It’s a 17 hour direct flight from London (Picture: Getty Images)
The most isolated city on earth might conjure up images of barren landscapes and tumbleweed.
So you might be surprised to learn that the world’s most remote metropolis is one you’ve probably heard of many times before – in fact, you might even know someone who hails from there.
Perth, in Western Australia, is often considered to be the most isolated major urban area when it comes to distance. To put this into context, the nearest destination with over 10,000 inhabitants, Adelaide, is a staggering 2,100km (1,305 miles) away; that’s roughly the distance from London to Casablanca, Morocco.
The capital of Western Australia is a four-hour flight to Sydney, and is actually closer to Southeast Asian countries like East Timor and Indonesia geographically.
As well as being remote, it’s also really spread out. Perth spans 2,478 square miles, which makes it only slightly smaller than London, despite the fact its population is almost four times lower.
But while it’s far away from well, everything, Perth isn’t exactly off-grid – far from it.
The truth is, when you’re in Perth, you don’t really notice that you’re in the middle of nowhere.
A modern city in a thriving country, Perth has everything you’d expect: from nightclubs and shopping malls, to an efficient public transport system.
Is Perth really the most remote city in the world?
Iquitos, Peru can only be accessed via river or air (Picture: Getty Images)
It’s worth noting that Perth’s status as the most remote city is debatable.
For example, Iquitos, Peru, could be contender, given it has no roads leading in or out and is only accessible via river or air – but the city of Pucallpa is just over 500km away.
There’s also Honolulu, Hawaii, which is a mind-bending 3,858km from San Francisco, USA, the nearest major city. That being said, it’s close to other, vibrant areas on the island of Oahu, such as Waikiki Beach.
Or there’s Norilsk, Russia – at 2,800km northeast of Moscow, it’s within the Arctic Circle and has no roads to the country’s mainland – while some New Zealanders might think they claim the crown too, as Auckland is 2,168km away from Sydney, the nearest city of a comparable size.
Honolulu is also a strong contender (Picture: Getty Images)
There are also those that would argue that Perth is actually very close to its nearest city: Fremantle, 40 minutes away by car. However, most consider Fremantle to be a suburb of Perth, rather than a separate city altogether.
The ARIA+ index is a measurement of remoteness, created by the Australian Government. It measures remoteness based on road distance to the nearest urban areas. Perth is considered highly accessible, with a value of 0 out of 15 on the index.
So, if you want to get technical, Perth might not actually be the most isolated city on Earth. That said, there’s no city of similar size anywhere in the world as remote, explaining why you might hear it referred …read more
Source:: Metro
