PERTH, ARCHDIOCESE of. — It is situated in Western Australia, and the city of P. is the capital of the State. In 1842 the Catholics of P. asked the archbishop, Mgr. Polding Giovanni Beda (1794–1877), for a priest, and Fr. Giovanni Brady was sent, arriving in P. on 13 Dec. 1843 accompanied by Fr. Giovanni Joostens and the Irish catechist Patrizio O'Reilly. The first Catholic church was established on 16 Jan. 1844.
The territory was erected into the diocese of P. on 6 May 1845 as a suffragan of the archdiocese of Sydney; from the latter there were also detached and declared provisionally dependent on the bishop of P. the apostolic vicariates of Essington
and Sounde, suppressed on 25 June 1847. On 12 March 1867 the territory of the nullus abbey of New Norcia was detached. On the same date the boundaries of the diocese were modified; on 27 Apr. 1903 it ceded part of its territory to the abbey of New Norcia. On 30 Jan. 1898 the territory was detached to form the diocese of Geraldton. The new diocese progressed fairly rapidly and on 28 Aug. 1913 was elevated to an archdiocese. Catholics number approximately 60,000 out of a population of 250,000.
The area is 210,051 sq. km., with 73 parishes, 180 churches, 122 secular priests, 32 religious priests, 63 brothers, and 967 sisters. There are 6 hospitals with 600 beds, 3 orphanages with 810 boys, and 1 homes for the elderly with 170 residents. There are 87 elementary schools with 6,820 boys and 5,300 girls, and 27 secondary schools with 970 male and 1,200 female students. The periodical The Record is printed there, with a circulation of 16,000 copies. Catholic Action and the Legion of Mary are well developed.