The geography of firm location is a longstanding focus in urban studies. This paper examines the distribution of Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) listed headquarters in Australian cities. It focusses on change in the distribution of firm locations between 2013 and 2016 by sector, with a lens on the differences within and between Australia’s five largest cities. Findings indicate that the number of listed firm headquarters diminished overall, and that declining activity in the resources sector was primarily responsible. Cities in which mining and energy play a key role, particularly Perth, experienced the greatest headquarters losses, while Melbourne was the only city to gain firm headquarters over the three-year interval. On a more local scale, central business districts (CBDs) lost firm activity across all cities, while suburbs gained firm headquarters, particularly inner-ring suburbs adjacent to CBDs. This change was led in particular by the healthcare and information technology sectors, which exhibited the greatest gains. These broad changes indicate a shift to the knowledge economy across cities in which central and CBD-fringe locations are desirable from a firm perspective due to proximity to related firms and institutions, and also to high-skill labour forces, as a more detailed look at the intra-metropolitan geographies reveals.