The City covers an area of 20.01 square kilometres (8 sq mi) and had an estimated population of 21,092 as at 30 June 2015.

A Perth Town Trust was formed in 1838, but remained largely non-functional for many years due to lack of finance and administrative capacity leading to its dissolution in 1858.

A year later, it absorbed territory from Perth Road Board (including the Belmont Park Racecourse) and purchased the 526 hectares (1,300 acres) Limekilns Estate in the western suburbs.

[8] Ritter’s two year tenure was short and turbulent, leading to public conflict with councillors and his termination in 1967.

The two-year Inquiry carried out up until that point, conducted at a cost of nearly A$8.0m made many findings, none of which resulted in criminal conviction.

[13] In July 2021, the City of Perth formally recognised the Whadjuk Noongar people as the traditional owners of Noongar Country, the land on which the "City of Perth (Boorloo)" is located, signing the agreement "Yacker Danjoo Ngala Bidi"[14] with Whadjuk elders on 10 August.

The 1991 population has been broken down by the Australian Bureau of Statistics as follows: Perth (C) 7,604; Cambridge (T) 22,740; Victoria Park (T) 24,313; Vincent (T) 24,765.

In the 1920s, the black swan was removed from the top left quadrant of the flag and replaced with the coat of arms in the centre of the cross.