Abstract: The local government map of metropolitan Perth has remained largely unchanged since the time of Western Australian gold rush at the end of the nineteenth century. It exhibits a highly fragmentary pattern, with thirty local authorities which are, on average, significantly smaller than those in other Australian capital cities. Over the last half century there have been repeated governmental proposals to reform and rationalise this system, but no significant change has been achieved. This paper will consider why so many local authorities were established at the end of the nineteenth century and why there has been so little change since then, even though the city has grown much more than tenfold since that time and radical local government reform has occurred in several other Australian capital cities. It will then discuss some of the social, economic and planning-related implications of this long period of local government boundary inertia during a time of rapid urban growth and change.