The area of Western Australia that would become known as Perth had been occupied for tens of thousands of years by Aborigines before the British claimed the landmass in 1826 against reported interest from France.
Three years later the first European settlers created the Swan River Colony, which today is the site of the state capital Perth, and it was also they who were responsible for laying the foundations of the wine industry that is so important to today’s economy.
These British settlers had arrived with cuttings from grape vines in the South African city of Cape Town en route to Western Australia, cuttings which took to the soil conditions and sunny, dry climate of the state.
However if the wine cuttings went on to prosper, the growth of the Swan River Colony was slow in the initial years and not aided by the decision to reject the use of convict labour, a decision which would be reversed in 1850.
Despite the additional manpower, the colony still struggled for several more decades - not least on economic grounds - and it was not until the discovery of gold towards the end of the 19th Century that the development gathered pace.
The building boom that followed – one of the world’s oldest mints in the Perth Mint still operates from its original base that was built back in 1899 – was matched by a mass influx that saw the population increase fourfold within a relatively short period.
The Aborigines had long since been dispersed and their land taken over by settlers, with Perth now accounting for almost three quarters of the state’s total population of 1.7 million.
Perth enjoyed another boom in the 1980s with the rich mineral deposits in the state continuing to contribute to its development.