Perth exploration

Waking up in Stan after planning to get a night inside was a bit confusing but did mean that I was up early and ready for a full day’s exploration around the capital. After realising that its not as big as originally expected, I’d planned on a self-guided walking tour taking in bits and pieces along the way. I wasn’t entirely sure what Perth had to offer but I’d heard on the grapevine that the big three – WA Musuem, WA State Library and the WA Art Gallery were all impressive and shouldn’t be missed.

 

The WA Musuem was an interesting building, primarily red brick but with the more modern glass extension to increase the size of the musuem. Having travelled almost 3,000kms down the west coast and experiencing other museums and information boards, the museum was a great place to have all of this put into context with detailed work on the delicate wording of ‘colonisation’ and ‘invasion’ recognised as two separate ways to skin a cat.

One information board simply asked the question, “We often use the term exploration to describe efforts to discover and map ‘new’ territories. But was Western Australia really an unknown land?” – an interesting view on things when you look at how long the Aboriginal people had been using these lands.

The State Library holds the impressive collection of texts and other literary pieces and links with the university for research purposes. Although the function is fairly obvious, its design and scale are impressive. Free internet too! It resides opposite to the State Gallery and as such is flanked by various obscure sculptures and seating areas to aid the ‘cultural’ feel.

The State Gallery is a wonderful place to wile away a few hours. During my visit the annual WA Indigenous Art Awards were being exhibted whilst voting took place. These awards are becoming a national prestigious event that showcase the best indigenous painters, sculptures, filmmakers, photographers etc of the year. It was a fascinating and inspiring collection of art especially after seeing many examples of paintings in the Kimberley.



I was even able to help a visiting Australian couple from the East coast on the interpretation of some of the work! It was an enriching place with many enthusiastic volunteers and even admirers of certain artists as a lady pulled me aside and wondered if I’d like to hear an interpretation of Mark Tansey’s paintings. It was a very cultural morning :)

Finally picking up the repaired lens from the outskirts of the CBD and a quick bit of lunch, (no time for that!) I was off again. This time a quick nip into the NIB Stadium, the home of Perth Glory, an Australia A-League Soccer League team, a wander around the grounds of the beautifully refurbished St Mary’s Cathedral



and up to the Perth Mint, one of the highlights of a visit to Perth. It was a bit pricey ($15) when you consider what you’ve actually seen and taken part in but its one of those things to have a look at when visiting the city.



Due to how TBTM has worked out there’s been a need to spread out the attractions, experiences, sights and sounds and to date haven’t seen anything to do with the gold rush. Watching the gold pour was a highlight where they heat up and melt a gold bullion in front of the audience, worked out the equivalent cost of my weight in gold ($M) as well as seeing the various special editions of coinage produced.



There’s so much history here you can feel the excitement of bygone days but even today, Australia are the 3rd largest producers of gold with 264 tonnes or 10% of the world’s production. Who would have thought that if all the gold mined today were put in one place it could all fit into an Olympic sized swimming pool!


 

Another free sight was the WACA or Western Australia Cricket Association ground – the venue for the 3rd Test in the 2010 Ashes. I sneaked in, had a look around the ground and took a few photos but was also a good rest stop :)

   

Walking around the city is straightforward and definitely worth while doing rather than worrying about public transport although there are some free CBD shuttle buses should you need it. (I took advantage of this on the way back as the calf muscles were a little achy!!!)

Internet, Skype, emails, bit of dinner and another night in the van was spent before Day 3

The big-ish smoke

Arriving in Perth was one of the trip’s most eagerly awaited. I’d met many Perthites on the West coast who had ‘bigged’ up Perth with its modern, clean, exciting, opportunities and isolated buzz and atmosphere. I’d also heard that the city was a popular destination for the Brits who’d moved out to Australia for the climate so was interested to see what all the fuss was about. Staying in the Swan Valley for a few days prior added extra anticipation with many in the area and in Guildford equally excited about heading in whenever the opportunity or need arose.

After a complicated drive into the city via Wicked, it became apparent how big Perth is when compared to the rest of the state. Traffic just appeared out of nowhere, large industrial and residential areas appeared and it became generally busier. This seems strange to comment on but for the last few weeks this scale of busyness was a little daunting. It was a relief to drive into Perth Central YHA for what I’d assumed would be two hostel-bound nights sleep with the advantage of hostel parking within the city to make the most of the sights and sounds.

A quick checkin into the modern and brightly coloured hostel was a strange sensation after the grubby haul from Broome relying on rest areas with the occassional caravan park for some respite, but did mean that a ‘extra’ afternoon was possible in the city. Another helpful encounter with the excellent volunteers at the Visitor Centre advised wandering to Perth’s main attraction – the famous Kings Park!

 

All the standard composites of a city could be found en route – tall skyscrapers in amongst the older churches and colonial buildings, contrasting glass and concrete, roadworks, buses, rushing lunchers and the intermittent scattering of trees and other greenery – but it was all worth the 20min walk to see the famous view overlooking the city skyline.

Kings Park was a delight and was easy to spend many hours wandering the Park that was in the middle of a Wildflower Festival during my visit. Strangely there was more on show here than I managed to see driving all done the West Coast!?!

         

It was decorated with all manner of perennial trees and flowers that are native to Western Australia at this time of year. A large memorial avenue created by the Perth Historical Society to commemorate those lost in the Great War lines the main road into the Park passing sculptures of Queen Victoria,

the tragic victims of the Bali bombings


and Firefighters lost in service, that happened to be one of the training sites of today’s Perth firefighters,

   

and the State War Memorial.



The Park has many different walks scattered with landscaped gardens of various themes and focus of different native areas around Australia linked by paved walkways and flanked by water fountains.

      

The Pioneer Women’s Water Fountain is a predominant water feature in one part of the park that pays tribute to the role that women have played in the development of Western Australia and of Australia in general. The fountain is on a timer that changes the timings and heights of the water and set into a grassy bowl surrounded by beautiful native trees.
  

The walk back from Kings Park to the YHA was approx 30mins but considered to be a long walk for many visitors, according to the Visitor Centre, but definitely one worth it for those choosing to explore the city. It soon became apparent that the city wasn’t as big as originally expected and comparable with those in England outside of London, however, filled with a huge variety that made it an exciting place to be in.

The State capital, as with Darwin and Brisbane, meant that the Parliament building stood tall above the city.

Different forms of architecture can be found all over Perth, from the old Barracks to modern sculptures outside hotels.

One cool attraction that I’d not seen before was the Swan Bells, the world’s largest instrument sited on the banks of the river, shaped like a Swan and rises up to 87m in the sky. Its setting on the waterfront with the sun dropping behind the horizon and the blue glass reflecting out was a fantastic sight.

     
 

The evening spent in the hostel was filled with fun and games with a group of young travellers getting ready for a night out swapping clothes with each others, boys wearing girls and girls wearing boys clothes, armed with a concoction that was filled with all kinds of potent drinks. I was just glad that I was sharing with some older people who seemed to be working in Perth and hence no late night drinks!!! All seemed well until midnight when air conditioning kicked in, people stomping around, the proximity of the walls closing in, snoring etc, you name it, it just got very loud so wandered outside and was reunited with Stan in the car park for a mixed nights sleep.