erth is as far away from any place else as a modern city can get. The most isolated capital on Earth, Perth looks like a small American mid-west city dropped onto the shores of the Indian Ocean. Add sun, beaches, good food and fine local wines and you have something far beyond the initial impression. Perth is a party town, where restaurants, clubs and pubs spill out onto city pavements in celebration of its warm and dry Mediterranean nights. But it is has also been the powerhouse of the Australian economy, riding a boom in natural resources that is fuelling the growth of India and China. There is much hope its wealth can continue to shelter Australia from the storms of the international financial crisis.

Perth is a very young city, and hedonism and bravado come to it naturally. It is the home of self-made billionaires and an unashamed nouveau riche who have peppered the Swan River with soapie-style mansions. And the unique wildness of the real Australia is never far away—from the jet black swans that gave its main waterway its name, to the brilliant colours and forms of the Western Australian flora in Kings Park. As a constant reminder of where you really are, from Perth’s CBD you can see the ancient Darling Ranges, the edge of civilisation and the beginning of the vastness beyond.