Desciption of Perth

PERTH

GENERAL INFORMATIONS ABOUT PERTH

Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. With a population of 1,659,000 (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 the 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 knows worldwide as the "City of Lights" as city residents lit their house light 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 i 1998.


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 isn't 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°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 south-west, providing relief from hot north-easterly winds. Temperatures often fall below 30 degrees a few hours after the arrival of the wind change. Perth is a particularly sunny city for a Mediterranean Climate, receiving between 2800 and 3000 hours of annual sunshine. Winters are relatively cool and wet, with most of Perth's annual rainfall falling between May September. The coldest temperature recorded in Perth was -0.7°C (31°F) on 17 June 2006. 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. 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 month, such as slow-moving storms on 8 February 1992 which brought 121 millimetres of rain, and a severe thunderstorm on 22 March 2010, which brought 40.2 millimetres and caused significant damage in the metropolitan area.

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 kilometers (1,307 mi) away. Perth is geographically closer to Dili (East Timor), Singapore and Jakarta (Indonesia), than it is to Sydney, Melbourne, and Brisbane. ETHNIC GROUPS In 2006, the largest ancestry groups in the Perth metropolitan areas were: English (534,555 or 28.6%), "Australian" (479,174 or 25.6%), Irish (115,384 or 6.2%), Scottish (113,846 or 6.1%), Italian (84,331 or 4.5%) and Chinese (53,390 or 2.9%). There were 3,101 Aboriginals in the city (0.2%). The ethnic make-up of Perth changed in the middle of the twentieth century, when significant numbers of European immigrants arrived in the city. Prior to this, Perth's population had been almost completely Anglo-Celtic in ethnic origin. As Fremantle was the first landfall in Australia for many migrant ships coming from Europe in the 1950s and 1960s, Perth started to experience a diverse influx of people, which included Italians, Greeks, Dutch, Germans, Croats, Bosnians, Serbs, Poles, Czechs, Russians, Ukrainians, Macedonians, Turks and many others.


GOVERNANCE

Perth houses the Parliament of Western Australia and the Governor of Western Australia. At present, 42 of the Legislative Assembly's 59 seats and 18 of the significant parts of three others in the Federal House of Representatives, with the seats of Canning, Pearce and Brand including some areas outside the metropolitan area. The metropolitan area is divided into over 30 local government bodies, including the City of Perth which administers Perth's central business district. The state's highest court, the Supreme Court, is located in Perth, along with the District and Family Courts. The Magistrates' Court has six metropolitan locations. The Federal Court of Australia and the Federal Magistrates' Courts occupy the Commonwealth Law Courts building on Victoria Avenue, Perth, which is the also the location for annual Perth sittings of Australia's High Court. The Metropolitan Region Scheme is the statutory town planning scheme for land use in the Perth metropolitan area, and has been in operation since 1962.
EDUCATION

Perth is home to four public universities: the University of Western Australia, Murdoch University,
Curtin University of Technology, Edith Cowan University. There is also one private university,
the University of Notre Dame.


MEDIA

Like the other mainland Australian state capital cities, Perth is served by five free to air stations: ABC, Seven, Nine, Ten and SBS (like all other states of Australia). A community station, Access 31, closed in August 2008. In April 2010 a new community station, West TV, began transmission (in digital format only). Foxtel provides a subscription-based satellite and cable television service. Perth has its own local newsreaders on ABC, Seven, Nine and Ten. Seven's weekly presenters are Rick Ardon and Susannah Carr; presenters for Nine are Dixie Marshall and Greg Pearce, and the presenter for Ten is Narelda Jacobs. The ABC news anchor is Karina Carvalho.


CULTURE

Perth Cultural Centre is both an area of central Perth and the collective name for the main buildings of the Art Gallery of Western Australia, Western Australian Museum, Alexander Library, State Records Office and Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts (PICA). The Perth International Arts Festival is a cultural festival which has been held annually since 1953.

SPORT

The most popular sport are Australian rules football, cricket, association football (soccer) and netball. The climate of Perth allows for extensive outdoor sport activity, and this is reflected in the wide variety of sports available to citizens of the city. Perth was host to the 1962 Commonwealth Games and the 1987 America's Cup defense (based at Fremantle). Australian rules football is the most popular spectator sport in Perth - nearly 24% of Western Australians attended matches in 2005. Perth i home to several professional sporting teams participating in various national competitions:
- Australian rules football: West Coast Eagles and the Fremantle Football Club
- Basketball: Perth Wildcats and Perth Lynx
- Cricket: Western Warriors and Western Fury
- Hockey: Smokefree WA Thundersticks, Smokefree WA Diamonds
- Netball: West Coast Fever (formerly Perth Orioles)
- Rugby union: Western Force
- Soccer (association football): Perth Glory
- Baseball: Perth Heat


FILM AND TELEVISION

Famous actors and media personalities hailing from Perth include Judy Davis, Melissa George, Jessica Gomes, Heath Ledger, Rove McManus, Russell Napier, Alan Seymour, Tim Minchin, Sam Worthington, Isla Fisher, Gerard Kennedy and Terry Willesee and Mike Willesee. Perth boasts the internationally regarded Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts of Edith Cowan University, from which many successful actors and broadcasters have launched their careers, including Hugh Jackman, Frances O'Connor, Marcus Graham and Willian McInnes.

RELIGION

Perth is the seat of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Perth and of the Anglican Diocese of Perth. Roman Catholics make up about 23% population, and Catholicism is the most common single denomination. Other forms of Christianity, predominantly Anglican, make up approximately 28% of the population. Approximately one of five people from Perth profess to having no religion, with 11% of people are not specific as to their beliefs. Buddhism and Islam each claim more than 20,000 adherents, and Perth is also home to less than 5,000 Latter-day Saints and the Perth Australia Temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

FOOD

Perth has many cuisines from nearly every country. Some of these include Chinese, Indian, Japanese, Malaysian, Korean, Italian, Turkish and Polish cuisines. Many others can be found throughout Perth. A suburban cafe in Perth has been awarded a title of world's best gourmet pizza maker.