Perth, WA

tical centre of the Swan River Colony. As the business and administration centre for the resource-rich state, Perth has grown consistently faster than the national average. Perth became known worldwide as the "City of Light" when city residents lit their house lights and streetlights as American astronaut John Glenn passed overhead while orbiting the earth on Friendship 7 in 1962. The city repeated the act as Glenn passed overhead on the Space Shuttle in 1998. Perth is tied for eighth place in The Economist's 2010 list of the World's Most Livable Cities.