The Last Outpost

Perth, Western Australia's capital, is often claimed to be the most isolated city in the world, but that isn't true. Auckland is the most isolated metropolis (city of 1 million+ furthest from the next city of 1 million+) by being 56 kilometers further from Sydney than Perth is from Adelaide. Even if you define a city as having 500 000+, Perth still doesn't make the cut. In that case, the most isolated city is Honolulu. However, Perth is the most isolated city in Australia and the world if you only count overland distances. You begin to understand this isolation when you fly to Perth.

Perth was the last mainland capital city of Australia I had left to see and I'd decided that I'd earned a break just before undergraduate courses began. I organized the hostel and the flight and was on my way. I think my Perth trip was the first one where I paid for everything. On my Adelaide trip last August, I think I put one or two meals on my mom's credit card but this time it was all me.

The trip from Canberra to Perth required a brief stop in Melbourne but once in flight, it quickly becomes obvious just how far away Perth is. Out of Melbourne you fairly quickly reach the Great Australian Bight but then it's nothing but kilometer upon kilometer of blue ocean until you hit the Western Australian coast. Even once you've hit that, all that there is below you is an endless expanse of arid waste. Finally, you see some farms below you, then a river or two, then a highway, then suburbs and you know you've arrived. Perth, the great western metropolis.

Perth was founded in 1829 on the banks of the Swan River establishing the Swan River Colony, however, Fremantle (now a suburb of Perth) and the town of Albany are slightly older. Perth was founded in what was then New Holland as a way of ensuring British dominion from possible encroachments by the French particularly, but also by the Germans and Dutch. The Dutch had been some of the first Europeans to visit Western Australia, de Vlamingh did so in 1606, but believing it to be essentially desert, they chose not to colonize. Unfortunately, while Perth's position made strategic sense it did isolate its inhabitants from the rest of Australia and in some ways, they still are; in WA there's a small separatist movement. In any event, the colony got started and resisted convict transportation until about 1850 when it was decided that the labour shortage required convicts. They weren't transported for very long but WA was the last colony to stop convict transportation in 1868. For a long time it was assumed that WA was mostly barren of minerals until discoveries in the 1950s found huge gold and other valuable mineral resources in the remote interior. As the mining boom took off in the 1960s, much of the wealth found its way to Perth. From essentially a largish provincial city Perth exploded into a vast wealthy metropolis, attracting people from all the world over. To this day, although WA has only 10% of Australia's population, it is responsible for something like 25% of Australia's economic activity. However, the modern building boom has meant that Perth lacks many of the old Victorian buildings present in Sydney and Melbourne.

As I explored the city on my first night there, I couldn't help but compare Perth to other cities I've been to. I thought of Perth as a sort of mix between Adelaide's architecture and Brisbane's architecture and climate. Being subtropical, it was a particularly warm and pleasant night. However, I think the best comparison I can come up with is Miami. There are palm trees, warm nights, hot days, sunshine and a pleasant cooling sea breeze. I instantly liked Perth. It is a well-kept, busy, interesting and beautiful cosmopolitan city. It may be the last outpost of Australia, but it has all the best parts rolled into one.