Steve Smith has made a little bit more cricket history, matching Sir Donald Bradman with his 29th Test century on day two of the series opener against the West Indies in Perth.

Smith shared the spotlight at Perth Stadium on Thursday, with Marnus Labuschagne making his way to his second Test double century in the morning, before falling on the stroke of lunch.

Smith also made his way to 200 for the fourth time in his career, setting up a declaration on 4-598, giving the West Indies about an hour and a half to negotiate.

Captain Kraigg Brathwaite drew on his 80 Tests of experience while debutant Tagenarine Chanderpaul summoned the fighting spirit and immense skill of his famous father, Shivnarine, to weather a fiery start from Australia's attack and make it to stumps on 0-74.

It was an impressive effort from the tourists' opening pair, but the day certainly belonged to Australia, and particularly Labuschagne and Smith, equalling the most famous name in Australian cricket.

Of course, The Don reached 29 tons in significantly fewer games than Smith has, or likely anyone ever will, but it is still an impressive measuring stick for one of the candidates of the title "The Best Since Bradman".

Only Sachin Tendulkar and Bradman himself have reached 29 Test hundreds in fewer innings than Smith.

Smith has his nose ahead of contemporary superstars like Joe Root (28), Virat Kohli (27) and Kane Williamson (24), and he's now fifth on the all-time Australian rankings in terms of Test tonnage.

With one more he will equal legendary opener Matthew Hayden, who reached 30 in 103 Tests, so Smith (playing his 88th) has plenty of time to eclipse him.

Ahead of Hayden are only Steve Waugh with 32 and Ricky Ponting with 41, with both players veterans of a whopping 168 Tests.

As Smith made his mark on the history books at one end, Labuschagne was excelling on his own up the other.

Where Smith's innings was a flawless display of Test match batting, Labuschagne flew just a little closer to the wind, offering a smattering of chances to the increasingly disillusioned West Indian bowlers.

Labuschagne's 204 was just shy of his career-best 215 from January 2020 against New Zealand, and serves as a warning for Australia's opposition this summer, as the Queenslander picked up runs patiently throughout the morning.

His departure, which came somewhat out of the blue after edging Brathwaite behind with the final ball before lunch, was the only high point in the field for the West Indies, who were lacklustre in the extreme, seemingly playing for the declaration from the very first ball of the day.

Travis Head came out and bludgeoned the attack at better than a run a ball, falling just short of his fifth Test century, bowled for 99 by Brathwaite after a daring array of shots to all corners of the ground.

That dismissal prompted Pat Cummins to declare and unleash the fury of his bowlers, who had been confined to the sheds for almost two days.

Despite hitting both Brathwaite and Chanderpaul on the body numerous times during a strong opening stanza, their wickets remained intact heading into day three.