Perth, the state capital of Western Australia, hosted the 1962 edition of the Games and joins other Australian cities Sydney, Adelaide and Melbourne in showing an interest in staging the event.

It once again raises the prospect of Australia hosting consecutive Commonwealth Games with the Gold Coast playing host next year.

Durban was relieved of its hosting duties on Monday (March 13) after Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) President Louise Martin failed to get assurances from the South African President Jacob Zuma that his Government would provide the necessary financial support.

The decision was taken by the CGF during a meeting prior to the launch of the Queen's Baton Relay at Buckingham Palace for Gold Coast 2018.

It had been estimated that staging the Games in Africa for the first time would have cost at least ZAR8 billion (£498 million/$607 million/€567 million).

The South African city had been awarded the Games by the CGF at its Assembly in Auckland in September 2015 when they were the only bidder following the withdrawal of only rival Edmonton.

However, since then, they had not formed an Organising Committee or made any of the payments due to the CGF.

If Perth were to launch a bid for the Games, the focal point would be the newly built Perth Stadium.

Construction work is set to be completed in time for the start of the 2018 Australian Football League (AFL) season, which typically gets underway at the end of March.

The arena will be a multi-purpose venue capable of hosting AFL, rugby, football and cricket, with an initial 60,000 seat capacity.

"It doesn’t necessarily mean we are going to pick it up but we will certainly go through the process and see what the benefits are," Murray told Western Australia's Sunday Times.

"We know they are job creators.

"Certainly, it would put us on the map worldwide as well.

"We will have a new stadium, whereas many of the other countries will have to build a new stadium.

"That gives us a big advantage.

"It gives us a start.

"It puts us in a position where we don’t have to go out and find a billion dollars to start with."

Perth's Lord Mayor Lisa Scaffidi also told the Australian Associated Press that "an event of the scale of the Commonwealth Games would further enhance Perth as a world-class city and destination and greatly stimulate the economy".

"The city of Perth would definitely support the Western Australian Government if it was to put forward a bid to host the Games," she added.

Yesterday, Sydney launched plans to replace Durban as host of the Games.

The centrepiece of Sydney's bid would be the ANZ Stadium, which hosted the 2000 Olympic and Paralympic Games, where a track would be built specially for the event.

The proposed bid has the backing of New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian and Australia Commonwealth Games Association President Sam Coffa.

Melbourne, which hosted the 2006 Commonwealth Games, has also expressed early interest.

Adelaide is also keen to investigate a bid to take over from the South African city with John Coates, President of the Australian Olympic Committee, a supporter of an Australian city staging the Games.

Other cities to have expressed interest in staging the event include Edmonton, Birmingham, Liverpool, London and Manchester in England, New Delhi in India and Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia.

The CGF have not announced a timetable for choosing a replacement but a new host is expected to be chosen by the end of this year.