City of Perth

This article is about a local government area and body. For the metropolitan area, see Perth. For the central business district, see Perth Central Business District. For the Greater Capital City Statistical Area, see Greater Perth. For the city in Scotland, see Perth, Scotland.

31°57′S 115°51′E / 31.950°S 115.850°E / -31.950; 115.850

City of Perth Western Australia
Perth Council House has been the council seat since 1963
The City of Perth within the Perth Metropolitan Area
Population	28,463 (LGA 2021)^[1]
Established	1856
Area	20.01 km^2 (7.7 sq mi)^[2]
Lord Mayor	Basil Zempilas
Council seat	Council House, Perth
Region	Central Perth
State electorate(s)	Perth
Federal division(s)	Perth
Website	City of Perth
LGAs around City of Perth: Cambridge Vincent Vincent Subiaco City of Perth Belmont Nedlands South Perth Victoria Park

The City of Perth is a local government area and body, within the Perth metropolitan area, which is the capital of Western Australia. The local government is commonly known as Perth City Council. The City covers the Perth city centre and surrounding suburbs. The City covers an area of 20.01 square kilometres (8 sq mi) and had an estimated population of 21,092 as at 30 June 2015. On 1 July 2016 the City expanded, absorbing 1,247 residents from the City of Subiaco.

History

 

Perth Town Hall was the council seat from 1871 to 1925.

In 1829, Captain James Stirling founded Perth as part of the Swan River Colony. A Perth Town Trust was formed in 1838, but remained largely non-functional for many years due to lack of finance and administrative capacity leading to its dissolution in 1858.^[3] The City of Perth was officially declared on 23 September 1856^[4] with Council meeting for the first time in December 1858.^[5] In 1871, the City of Perth was reconstituted as a Municipal Corporation.

In 1915, following the efforts of WE Bold and the greater Perth movement, the City absorbed the Municipality of North Perth (1901) and the Municipality of Leederville (1895), and on 1 November 1917, the Municipality of Victoria Park was also absorbed. A year later, it absorbed territory from Perth Road Board (including the Belmont Park Racecourse) and purchased the 526 hectares (1,300 acres) Limekilns Estate in the western suburbs. The City developed the suburbs of Floreat Park, Wembley Park and City Beach on these lands.

In 1925, a new City of Perth Act gave the City additional powers over building control and regulation, including the power to declare new streets. In 1930 the first town planning committee was established.

Criticism of the City’s governance by the David Davidson, the state's Town Planning Commissioner, led to a Royal Commission in 1938 on the grounds that the development of the western suburbs had led to the neglect of health and building administration in the central city area.^[6]

By 1962, the council had 27 members representing nine wards.^[7] In 1963 the Metropolitan Region Town Planning Scheme Act required the City to establish a town planning department—which they did by appointing architect Paul Ritter in 1965.^[8] Ritter’s two year tenure was short and turbulent, leading to public conflict with councillors and his termination in 1967.

The City’s first town planning scheme was submitted to the Town Planning Board in 1973, but not formally adopted until 1985. The reason for the delay was a state government desire to take discretionary powers out of the hands of the Council. Council was felt to be too easily influenced by powerful developers.^[9]

On 1 July 1994, following the passage of the City of Perth Restructuring Act (1993), the City of Perth was broken up and a significantly reduced City of Perth constituted. The Town of Shepperton, Town of Cambridge and Town of Vincent were created from the former boundaries of the City.^[10] The first elections were held on 6 May 1995, with eight councillors and a mayor.

The City of Perth Act 2016 defined Perth as the capital of Western Australia,^[11] and expanded the City's boundaries to include a number of landmarks including Kings Park, University of Western Australia, Perth Children's Hospital and the Queen Elizabeth II Medical Centre. The boundary changes took effect on 1 July 2016.^[12] Approximately 1,247 residents from Nedlands and Subiaco in the City of Subiaco were transferred to the City of Perth, and the City expanded to a total area of 20.01 square kilometres (8 sq mi).^[2]

The Perth City Council was suspended on 2 March 2018, pending the establishment of a public inquiry into the council, by Local Government Minister David Templeman. The council was administered by three Commissioners until 18 October 2020. The two-year Inquiry carried out up until that point, conducted at a cost of nearly A$8.0m made many findings, none of which resulted in criminal conviction.^[13]

In July 2021, the City of Perth formally recognised the Whadjuk Noongar people as the traditional owners of Noongar Country, the land on which the "City of Perth (Boorloo)" is located, signing the agreement "Yacker Danjoo Ngala Bidi"^[14] with Whadjuk elders on 10 August.^[15]

Council

Further information: City of Perth 2018–2020

See also: List of mayors and lord mayors of Perth

Suburbs

The suburbs of the City of Perth with population and size figures based on the most recent Australian census:^[16][17]

Suburb	Population	Area	Map
Crawley *	3,975 (SAL 2021)^[18]	1.4 km^2 (0.54 sq mi)
East Perth *	11,681 (SAL 2021)^[19]	3.2 km^2 (1.2 sq mi)
Nedlands **	10,561 (SAL 2021)^[20]	5.4 km^2 (2.1 sq mi)
Northbridge	1,420 (SAL 2021)^[21]	0.5 km^2 (0.19 sq mi)
Perth *	13,670 (SAL 2021)^[22]	4.6 km^2 (1.8 sq mi)
West Perth *	6,102 (SAL 2021)^[23]	2.2 km^2 (0.85 sq mi)

* The parts of these suburbs north of Newcastle and Summers Streets fall within the City of Vincent. These localities are only partially contained within the City of Perth boundary.
** The parts of these localities were transferred from the City of Subiaco in 2016. These localities are only partially contained within the City of Perth boundary.

Population

Pre-1915 composition

Year	Population
1911	35,767

1915–1994 composition

Historical population

Year Pop. ±% p.a. 1921 64,166 —     1933 82,290 +2.09% 1947 98,890 +1.32% 1954 97,350 −0.22% 1961 94,508 −0.42% 1966 96,223 +0.36%

Year Pop. ±% p.a. 1971 97,546 +0.27% 1976 87,598 −2.13% 1981 79,398 −1.95% 1986 79,409 +0.00% 1991 79,422 +0.00%

The 1991 population has been broken down by the Australian Bureau of Statistics as follows: Perth (C) 7,604; Cambridge (T) 22,740; Victoria Park (T) 24,313; Vincent (T) 24,765.^[24]

1994–present composition

Historical population

Year Pop. ±% p.a. 1996 8,488 —     2001 11,180 +5.66% 2006 11,573 +0.69%

Year Pop. ±% p.a. 2011 16,714 +7.63% 2016 21,797 +5.45% 2021 28,463 +5.48%

Twin towns and sister cities

See also: List of twin towns and sister cities in Australia

The City of Perth is twinned with:

Kagoshima 1974^[25]   Houston 1984   Megisti 1984   Rhodes 1984

San Diego 1987   Vasto 1989   Nanjing 1998   Taipei 1999

Perth 2006   Seocho 2008   Chengdu 2010

Flag and coat of arms

Flag of Perth

Use	City
Proportion	1:2
Adopted	1975

The official Flag of Perth represents the city of Perth, Western Australia. It features the Saint George's Cross overlaid with the coat of arms of Perth in the centre. Though the designer of the flag is unknown, it is thought to have been designed prior to 1872. In the 1920s, the black swan was removed from the top left quadrant of the flag and replaced with the coat of arms in the centre of the cross.^[26][27][28]

The coat of arms were originally granted to the City of Perth on 2 December 1926. They were altered with the addition of part of the arms of Perth, Scotland in 1949.

Heritage listed places

Main article: List of State Register of Heritage Places in the City of Perth

As of 2021, 1,053 places are heritage-listed in the City of Perth,^[29] of which 220 are on the State Register of Heritage Places.^[30]

References

1. Australian Bureau of Statistics (28 June 2022). "Perth (Local Government Area)". Australian Census 2021 QuickStats. Retrieved 28 June 2022.  
2. "FAQs for Transitioning Residents". City of Perth. Retrieved 25 April 2016.
3. Johns, J. R. H. (1949). "The Development of Local Government in Western Australia". The Australian Journal of Public Administration. 8 (4): 172–179. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8500.1949.tb02119.x.
4. "The Inquirer and Commercial News (Perth, WA: 1855–1901) Wednesday, 24th September, 1856, page 2". Inquirer and Commercial News. 24 September 1856.
5. "History of the Council". City of Perth. Retrieved 18 October 2022.
6. Freestone, Robert & Foley, Neil (2016) David L. Davidson Early town planning reformer and administrato r (Conference paper) UHPH 2016
7. WA Electoral Commission, Municipality Boundary Amendments Register (release 2.0), 31 May 2003.
8. PCC (Perth City Council), Minutes, 15/06/1964, p. 193.
9. Gregory, Jenny (26 February 2009). "Development pressures and heritage in the Perth Central Business district 1950–90". Australian Economic History Review. 49 (1): 34–51. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8446.2008.00248.x.
10. "City of Perth Restructuring Act 1993". Act of 20 December 1993. Retrieved 8 April 2016.
11. "City of Perth Act 2016". Act of 3 March 2016. Retrieved 8 April 2016.
12. Foster, Brendan (26 February 2016). "City of Perth Act could cost jobs and impact services in Subiaco: Mayor". WAtoday.com.au. Retrieved 8 April 2016.
13. Hon David Templeman MP (2 March 2018). . Western Australian Government. Archived from the original (Media Release) on 9 May 2018. Retrieved 9 May 2018.
14. "Minutes of the Ordinary Council Meeting". City of Perth. 6 July 2021. Attachment 12.1A – Yacker Danjoo Ngala Bidi (Working Together Our Way).
15. "City of Perth and Aboriginal Elders sign Yacker Danjoo Ngala Bidi". City of Perth. 6 October 2021. Retrieved 20 April 2022.
16. "SLIP Map". maps.slip.wa.gov.au. Landgate. Retrieved 1 January 2023.
17. "NationalMap". nationalmap.gov.au. Geoscience Australia. Retrieved 1 January 2023.
18. Australian Bureau of Statistics (28 June 2022). "Crawley (Suburb and Locality)". Australian Census 2021 QuickStats. Retrieved 28 June 2022.  
19. Australian Bureau of Statistics (28 June 2022). "East Perth (Suburb and Locality)". Australian Census 2021 QuickStats. Retrieved 28 June 2022.  
20. Australian Bureau of Statistics (28 June 2022). "Nedlands (Suburb and Locality)". Australian Census 2021 QuickStats. Retrieved 28 June 2022.  
21. Australian Bureau of Statistics (28 June 2022). "Northbridge (WA) (Suburb and Locality)". Australian Census 2021 QuickStats. Retrieved 28 June 2022.  
22. Australian Bureau of Statistics (28 June 2022). "Perth (WA) (Suburb and Locality)". Australian Census 2021 QuickStats. Retrieved 28 June 2022.  
23. Australian Bureau of Statistics (28 June 2022). "West Perth (Suburb and Locality)". Australian Census 2021 QuickStats. Retrieved 28 June 2022.  
24. Time series data accompanying 2001 Census at http://www.abs.gov.au. Accessed 10 December 2009.
25. [Twin cities]. Kagoshima International Affairs Division (in Japanese). Archived from the original on 2 June 2013. Retrieved 8 August 2013.
26. "History of the Council". City of Perth. Retrieved 19 December 2013.
27. Perth (Western Australia)
28. "The city standard, but do you recognise it?". 4 April 2012.
29. "City of Perth State Heritage Places". inherit.stateheritage.wa.gov.au. Heritage Council of Western Australia. Retrieved 23 February 2021.
30. "City of Perth State Register of Heritage Places". inherit.stateheritage.wa.gov.au. Heritage Council of Western Australia. Retrieved 23 February 2021.

External links

 

Wikimedia Commons has media related to City of Perth.

• Official website