The photographer turning the focus on Perth’s ‘endless sprawl’

Stark imagery of barren streets, mass-produced houses, and endless roads are the focus of a Perth photographer’s exhibition, which captures the ugliness of the great Australian dream on the city’s urban fringe.

Harry Cunningham travelled the vast corridor of Perth’s sprawling suburbs documenting the visual and environmental impacts of the city’s notorious sprawl that began in the 1960s and has largely gone unchecked.

A shot from Harry Cunningham’s exhibition showing a couple celebrating their new home being completed.Credit: Harry Cunningham

Cunningham said he wanted to challenge viewers to reconsider Perth’s urban frontier which now stretches more than 150 kilometres from Mandurah in the south to Two Rocks in the north, earning the west coast capital the title of “world’s longest city” – also the name of the exhibition.

“As someone who has travelled quite extensively, I’ve always been interested in what defines a place – what gives it character and identity beyond the postcards,” he said.

“Perth is often celebrated for our beaches and natural beauty, but I think to truly understand Perth, we need to look at the bad as much as the good. We need to take a step back and see what we can improve as a city.”

Cunningham said when he released The World’s Longest City online, the response was overwhelming with more than a million views.

A housing estate in Alkimos.Credit: Harry Cunningham

“It made me realise just how many people are feeling the effects of sprawl, even if we don’t always talk about it,” he said.

“One of the most striking things about Perth’s suburban expansion is how invisible it can feel. For many, especially the younger generation, it’s easy to overlook - you’ve grown up with it, so it just feels normal.

“The endless sprawl becomes part of the background. Even when you’re in it, at ground level, it’s hard to grasp the scale of it all.

“You don’t see the full picture until you can notice the signs: barren suburbs, long commutes, mass-produced houses, endless roads, and shadeless streets.”

Cunningham said he wanted to create images of the everyday, mundane scenes that would make viewers feel like something was off, the kind of images that, at first glance, seem familiar, but upon closer inspection, reveal a discomforting reality about the way Perth has been built.

Jacqui stands in her backyard, DawesvilleCredit: Harry Cunningham

“The sprawl isn’t stopping there though – it’s now heading east into areas like the controversial North Stoneville development in the Perth Hills, one of the world’s 36 biodiversity hotspots, and home to numerous vulnerable species,” he said.

“In the outer suburbs, I kept seeing the same scenes: wide empty roads, row after row of near-identical houses, sidewalks without shade — places that felt more like construction zones than communities.

“It was haunting in a quiet way.

“I wasn’t trying to make a political statement, but it’s hard not to see the consequences: environmental strain, car dependency, rising infrastructure costs, and a lack of real connection between people and place.

“I think if people truly understood what they were buying into – the consequences of living so far from the city center, the lack of amenities, the long commutes – maybe they wouldn’t buy a cheap house on the outskirts of Perth.”

The exhibition runs until April 8, 2025 at 410 Murray Street as part of Perth Design Week.

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