's 2008 list of the World's Most Livable Cities."Urban idylls", Economist.com.

Perth became known worldwide as the "City of Lights" as city residents lit their houselights and streetlights as American astronaut John Glenn passed overhead while orbiting the earth on Friendship 7 in 1962. (1970) Perth ? a city of light Perth, W.A. Brian Williams Productions for the Government of WA, 1970 (Videorecording) The social and recreational life of Perth. Begins with a 'mock-up' of the lights of Perth as seen by astronaut John Glenn in February 1962 The city repeated its feat as Glenn passed overhead on the Space Shuttle in 1998.