Prehistory , one of several groups in south-western Western Australia that make up the
Noongar people. Archaeological evidence attests to human habitation in the Perth area for at least 48,000 years; according to
Noongar tradition, they have occupied the area since "time immemorial". Noongar country encompasses the south-west corner of Western Australia, with particular significance attached to the
wetlands on the Swan Coastal Plain, both spiritually (featuring in
local mythology) and as a source of food. The current central business district location is within the traditional territory of the
Mooro, a Noongar clan, led by
Yellagonga at the time of the British settlement. The Mooro was one of several Noongar clans based around the Swan River, known collectively as the
Whadjuk. The Whadjuk themselves were one of a larger group of fourteen tribes that formed the south-west socio-linguistic block known as the Noongar (meaning 'the people' in
their language), also sometimes called the Bibbulmun. An appeal was subsequently filed, and in 2008, the Full Court of the Federal Court upheld parts of the appeal by the Western Australian and Commonwealth governments. Following this appeal, the
Western Australian Government and the
South West Aboriginal Land and Sea Council negotiated the South West Native Title Settlement. This settlement, including the Whadjuk Indigenous Land Use Agreement over the Perth region, was finalised by the Federal Court on 1 December 2021. As part of this agreement, the
Noongar (Koorah, Nitja, Boordahwan) (Past, Present, Future) Recognition Act was passed in 2016, officially recognising the Noongar people as the
traditional owners of the south-west region of Western Australia.
European exploration 's ships and
black swans at the entrance to the Swan River, 1697 In 1619 the Dutch explorer
Frederick de Houtman, sailing in the
VOC ship
Dordrecht, with Councillor of the Indies Jacob Dedel in the VOC ship
Amsterdam, sighted the Australian coast near present-day Perth, which they called
Dedelsland. Many more boats followed in the ensuing years (an estimated 54 European ships prior to 1770 from a range of nations). On 10 January 1697, Dutch Captain
Willem de Vlamingh conducted the first documented exploration of the present-day Perth region. His crew initially explored the area on foot, leading them to what is now central Perth. Vlamingh's expedition also ventured far up the Swan River, in search of native inhabitants. They named the river , a reference to the
black swans prevalent in the region.
Swan River Colony Despite the
Colony of New South Wales establishing a convict-supported settlement at
King George's Sound (called
Frederick Town, renamed to
Albany upon becoming part of Western Australia) on the south coast of the continent in 1826, responding to rumours of potential
French annexation, Perth marked the first comprehensive European settlement in the western portion of the continent in 1829. Officially designated as
Western Australia in 1832, the colony retained the informal moniker "Swan River Colony" for many years, after the area's major watercourse. '' by
George Pitt Morison is a historical reconstruction of the official ceremony by which Perth was founded, although not everyone depicted may have actually been present. On 4 June 1829, newly arriving British colonists had their first view of the mainland. Captain James Stirling, aboard , noted that the site was "as beautiful as anything of this kind I had ever witnessed". On 12 August that year, Helen Dance, wife of the captain of the second ship,
Sulphur, felled a tree to commemorate the town's founding. From 1831 onward, confrontations between British settlers and the Noongar people escalated due to conflicting land-value systems and increased land use as the colony expanded. These confrontations resulted in multiple events, including the murder of settlers (such as
Thomas Peel's servant Hugh Nesbitt), the execution without trial of Whadjuk elder
Midgegooroo, the killing of his son
Yagan in 1833, and the
Pinjarra massacre in 1834. The strained relations between the Noongar people and the Europeans arose due to these events. Agricultural development on the land restricted the traditional
hunter-gatherer practices of the native Whadjuk Noongar, compelling them to camp in designated areas, including swamps and lakes north of the European settlement.
Third Swamp, known to them as
Boodjamooling, remained a primary campsite for the remaining Noongar people in the Perth region, also accommodating travellers, itinerants, and homeless individuals. During the gold rush in the 1890s, miners on their way to the goldfields joined this community.
Convict era and gold rushes is a UNESCO
World Heritage Site. , built in 1899 to refine gold from the gold rushes In 1850, at a time when
penal transportation to Australia's eastern colonies had ceased, Western Australia was
opened to convicts at the request of farming and business people due to a shortage of labour. Over the next eighteen years, 9,721 convicts arrived in Western Australia aboard
43 ships, outnumbering the approximately 7,300 free settlers. The designation of Perth as a city was formally announced by
Queen Victoria in 1856. However, despite this recognition, Perth remained a tranquil town. A description from 1870 by a Melbourne journalist depicted it as: With the
discovery of gold at
Kalgoorlie and
Coolgardie in the late 19th century, Western Australia experienced a mining boom. Perth became a key hub for supplying the goldfields, and the newfound prosperity helped finance the construction of important public buildings, roads and railways. Perth's population grew from approximately 8,500 in 1881 to 61,000 in 1901.
Federation and beyond and
Barrack Street was demolished to make way for
Citibank House during a period of substantial modernisation in the 1960s-70s. After a referendum in 1900, Western Australia joined the
Federation of Australia in 1901, In 1927,
Indigenous people were
prohibited from entering large swathes of Perth under penalty of imprisonment, a ban that lasted until 1954. In 1933, two-thirds of Western Australians
voted in a referendum to
secede from the rest of Australia. However, the state general election held at the same time as the referendum had voted out the pro-independence government, replacing it with a government that did not support the independence movement. Respecting the result of the referendum, the new government nonetheless petitioned the Imperial Parliament at Westminster. The
House of Commons established a
select committee to consider the issue but after 18 months of negotiations and lobbying, finally refused to consider the matter, declaring that it could not legally grant secession. Perth entered the post-war period with a population of approximately 280,000 and an economy that had not experienced sustained growth since the 1920s. Successive state governments, beginning with the
Willcock Labor Government (1936–1945), determined to change this. Planning for post-war economic development was initially driven by
Russell Dumas, who as Director of Public Works (1941–1953) drew up plans for Western Australia's major post-war public-works projects, including the raising of the
Mundaring and
Wellington dams, the development of the new Perth Airport, and the development of a new industrial zone centred on Kwinana. The advent of the
McLarty Liberal Government (1947–1953) saw the emergence of something of a consensus on the need for continuing economic development. Economic growth was fuelled by large-scale public works, the post-war immigration program, and the success that various state governments had in attracting substantial foreign investment into the state, beginning with the construction of the
Anglo-Iranian Oil Refinery at
Kwinana in 1951–52. The result of this economic activity was the rapid growth of the population of Perth and a marked change in its urban design. Commencing in the 1950s, Perth began to expand along an extensive highway network laid out in the
Stephenson-Hepburn Report, which noted that Perth was beginning to resemble a pattern of development less in line with the British experience and more in line with North America. This was encouraged by the opening of the
Narrows Bridge and the gradual closure of the
Perth and
Fremantle tram systems. The mining-pastoral boom of the 1960s only accelerated the pace of urban growth in Perth. Arriving in the city at the end of the 1950s on from England, British businessman and property developer
Alistair McAlpine recalled in a 2002 memoir how the city appeared to him at the time: In those days Perth was barely a city; it was more like a big farming town. You expected to see cattle and drovers in the
main street, an elegant street, with buildings of the 1930s, seldom more than three or four storeys high, built in the soft yellow
Donnybrook stone not unlike
that of Bath in England... In those days you never saw a police officer; crime was, as a citizen of Perth might say, "rare as hen's teeth." In 1962, Perth received global media attention when city residents lit their house lights and streetlights as American astronaut
John Glenn passed overhead while orbiting the Earth on
Friendship 7. This led to its being nicknamed the "City of Light".{{efn Perth's development and relative prosperity, especially since the mid-1960s, has resulted from its role as the main service centre for the state's resource industries, which extract gold, iron ore, nickel, alumina, diamonds, mineral sands, coal, oil and natural gas. Whilst most mineral and petroleum production takes place elsewhere in the state, the non-base services provide most of the employment and income to the people of Perth. Perth saw significant population growth in the 2000s, as well as the commencement of several major urban infrastructure projects, bolstered in part by the state's mining boom. These include the
Perth Convention and Exhibition Centre (2004) and the redevelopment of the city's waterfront, giving rise to the mixed-use
Elizabeth Quay precinct. == Geography ==