Perth is the Capital city of the state of Western Australia which is physically about a third of the entire country of Australia but the population is small – only about 10% of the nation’s population. This population of about 2 million most actually live in Perth ( 1.5 million) and the other towns like Geralton, Albany, Bunbury, Kalgoorlie and Broome so it is a very empty State in the other areas.
Perth is situated on the Swan River and is said to be the most isolated city in the world. Perth’s nearest city is over 1 million is Adelaide which is about 2000km away. Perth is actually geographically closer to Indonesia than it is to Sydney.
=A bit of History=
Perth was first settled by British in 1832 and was officially known as Western Australia at this time but more often referred to as the Swan River Colony because the colony was built on the Swan River. The Swan River was named by Willem de Vlamingh in 1697 after the native black swans he saw in the river. This same Dutch captain also named Rottnest Island which means Rat’s nest island as he though the Quokkas were rats!
The colony was struggling for labour and so in 1850 at the request of colonists convicts were sent to Perth. It was granted its city status in 1856 by Queen Victoria The population increased dramatically again after the discovery of gold in 1890 and then further mineral discoveries helped the colony’s economy.
Perth became part of the Commonwealth of Australia in1901 after a referendum and the granting of a few demands made by the colony. It was the last colony to join the Federation. One of the demands was that a railway was built from Adelaide to Perth and today’s Indian Pacific train still follows this same route from Perth to Sydney via Kalgoorlie and Adelaide.
=How you can get there=
Perth airport is the main international airport and is a small but efficient, clean and modern airport (puts Heathrow to shame – has anyone else noticed how grimy everywhere is in Heathrow as you arrive?). If you going to Perth and want details of transfer costs and so on then here is the link for the Airport: http://www.perthairport.net.au/
The Indian Pacific train runs from Sydney and Adelaide I think about twice a week but it takes four days, three nights to cover the 4352 kilometres and is not cheap so you have to want this journey as an experience rather than just a means of getting to or from Perth. If you would like to find out more about this iconic train journey then this is the link to the homepage: http://www.gsr.com.au/our-trains/indian-pacific/the-journey.php
You could drive but is a very long way across miles of the Nullabor (Means no trees nullus – no, arbour- tree) desert and is not to be undertaken without a great deal of planning. For those needing more information then here’s a link for this from someone who has done it: http://www.australiantraveller.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2865
Buses are FREE within the ‘Free Transit Zone’ (City centre) and these free buses will take you to Newcastle Street going North and as far as go King’s Park going west and the CAT buses (Central Area Transit) which run circular routes which are hop on/hop off and are colour coded according to the route they follow. In the CAT buses there are route maps and on display for each stop. We couldn’t believe what a wonderful idea, free public transport – what a shame that isn’t the case in our cities but then the population of Perth is only 1.5 million whereas Greater Manchester is about 2.5 million but in a far smaller physical area than Perth. The buses are a great way of getting around the city and save you an awful lot of walking. There is a CAT bus for Freemantle too which operates in the same way. The trains
are free within the ‘Free Transit Zone’ too. The CAT buses do not run on public holidays unless advertised otherwise .More details can be found at the link: http://www.lookatwa.com.au/Transport/cats.html =Our Experience=
We spent four days in Perth when we first arrived in Australia having flown from Manchester to Heathrow (via Terminal 5 - makes you proud of our British efficiency!) to Singapore then Perth. We needed a few days to recover from the journey before touring round most of the rest of Australia. We stayed at the Travelodge on Hay Street which was very convenient to most places you might want to walk to. Anything further we could just hop on a free bus!
=Things we did: =
""King’s Park"" is somewhere well worth a visit which you can get to on the Cat buses and once you are there you can walk down a wonderful avenue of Lemon scented Ghost Gum trees on Fraser’s Avenue. These huge trees were originally planted in 1937 and every tree has a plaque on it remembering an important person from the first hundred years of Perth’s foundation as a colony. The aroma is very lemony with a hint of eucalyptus as you walk down between these magnificent trees with their silver/green leaves. The scent is full-on, not a subtle aroma but it is so evocative and certainly something I will remember with a smile. The avenue was apparently named after Malcolm Fraser who was the first surveyor general of Western Australia.
There is a very interesting gift shop called ‘Aspects of King’s Park’ which is more like an art/craft gallery and book shop. The items are not the usual cheap tat in fact most were quite expensive. There are quality books and some very unusual glass ware, pottery and other art work as well as jewellery made from Australian gem stones. The people working in the shop were very friendly and happy to show you things of interest even if you were obviously not buying anything.
One of the sights of king’s Park is the view of the city of Perth seen from the park. It is a beautiful city set on the Swan River with a few high rise buildings and acres of green parkland. The view can be seen from a number of places. One popular place is the Lotterywest Foundation Walkway which was opened in 2003. The walkway is about 600metres long and is a pathway that then this takes you up on an arched bridge of glass and steel above the gum trees. You can also go to Mount Eliza’s Lookout via various paths or you can just look out from near the State War memorial along Fraser’s Avenue.
There a number of walking tracks and you can ask for a free guide to show you areas of particular interest. Within the park are several speciality gardens for native plants, a water garden, a conservation area and so on. I was interested in the area near the visitor centre there were Western Australian flowers such as the Sturt’s Desert Pea, Geralton wax flowers and the State flower of Western Australia, the Kangaroo paw. It was nice to be able to see these wild flowers in life rather than just on a postcard and as we were only in Perth for a few days and not travelling elsewhere in WA it was probably our only opportunity.
There was so much more but we only had a limited time in Perth and quite a few things we wanted to see and do.
""Monger Lake"" in the suburb of Leedereville is home to the famous black swan and many other interesting water fowl. The lake is in huge natural parkland and it is an iconic image to see the swans swimming towards you with a backdrop of the city of Perth. There are several boards around the viewing area which give information about the different water birds which you can see on the lake which is interesting and useful to those like me who are useless at recognising different birds ( I did manage to pick out the black swan without help!)
""Scarborough Beach is"" reputedly the ‘best white sand surf beach in the world’. I cannot comment on the surfing as I’ve never done it but we watched several brave, tanned surfers kite surfing just off the beach. I was fascinated watching how they went with the wind and tacked back against it – very clever. Watching someone learning showed me just how hard it really was and I was more than impressed by the speedy experts after watching the poor learner fall in repeatedly. The beach was white sand and there was a sort of amphitheatre covered area with grassy levels overlooking the beach where you could sit/lie on the grass and sunbathe or sit on the concrete curved seated area in the shade and watch the more active pursuing their water sports. We sat and people watched for an hour or so one afternoon soaking up the sun and ‘surfy ‘atmosphere. You can also fish and swim in the sea, skateboard or rollerblade round the pathways and pavements or just enjoy a drink in a pub nearby and there were even shops along the street behind if that takes your fancy. You can get here from Perth city on a bus near the train station and in summer they go every 8 minutes.
""Northbridge"" is the suburb of Perth known for its night life but I can’t say I experience much of this so will not comment of how good the clubbing or bars are at night. We walked from Hay Street through the pedestrian shopping area in Murray street to Northbridge. We wandered through quite a large part of this are which is largely residential and then passed the museum (closed on the Sunday) and towards the restaurants and hostels. We were actually looking for a hostel to leave my book that I had finished in ( it was set up to leave as a bookcrossing book – found out about book crossing on Dooyoo or Ciao – thanks fellow reviewers). I failed in this quest and left it in the Travelodge reception where we were staying in the end.
We found ‘The Brass Monkey’ pub which is the most photographed pub in Western Australia and one of the ‘must visit’ places in Perth. There are several different bar areas and it is quite possible to lose your way in there. We looked in at the sports’ bar and the area outside but there were people smoking so we went back inside. My husband enjoyed trying different beers and the barman was kind enough to let us try a few of the local beers before we settled on Redback a wheat beer brewed by Matilda Bay brewers. This was very nice but not cheap at $14 a pint so we did not stay and settle there.
I cannot drink too much on an empty stomach and so we went looking for somewhere to eat. Northbridge has a large ethnic population and in particular there seem to be a large number of Vietnamese so we went into a busy Vietnamese restaurant called the ‘Saigon Cafe’. We had a very tasty and authentic meal with local beer each at a very reasonable price of $36 which contrasts to the ‘Brass Monkey’ earlier in the day.
We walked back to our hotel through the ""Hay street shopping area"" calling in to ""London Court"" which is a sort of mock Tudor alley of quite pricey shops which looks a little at odds with the rest of the shopping area around there – the shops were of little interest in themselves just for their quirkiness.
""The Bell Tower"" –is a modern tower more like a huge art work and the home of the Swan bells. The tower looks a bit like a full sail from an old fashioned sailboat. The sails are made from copper and shine when the spire is lit up at night. The bells were a gift from England to the people of Western Australia for the Bicentennial celebrations. The twelve bells came from the church of St Martin-in-the-Fields in TrafalgarSquare The 14th century bells were recast by Elizabeth I and then again in the 18th century under the then Prince of Wales who became King George II. They are the only set of royal bells known to have left England so they are quite special and the Western Australians are very proud of them.
The Bell Tower also houses a rare collection of Asian Bells. There is also a Turret clock rescued from the Grandstand which was demolished at Ascot
Pictures of Perth (Australia)
Monger Lake is home to the famous black swans
and restored to become part of the Bell Tower collection. This clock strikes the quarter hour like Big Ben on four bells.Around this beautiful tower are landscaped gardens with ponds and a number of works of art. A very unusual pathway winds its way through the garden, it is made of tiles signed by school students from all around Western Australia which was created in the Year 2000.
""Barrack Street Jetty"" is just near the Bell Tower and is where you catch the ferries to Rottnest Island, Freemantle and other destinations. This small area has a few shops, restaurants and a pub with the dubious name ‘Lucky Shag’ which was heaving throbbing from the loud music as we passed by. We decided to brave the throng and ordered drinks which we carried carefully through the crowds to get to a view of the river. It was not entirely pleasurable being packed like sardines so we finished our drink and decided to go to the restaurant early.
The 'Fung Shun' was upstairs above the ‘lucky Shag’ but interestingly we couldn’t hear the music from below. We walked through a corridor of aquarium which I suspect were not for decoration as they had lobsters and other larger more edible seafood in them. We were shown to a table near the river front, not a perfect view but I guess that is what you get for not booking.
This was a Chinese seafood restaurant and we had seen it advertised in the tourist guide. The meal was good and well presented and the ambience very pleasant but it was quite pricey. We chose it as it was an easy walk back to our hotel along the river front and through a park.
The walk along the river was beautiful, very peaceful with a few dog walkers, joggers and families taking the air. The park always had cockatoos squawking in the trees or pecking in flocks on the grass which we found quite a novelty. Walking around Perth was easy, there was rarely much traffic and there seemed to be very few people around either. It was a bit like a town at 7am on a sleepy Sunday but it was always like that on the few days we were there. It must be very strange and unnerving for a person from Perth coming to somewhere like London or Hong Kong and experiencing the crowds and noise in a big city.
=Trip to Freemantle =
We got up in time to get the ""Captain Cook Swan River Cruise"" to ""Freemantle"". The boat left at 9.45 from Barrack Street Jetty and proceeded at a sedate pace along the river towards Freemantle. There was complimentary tea and coffee and other snacks and drinks for sale. The commentary was quite interesting but there was nothing particularly remarkable along the journey. It was very pleasant seeing all the yacht clubs, scenery and wealthy people’s house but there was no one thing that stood out.
We arrived in Freemantle at about 11am and walked round the corner towards where we thought the free CAT bus went. Just as we were going through the car park we noticed a couple of young lads handing out free ice creams – a promotion for Peter’s ice creams which were very nice and refreshing and all the better for being free.
We waited a long 15minutes for the CAT bus which we had planned to use for the entire circuit. Once we were on the bus we realised that really the longer circuit was unnecessary as most of the places of interest were just nearby.
We hopped off and wandered along the ""Cappuccino Strip"" which is a street full of a huge number of coffee shops. We walked towards the ""Freemantle markets"" as having enjoyed our freebie coffee on the boat we decided we didn’t need another so we went into the market. It was very pleasant inside with ethnic clothes and jewellery, lots of fresh fruit and vegetable stalls, various stalls with different foods and you could even sit and have a beer. We bought a small backpack as ours had just broken then some fruit for our breakfasts and some Indian savoury snacks for our meal in the evening.
After this we thought we would make our way down to the Esplanade area where all the seafood restaurants are. It was pretty hot by now so we took a short cut across the park rather than walk all around on the road. The esplanade area was pretty busy and there were a number of different restaurants to choose from and we plumped for ""Cicerello’s"" which claimed to be the first and the best.
There was quite a extensive menu choice from simple fish and chips to mussel and crab in chilli and tomato sauce (my choice) and my husband had a barramundi with chips and salad –he also had quite a bit of my meal too which was delicious but rather messy to eat despite the nut crackers, small pointy fork and bib that I was given. We enjoyed our meal with a Cascade beer. It took me ages to eat my meal despite all the help and I admit I did leave some too but it was a full on eating experience rather than just a meal.
You could eat outside under brollies or inside under fans and we chose the latter. Three huge marine fish tanks separated the diners from the queue to order food. They were amazing, one had small colourful reef fish like Nemo and his friends, and the other two had manta rays and some small slightly mottled sharks with slightly bigger fish. Children were fascinated and many parents and older children spent time wandering up and down with little ones admiring the contents of these tanks.
When you went into the restaurant there was a queue which you joined and ordered your food. They gave you a bell and your receipt and you went to sit at a table to await your order. When the bell buzzed you went up to the collection point to collect it. It worked very well and was an interesting change to water service (also saved the tip).
After out meal we walked back to the jetty area and went into the ""Shed Markets"". This was obviously for tourists waiting for their boats to go as everything was very expensive. I had a soft serve cone and it was $3.50 and my husband has a small bottle of iced tea for the same price. The size of bottle would have been £1.00 at most back home.
The cruise back to Perth included complimentary wine tasting as well as tea or coffee. No contest here we opted to sample some of Western Australia’s wines. There was a choice of about 4 whites, 4 reds and arose. I only tried the white sauvignon – several times and it was very good. Others said the red cabernet sauvignon was excellent but I’m not a red wine fan as it gives me sinus problems. This was an added bonus and made the journey go very quickly. We joined another English couple who we had sat next to on our way to Freemantle and had an enjoyable conversation with our wine and Ritz crackers and we chose to sit inside in the air conditioning as we had got quite hot walking around Freemantle.
Freemantle seemed to be a huge tourist resort with coffee shops, restaurants and markets and the water front area. It was a very pleasant day out, thoroughly relaxing and the boat trip was a lovely way of getting there. It was also possible to get to Freemantle by train but we rather fancied the ‘cruise’ along the Swan River and the views of both Perth and Freemantle from the boat were worth the trip alone.
=Other places of interest =
There were lots of things we wanted to do but we ran out of time or didn’t fancy the length of time in a bus to get there. We thought of going to wave rock but that was 4½ hours each way in a coach and after our long flight this did not appeal to us. Another temptation was a trip to the Pinnacles ( the pointy rocks Billy Connelly danced round naked) but these too required hours in a coach. Rottnest Island was also tempting but as we really wanted to see the Quokkas rather than sit on a beach nor have a bike ride we were not sure of seeing a Quokka as they are nocturnal. All these places would be great if you had a bit longer but it was not meant to be for us.
There were other places of interest in Perth but we chose those I have described as we had a limited amount of time and energy.
=Summary:= We enjoyed our short visit to Perth but I’m not sure I would go back again. We found it quite expensive; at least the same prices as England and some things were more expensive. It is a very quiet, clean city which is very easy to get around either by foot or using the free buses but it lacked a bit of character. There were places that were interesting such as King’s Park and the Bell Tower but they were not things with a ‘Wow!’ factor. Freemantle was like a huge holiday resort, it didn’t seem to be real, more like a film set but I can’t really put my finger on why – maybe it was that everyone there was a tourist or that it was so clean and perfect. It was a very pleasant place to look around and spend a few days after our long flight and prepare ourselves for our 6 weeks of travel. I am not an expert on Perth but am sharing my four day experience with you and thank you for reading about our trip.
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Advantages: Temperate climate, beautiful city and attractions, friendly fun-loving population. Disadvantages: It is a long way from anywhere and therefore expensive to get to.
Mercury 02.09.2001 (02.09.2001)
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Review of Perth (Australia)
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