Despite being more than 1,300 miles from any other conurbation, Perth doesn’t feel particularly isolated. A clean and prosperous place of some 2 million inhabitants, it seems like a city of the future. It was founded in 1829, but not much happened until the 1890s and the discovery of gold. The exploitation of Western Australia’s enormous mineral resources in the ’70s began a cycle of growth that continues. As an Australian acquaintance said to us, “Perth? It can be expensive — but they’re all rich there.”