The Town of Cambridge is a local government area in the inner western suburbs of the Western Australian capital city of Perth, about 5 kilometres (3 mi) west of Perth's central business district and extending to the Indian Ocean at City Beach. The Town covers an area of 22.0 square kilometres (8.5 sq mi) and had a population of almost 29,000 as of the 2021 Census. It was originally part of the City of Perth before the restructuring by the Western Australian State Government in 1994.

History

Historically the area was part of the North Perth municipality, gazetted in 1901, which was absorbed into the City of Perth in 1915 after becoming unsustainable as an autonomous political entity. In 1993, the Government of Western Australia decided to split up the local government area (LGA) of the City of Perth, creating three additional LGAs and retaining a smaller City of Perth. The new LGAs were Town of Vincent, Town of Cambridge and the Town of Victoria Park.

In October 2020, the Town won an injunction against the state government's efforts to suspend the Council due to suspicions of interference in Town administration. This was the first time a local government in Western Australia successfully challenged ministerial authority to suspend a Council.

Parks and reserves

Cambridge has many parks and reserves. The Town has two major reserves, Lake Monger and Perry Lakes, as well as 4.8 km of coastline, including City Beach and Floreat Beach and their respective parks, and the nearby dunes.

Wards

The city has been divided into two wards, each electing four councillors.

• Coast Ward
• Wembley Ward

Suburbs

The suburbs of the Town of Cambridge with population and size figures based on the most recent Australian census:

Suburb	Population	Area	Map
City Beach	6,805 (SAL 2021)	10 km (3.9 sq mi)
Floreat *	8,621 (SAL 2021)	5.3 km (2.0 sq mi)
Jolimont *	1,479 (SAL 2021)	0.7 km (0.27 sq mi)
Mount Claremont *	4,999 (SAL 2021)	4.3 km (1.7 sq mi)
Subiaco *	9,940 (SAL 2021)	3.1 km (1.2 sq mi)
Wembley *	12,061 (SAL 2021)	4.2 km (1.6 sq mi)
Wembley Downs *	6,743 (SAL 2021)	4.3 km (1.7 sq mi)
West Leederville	4,340 (SAL 2021)	1.5 km (0.58 sq mi)

(* indicates suburb only partially located within Town)

Population

Historical population

Year Pop. ±% p.a. 1991 22,740 —     1996 22,706 −0.03% 2001 22,859 +0.13% 2006 23,753 +0.77%

Year Pop. ±% p.a. 2011 24,965 +1.00% 2016 26,783 +1.42% 2021 28,876 +1.52%

Heritage listed places

As of 2024, 135 places are heritage-listed in the Town of Cambridge, of which 14 are on the State Register of Heritage Places, among them the Model Brick Home and Model Timber Home.