WEST AUSTRALIANA
In 1962 a lone astronaut orbiting the Earth sighted a small cluster of lights on the dark silhouette of Australia’s western coastline – a token of friendship from the people of Perth that prompted the world’s media to dub this isolated provincial outpost the “City of Light.” This book expands the metaphor by shedding new light on the social history of Perth since the 1950s. Its focus is the city centre and the events that unfolded there. After a lively sketch of prewar Perth, Jenny Gregory ventures into the historically uncharted territory of the postwar era. The result is a frank, incisive and richly detailed investigation of the city’s growth and transformation over a fifty-year period, from the modernist era of postwar reconstruction to the mid-nineties.
xv, 403 p. : ill (some col.), facsims., maps, ports. ; 27 cm. #130623
Maps on lining papers.
Bibliography: p. 385-395.
(Bookshop label and stamp on prelim, otherwise fine in very good+ dustjacket.)