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Perth Electorate Profile (2025)

About the Perth Electorate

Map showing the boundaries of the Perth electorate for the 2025 election

PDF version of the Perth Electorate map PDF/pdf-file.png

Area (sq km): 20
Number of Electors: 31,844
Source: 2023 Final Distribution Report, Western Australian Electoral Distribution Commission.

Origin of the Name:
The story of the naming of Perth begins with the instructions given to Captain Stirling, lieutenant governor designate of the proposed colony of Western Australia, regarding the foundation of the colony. Stirling received a letter from the secretary for the colonies, Sir George Murray, which read:

"Amongst your earliest duties will be that of determining the most convenient site for a Town to be erected as the future seat of Government. You will be called upon to weigh maturely the advantages which may arise from placing it on so secure a situation as may be afforded on various points of the Swan River, against those which may follow from establishing it on so fine a port for the reception of shipping as Cockburn Sound is represented to be...".

Stirling was therefore given the choice of establishing the chief town on Cockburn Sound, or "on various points on the Swan River". It has been established that Murray actually gave Stirling more explicit instructions, and advised him that failing the establishment of the town at Cockburn Sound, he was to fix the site, which was at the confluence of two rivers, the Swan and the Canning, or in other words, at Point Heathcote. Stirling had good reasons to disobey Murray, including that the Perth site was, "decidely preferable in building materials, streams of water, and facility of communication."

Stirling did, however, gladly comply with Sir George Murray's command that the new town be called 'Perth'. Murray's reasons for choosing the name were purely sentimental - he was a Perthshire man and represented his birthplace in the House of Commons. The choice suited Stirling, himself a Scotsman, although it is recorded that at least one early settler, William Leake, complained to the Home Office about the name. August 12 1829 marked the day of the founding of the town, when Mrs Helen Dance cut down a tree. August 12 was also the birthday of King George IV.

Source: Western Australia. Department of Land Administration. Names and Places.

Suburbs and Towns with the Electorate:
The electorate of Perth includes all or part of Coolbinia, East Perth, Highgate, Leederville, Mt Hawthorn, Mt Lawley, North Perth, Northbridge, Osborne Park, Perth and West Perth.
Source: Western Australian Electoral Commission.


Local Governments within the Electorate:
City of Perth (part); Statistical Profile of City of Perth
City of Vincent (part); Statistical Profile of City of Vincent

Schools
Government: Highgate Primary School; Kyilla Primary School; Mount Hawthorn Primary School; Mount Hawthorn Education Support Centre; North Perth Primary School; School of Isolated and Distance Education.

Other: Aranmore Catholic College; Aranmore Catholic Primary School; Mercedes College; Sacred Heart Primary School; St George's Anglican Grammar School; Trinity College.

Local Newspapers:

Books about Perth
  • Jenny Gregory: City of light - a history of Perth since the 1950s (403p. City of Perth, 2003)
  • George Seddon: A city and its setting - images of Perth, Western Australia (304p. Fremantle Arts Centre Press, 1986)
  • C T Stannage: The people of Perth - a social history of Western Australia's capital city (364p. Perth City Council, 1979)
  • Perth Western Australia, a wealth of resources (222p. Focus Books, 1993)
  • Alexandra Hasluck: Victorian and Edwardian Perth from old photographs (118p. John Ferguson, 1977)
  • Ian Warne: Perth heritage in watercolour (24p. I Warne, 1994)
  • Stan Gervas: Sunday mornings in Perth (170p. Gervas Books, 2003)
  • Simon Nevill: Perth and Fremantle, past and present (191p. Simon Nevill, 2007)
  • Edmund Robless: The streets of Perth, past and present (99p. Loose Booty Productions, 2008)
  • Dino Di Rado: Perth's history, the 1900s - the era Perth changes (Part 1 - historic buildings and early transport) (29p. 2009)
  • Julie Davidson: Early businesses of Vincent, a local history (242p. Town of Vincent, 2010)
  • Our Town: early photographs from the Town of Vincent local history collection (86p. Town of Vincent Library, 2007)
  • John Yiannakis: Northbridge history studies day papers (275p. Network Books, 2009)
  • Jo Darbyshire: The Coolbaroo Club 1947 - 1960
  • David Whish-Wilson: Perth (303p. New South Publishing, 2020)
  • Richard Offen: A Perth camera (144p. Pavilion Books, 2022)

Statistical Profile of the Perth Electorate

Successive Members for the Perth Electorate

Name Party Term
Edward Scott   1890 - 1891
Thomas George Anstruther Molloy   1892b - 1894
George Randell   1894 - 1897
Henry Lyall Hall Ministerialist 1897 - 1901
Frank Wilson Oppositionist April - December 1901
William Mortimer Purkiss Ministerialist 1901b - 1904
Harry Brown Ministerialist 1904 - 1911
Walter Dwyer Australian Labor Party 1911 - 1914
James Daniel Connolly Liberal 1914 - 1917
Robert Rivington Pilkington Nationalist 1917b - 1921
Henry Willoughby Mann Nationalist 1921 - 1933
Edward Needham Australian Labor Party 1933 - 1950
Constituency abolished under Redistribution of Seats 1948.
Constituency revived under Redistribution of Seats 1961.
Stanley Heal Australian Labor Party 1962 - 1965
Peter Drew Durack Liberal and Country League 1965 - 1968
Terrence (Terry) Joseph Burke Australian Labor Party 1968 - 1987
Ian Christopher Alexander Australian Labor Party 1987b - 1993
Diana Muriel Warnock Australian Labor Party 1993 - 2001
John Norman Hyde Australian Labor Party 2001 - 1913
Eleni Evangel Liberal Party 2013 - 2017
John Carey Australian Labor Party 2017 -

b = by-election
Source:
Black, David & Valerie Prescott. Election Statistics: Legislative Assembly of Western Australia, 1890-1996. Perth, WA: Parliament of Western Australia Electoral Commission, 1997.
Parliament of Western Australia, Members (website) http://www.parliament.wa.gov.au