Perth

Perth is the capital of Western Australia, on the Swan River near the Indian Ocean coast. Black swans gave the Swan River its name, and the black swan is the emblem of the state. Kings Park, on Mount Eliza above the river, keeps native bushland and a botanic garden of plants from Western Australia.

The Whadjuk Noongar people lived along the river for many thousands of years before European settlement. Captain James Stirling founded the Swan River Colony in 1829 and named its town after Perth in Scotland. The colony grew slowly until gold was found at Coolgardie and Kalgoorlie in the 1890s, when new settlers poured in through the port of Fremantle. The Perth Mint opened in 1899 to refine gold from the fields. Mining of iron ore, gas and gold brought rapid growth again from the 1960s, and new towers rose along St Georges Terrace.

Wesfarmers, the group behind Bunnings hardware stores and Kmart, has its headquarters in the city, as does Fortescue, which mines iron ore in the Pilbara and ships it to Asia. The port of Fremantle, at the mouth of the Swan River, handles the container ships of Perth.

The Perth Mint still makes gold and silver coins in its original stone building and shows a large gold nugget collection. Elizabeth Quay, opened in the 2010s, brings the river into the city center with a footbridge and a ferry terminal. The Swan Bells, a glass and copper tower beside the quay, holds bells from St Martin-in-the-Fields in London. Rottnest Island, off the coast, is known for its beaches and for the quokka, a small wallaby found in few other places.