Editing Perth (section)

=== Federation and beyond ===
[[File:St Georges Terrace Perth.jpg|thumb|left|Like many of Perth's colonial-era buildings, Moir Chambers (left) on [[St George's Terrace, Perth|St George's Terrace]] was demolished during a period of substantial modernisation in the 1960s-70s.]]
After a referendum in 1900,<ref name="naaCiP">{{cite web |url=http://www.naa.gov.au/naaresources/Publications/research_guides/guides/perth/chapter04.htm |title = Collections in Perth: 4. Colonial Administration |access-date =26 February 2008 |date = 23 August 2007 |work=Collections in Perth |publisher=[[National Archives of Australia]]|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080714174908/http://www.naa.gov.au/naaresources/Publications/research_guides/guides/perth/chapter04.htm |archive-date=14 July 2008 }}</ref> Western Australia joined the [[Federation of Australia]] in 1901,<ref name="historyofCOP"/> and "became a founding state of Australia".<ref name="men22"/> It was the last of the Australian colonies to agree to join the Federation, and it did so only after the other colonies had offered several concessions, including the construction of a [[Trans-Australian Railway|transcontinental railway line]] from [[Port Augusta]] in [[South Australia]] to [[Kalgoorlie]] to link Perth with the eastern states.<ref>{{cite book |last= Howell |first= Peter |title=South Australia and Federation |year=2002 |publisher= [[Wakefield Press (Australia)|Wakefield Press]]|location=Adelaide |isbn= 1-86254-549-9 |page=288}}</ref>

In 1927, [[Indigenous Australians|Indigenous people]] were [[Perth Prohibited Area|prohibited from entering large swathes of Perth]] under penalty of imprisonment, a ban that lasted until 1954.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-12-29/when-perth-banned-aboriginal-people-from-the-city/11818540|title=The forbidden city: When Indigenous people were banned from Perth|last=Carmody|first=Rebecca|date=29 December 2019|website=ABC News|language=en-AU|access-date=1 January 2020|archive-date=31 December 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191231200327/https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-12-29/when-perth-banned-aboriginal-people-from-the-city/11818540|url-status=live}}</ref>

In 1933, two-thirds of Western Australians [[1933 Western Australian secession referendum|voted in a referendum]] to [[secessionism in Western Australia|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 [[United Kingdom House of Commons|House of Commons]] established a [[Parliamentary select committees of the United Kingdom|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.<ref name="naaCiP"/><ref>{{cite web |url = http://john.curtin.edu.au/mccallum/deputy.html |title = Deputy Premier 2nd Collier Government 1933–1935 |access-date = 26 February 2008 |date = 11 May 2005 |publisher = John Curtin Prime Ministerial Library |archive-date = 1 April 2020 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20200401161931/http://john.curtin.edu.au/mccallum/deputy.html |url-status = live }}</ref>

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 [[John Willcock|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 Weir|Mundaring]] and [[Wellington Dam Hydro Power Station|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–Watts Ministry|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 [[Kwinana Oil Refinery|Anglo-Iranian Oil Refinery]] at [[Kwinana Beach|Kwinana]] in 1951–52.<ref>{{Cite news |date=4 March 1952 |title=Agreement On Oil |work=West Australian |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article49018574 |access-date=20 April 2022}}</ref>

[[File:Perth WA c1955 EW Digby-14.jpg|thumb|Looking across [[Perth railway station]] {{circa|1955}}]]
[[File:Perth (AU), Elizabeth Quay Bridge -- 2019 -- 0375-9.jpg|thumb|Elizabeth Quay Bridge]]
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 [[Plan for the Metropolitan Region, Perth and Fremantle|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.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Stephenson |first1=Gordon |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-745050840/view?partId=nla.obj-745051291 |title=Plan for the Metropolitan Region, Perth and Fremantle |last2=Hepburn |first2=J. A. |publisher=Government of Western Australia |year=1955 |location=Western Australia |archive-date=26 July 2022 |access-date=20 April 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220726024212/https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-745050840/view?partId=nla.obj-745051291 |url-status=live }}</ref> This was encouraged by the opening of the [[Narrows Bridge (Perth)|Narrows Bridge]] and the gradual closure of the [[Trams in Perth|Perth]] and [[Trams in Fremantle|Fremantle]] tram systems. The mining-pastoral boom of the 1960s only accelerated the pace of urban growth in Perth.

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
|The city most commonly referred to as the "City of Light" is [[Paris]]. However, over 30 [[City of Light (disambiguation)|other cities]] also carry the label in various forms.}}<ref>(1970) ''Perth&nbsp;– a city of light'' Perth, W.A. Brian Williams Productions for the Government of WA, 1970 (Video recording) The social and recreational life of Perth. Begins with a 'mock-up' of the lights of Perth as seen by astronaut John Glenn in February 1962</ref><ref>{{cite Australian Dictionary of Biography |first=Jenny |last=Gregory |author-link=Jenny Gregory |title=Sir Henry Rudolph (Harry) Howard (1890–1970) |volume=''Supplementary Volume'' |year=2005 |id2=howard-sir-henry-rudolph-harry-12992 |access-date=2025-03-10 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://museum.wa.gov.au/city-lights|title=City of light – 50 years in Space|publisher=Western Australian Museum|access-date=13 August 2019|archive-date=1 December 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161201033900/http://museum.wa.gov.au/city-lights|url-status=live}}</ref> The city repeated the act as Glenn passed overhead on the [[Space Shuttle]] in 1998.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.abc.net.au/tv/canwehelp/txt/s2160601.htm|title=Moment in Time&nbsp;– Episode 1|website=[[Australian Broadcasting Corporation]]|date=15 February 2008|access-date=14 July 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080821085131/http://www.abc.net.au/tv/canwehelp/txt/s2160601.htm|archive-date=21 August 2008|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/digitallife/main.jhtml?xml=/connected/1998/11/05/ecnglen05.xml |title=Grandfather Glenn's blast from the past |work=[[The Daily Telegraph]]|date=5 November 1998 |access-date=14 July 2008 |location=London |first=Charles |last=Moore }}{{dead link|date=July 2021|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}</ref>

Perth's development and relative prosperity, especially since the mid-1960s,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf/7d12b0f6763c78caca257061001cc588/0c312955726b99d4ca256f2a000ffa34!OpenDocument|title=WA Statistical Indicators June 2002|publisher=[[Australian Bureau of Statistics]]|date=11 July 2002|access-date=5 October 2008|archive-date=9 October 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191009110334/https://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf/7d12b0f6763c78caca257061001cc588/0c312955726b99d4ca256f2a000ffa34!OpenDocument|url-status=live}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ga.gov.au/pdf/RR0112.pdf|title = Australia's identified mineral resources, 2002|access-date=26 February 2008|date=31 October 2002|publisher=[[Geoscience Australia]]|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040331135431/http://www.ga.gov.au/pdf/RR0112.pdf |archive-date=31 March 2004 }}</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.dpi.wa.gov.au/mediaFiles/dialogue_GPdp3.pdf|title=Discussion Paper: Greater Perth Economy And Employment|publisher=[[Department for Planning & Infrastructure]]|date=25 August 2003|access-date=5 October 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081031134821/http://www.dpi.wa.gov.au/mediaFiles/dialogue_GPdp3.pdf|archive-date=31 October 2008|url-status=dead}}</ref>

Perth experienced a period of recovery in 1990. In July 1994, the state government separated the city's CBD from its suburban districts, creating the [[City of Perth]] and three other local government areas.{{cn|date=September 2024}} 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.