Getting around

Perth is the easiest Australian capital to get around. The rail lines run down the middle of the freeways to the growth corridors, the roads are wide and uncongested by east-coast standards, and the city is flat and sunny enough that cycling is practical.

The network, in four parts

Car-free life works near a train line or in the inner suburbs. Elsewhere Perth is a car city — but an easy one, with short commutes and parking that costs a fraction of Sydney’s.

Driving here

Australians drive on the left. Perth is the least stressful capital to drive in: wide roads, light congestion, free-flowing freeways outside peak, and only one tolled crossing to worry about — there are effectively no toll roads in the state. Licence transfer and buying a car work the same across the country and live in Living in Australia.

Two local notes. Distances between towns outside the metropolitan area are enormous, so country driving means fuel planning, wildlife at dawn and dusk, and telling someone your route. And the summer sun is brutal on a parked car — a windscreen shade is not optional here.

Distances that matter

One number worth internalising: Sydney and Melbourne are around five hours by air, and there is no practical alternative. Perth’s airport does, however, fly direct to South-East Asia in about five hours and to Europe direct — which for many international clinicians is a better flight map than the east coast offers.

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