Made by the National Film Board, 1954. The state capital of Western Australia, Perth is often the traveller's first glimpse of the Commonwealth and a very happy and sunny glimpse it is. The Swan river and King's Park are outstanding beauty spots in a growing, modern city.

Leonard Corrick’s camera moves up and down the streets of Perth recording the action on the street. At one point a man bumps into another man in the street and fisticuffs ensue as the camera moves past. Summary by Leslie Lewis.

Made by the Commonwealth Film Unit, 1961. This film deals with outdoor activities that take place on a typical sunny day in Perth, Western Australia. The emphasis is on sport, from bowling and athletics to sailing and surfing.

This film was made in 1940 by William George Alma, a member of the Victorian Amateur Cine Society who was predominantly a magician and collector of material about magic.

Shots of Perth’s main streets capture the people, transport and architecture of the city in the 1940s. Solid brick homes are shown in leafy residential suburbs. The camera then focuses on a variety of Western Australian flora, concluding with the distinctive kangaroo-paw flower. Summary by Poppy De Souza.

Made by the Commonwealth Film Unit, 1972. This film shows life in a country town dependent on the timber industry in karri country, south-west Western Australia. It features karri forests, tree felling, reforestation, controlled burning of undergrowth, the hauling and milling of karri timber and everyday activities of the local population.

Perth is closer to Jakarta than it is to Sydney. They also have great ice cream!

This film shows various views of Perth and scenic attractions of the south-west of Western Australia. It is a travelogue which covers a region of South-West Western Australia including scenes of Perth on the Swan River and street scenes, the War Memorial in Kings Park, Rottnest Island, Yanchup Park, Greenmount National Park, the Darling Ranges, Bunbury Harbour and its surrounds and Albany, originally the major seaport of WA. Made by the Cinema Branch, 1930.

This early film from the Cinema and Photographic Branch was filmed by the intrepid cinematographer Bert Ive on yet another location where he had to haul over 200 lbs of camera equipment. Ive and freelance cameraman Lacey Percival had filmed an earlier and silent film of the same name in 1927 as part of the Know Your Own Country series. But in mid-1936 Ive and a sound recordist revisited the Pemberton region of south-west Western Australia to make a film that focused more on the atmosphere of the forest as it was irrevocably changed by the axe and saw of the loggers. While this new film was half the length of the silent, Ive's director Lyn Maplestone drew added impact by lingering on the sights and sounds of fewer phases of logging trees in the Jarrah and Karri forest in the Pemberton, transporting them to the nearby Pemberton sawmill, and milling the logs. In place of the original's many intertitles, the sound version makes sparing but more effective use of intertitles superimposed over the images.

From the Film Australia Collection. Made by the National Film Board, 1957. A walk around King’s Park in Perth, looking at the spring flowers.

Made by the National Film Board 1947. A look around the University of Western Australia, 'an atmosphere of culture and learning that might well develop into the Oxford or Cambridge of the southern hemisphere'. From the Film Australia Collection.

Set in the south-west corner of Western Australia, around the Augusta Margaret River country, this film features the Cape Leeuwin Lighthouse and Hamelin Bay. Along with a discussion about many of the historical highlights, it shows the way in which people of the area live, work and relax. Also a popular destination for tourists it concludes with an excursion into the Augusta Jewel Cave.

The first of five films in the Around Australia series, South West Corner was made by the Commonwealth Film Unit in 1961. 

This film was made in 1940 by William George Alma, a member of the Victorian Amateur Cine Society who was predominantly a magician and collector of material about magic.
In this clip, a stationary train sits on the tracks while workers carry out maintenance. Intertitles and a map show the route across the Nullarbor, followed by shots of sparsely occupied landscape. From on board the train, Alma films houses, red dirt and an endless flat horizon as the train travels from Kalgoorlie towards Port Pirie. One of the many Indigenous communities living along the line is shown as the train stops at Ooldea Station. Some of them sell souvenirs to the travellers passing through. Summary by Poppy De Souza.

The 1962 British Empire and Commonwealth Games introduced a new feature: a purpose-built village for the athletes, as seen in the newsreel excerpt.

In previous Commonwealth Games, competitors had been housed in hotels or billeted in private homes but the Western Australian State Housing Commission decided to use the need for accommodation to develop a modern housing development. In 1959, the council set aside 65 acres of land in City Beach. The area is now a Perth suburb, but in the early 1960s it was still mostly bushland. 

The houses themselves were not luxurious; most didn't have a television and there were no telephones. Boy scouts and girl guides worked as runners taking messages.

According to the newsreel, the Games hosted 1200 visiting athletes from 35 countries, representing 660 million people. The housing project cost was estimated at £1 million.

Jim McKenzie is a taxi driver from Perth in Western Australia. He owns his own cab and has been in business about four years. Jim likes his work, but it is an odd sort of job: the hours are long but you meet all sorts of people. But a man is his own boss; for blokes like him, that's important. Made by the Commonwealth Film Unit, 1972.