Perth

/perrth/, n.

1. Also called Perthshire. a historic county in central Scotland.

2. a city in this county: a port on the Tay River. 42,438.

3. a city in and the capital of Western Australia, in SW Australia. 809,035.

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I

City (pop., 1995 est.: 42,000), central Scotland.

Located on the River Tay, northwest of Edinburgh, Perth was a Roman settlement; it became a royal burgh in 1210. It was the capital of Scotland until 1437, when King James I of Scotland was murdered there. At the Church of St. John the Baptist in 1559, John Knox denounced idolatry; the result was the plunder of Perth's monasteries and altars. It was a Jacobite city during the Scottish uprisings of 1715 and 1745. The economy is based on whisky blending and distilling and on manufacturing. It is also an agricultural market centre.

II

City (pop., 1996 est.: 1,097,000), capital of Western Australia state, Australia.

Located on the Swan River 10 mi (16 km) from its mouth, Perth was settled in 1829. It developed rapidly after the discovery of goldfields at Coolgardie in 1890 and the opening of Fremantle Harbor in 1897. It is now a major industrial centre with a rapidly expanding economy. The site of the 1987 America's Cup, it is the seat of the University of Western Australia and Murdoch University.

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▪ Ontario, Canada

      town, seat of Lanark county, southeastern Ontario, Canada, on the Tay River, 45 miles (70 km) southwest of Ottawa. Named after the town in Scotland, it was founded in 1816 by Scottish immigrants who were later joined by British-Canadian veterans of the War of 1812. The town became an important commercial and administrative centre after the construction of the Tay Canal in the 1830s linked it with Montreal and Ottawa (via the Rideau Canal and Ottawa River). The canal is now used only by pleasure craft. Located in the centre of the Rideau Lakes region, Perth also serves as a summer resort. Inc. village, 1850. Pop. (2006) 5,907.

▪ Scotland, United Kingdom

      city and royal burgh, Perth and Kinross council area, historic county of Perthshire, Scotland. Perth lies on the right bank of the River Tay. Its name is probably Celtic.

      Perth was well established by the 12th century, a burgh (town) in 1106 and a royal burgh in 1210. Until about 1452 it served as the capital of Scotland and was therefore both a frequent royal residence and a centre of government. During the Scottish Wars of Independence, Perth was taken by Edward I of England, who strengthened its fortifications in 1298. It was retaken by Robert I (the Bruce) in 1313 during the fourth of the town's seven sieges. The English held it again from 1335 to 1339. Perth was a Jacobite city during the Scottish uprisings of 1715 and 1745, and the insurgent James Edward (James Edward, The Old Pretender), the Old Pretender, was proclaimed king at its market cross.

      Few buildings remain from this eventful past, apart from the Church of St. John the Baptist, which was built about 1440 and replaced an earlier church on the site. There in 1559 John Knox (Knox, John) preached an inflammatory sermon denouncing idolatry, as a result of which four monasteries in Perth were destroyed by mobs. The Salutation Hotel, built in 1699, is said to be the oldest hotel building in Scotland. The city's notable modern public buildings include St. Ninian's Episcopal Cathedral (1850–90) and Perth prison, erected in 1812 to house French prisoners of the Napoleonic Wars.

      During the Middle Ages Perth was a significant river port at the head of the Tay estuary, but it gradually declined. Fertilizers are still imported in quantity, and seed potatoes are exported. Perth has long been a centre for whisky blending and distilling, food processing, and the manufacture of glass. Although the city has always maintained a wide range of industries, it is more important as the commercial centre for its agricultural hinterland. Its livestock sales are famous in Great Britain. During the late 20th century a variety of corporations established offices in Perth, and it became a centre for business and financial services. Perth houses Perth College, a member of the University of the Highlands and Islands Perth. Perth is the historic county town (seat) of Perthshire and the administrative centre of Perth and Kinross. Pop. (2004 est.) 43,590.

▪ Western Australia, Australia

 city and capital, Western Australia. Perth lies along the estuary of the Swan River, 12 miles (19 km) above that river's mouth, which forms the inner harbour of Fremantle. The city, the fourth largest in Australia, is the centre of a metropolitan area containing about three-fourths of the state's population.

      In the early 19th century the British, suspicious of French and American interest in the Australian west coast, decided to expand their settlement to that region and claim the entire continent. In 1827 Captain (later Sir) James Stirling arrived to choose a town site. The following year Captain Sir Charles Fremantle took possession of the area, and in 1829 a colony, with private financial backing, was declared. It was named after the county of Perth in Scotland, birthplace of Sir George Murray, then secretary of state for the colonies. Proclaimed a city in 1856, it was linked to Adelaide (in South Australia) by telegraph in 1877 and received strong impetus for growth from the discovery (1890) of gold at Coolgardie- Kalgoorlie (374 miles [602 km] east), from the opening of an improved Fremantle harbour (1901), and from the completion of the transcontinental railway in 1917. It became a lord mayoralty in 1929.

      Perth is a major industrial centre with heavy industries concentrated in the suburban zones of Kwinana, Fremantle, and Welshpool. The city's diversified manufactures include paint, plaster, printed materials, sheet metal, cement, rubber, tractors, steel, aluminum, and nickel; there are also petroleum refineries and food-processing plants.

      The city has a moderate climate for eight months of the year, but January and February are quite hot, and both June and July are cool and damp. The city is accessible via several highways, the transcontinental railway, the port of Fremantle, and the international airport. It was the site of the Commonwealth and Empire Games in 1962. Perth has Anglican and Roman Catholic cathedrals and two universities: the University of Western Australia (1911) and Murdoch University (1973). Many Italian immigrants live in northern Perth and in Fremantle. Pop. (1991) urban centre, 1,018,702; (1996) Perth Statistical Division, 1,244,320; (2001) Perth Statistical Division, 1,339,993.

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