Murray Street, Perth

Murray Street is one of the main east-west streets in Perth’s central business district, running through the city’s commercial core. It was named after Sir George Murray, the British Secretary of State for War and the Colonies at the time when the Swan River Colony was founded. Its best-known section is Murray Street Mall, the pedestrianized stretch between Barrack Street and William Street, now one of central Perth’s busiest shopping areas.

For visitors, Murray Street Mall offers an easy glimpse of modern Perth in motion. Shops, cafés, department stores, arcades, buskers, commuters, and steady foot traffic give the street a lively everyday rhythm. The street also carries traces of Perth’s older commercial and civic history. Heritage buildings along and near Murray Street reflect the city’s growth in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, especially as Perth expanded after the gold boom. The building of the Wentworth Plaza Hotel, at the corner of Murray and William Streets at number 300, dates from 1928 and replaced earlier structures on the site, including a hotel and shops. Nearby, at 347 Murray Street, the former City Hotel adds another reminder of the street’s hospitality and commercial past.

Another notable landmark is the Young Australia League Building, standing at 45 Murray Street, on the corner of Murray and Irwin Streets, farther east along Murray Street. It was built in 1924 as a memorial to League members killed in World War I, while the organization itself had been founded in Western Australia in 1905. Murray Street is not a single monument but a working urban corridor, where Perth’s shopping life, historic façades, arcades, and everyday city movement come together.