Kings ParkThe City at
the End of the World-
I have to admit up front that I really like Perth, but it's hard to come
up with one really good reason why I do. In Melbourne, it was all about
culture, and in Sydney it was all about physical beauty, and Perth lies
well
behind those cities in those aspects, but it is such a likeable place. I
guess that 310 days of sunshine might do that for a place.
As I said in the title, Perth is quite a way from anywhere else in the
world. The closest city over 1 million people is 1500 miles away, a two
and
a half day drive across one of the world's most desolate regions called
the
Nullabor, which is a Latin corruption for 'No Trees', if that tells you
anything. Perth is home to 1.3 million of Western Australia's 1.9
million
people. Now let me set the record straight, you could fit Texas 2 1/2
times
into Western Australia, and the Netherlands 75 times (the Netherlands's
population is 18 million). Now that is a big state. The Dutch and
English
both visited Western Australia before 1700, but showed no interest in it
because the land was so inhospitable. Finally in 1829, the British began
a
settlement on the banks of the Swan River, near to the present day site
of
Perth. The reason, of course, was for a penal colony, and this was a
good
place for it because of the previously mentioned distance from anywhere.
Convicts did try to escape, but none reached Melbourne or Adelaide. Even
Tasmania was easier to escape from.
Even thought I had seen picture of Perth's modern skyline, it was still
surprising to find a vibrant, cosmopolitan area all the way out here. I flew
from Alice Springs and it was 3 1/2 hours of featureless desert below me,
and then all of a sudden there is a modern city. Perth is located on the
Swan River, 15 miles from the Indian Ocean. It is not a city with an amazing
amount of sights, but the ones it does have are quite good. The central area
of the city is also very tourist friendly, and there are two free shuttle
buses around the central city for the specific use of tourists. What a great
idea. The focal point in the the city is The Murray and Hay Street
pedestrian malls area, which are handsome shopping arcades, with lots of
little shops n the small side streets surrounding them. The day I was there
the new Michael Jackson CD was out and almost every store was blaring it out
of its doors, and that was, well, a bit weird I thought.
Perth has a magnificent park, Kings Park, on an elevated plateau just to
the west of the city, and it is full of Australian wildlife living there,
not in cages, but in the wild. The view from the park of the city's skyline
is also quite impressive. Most of the skyscrapers were built in the 1980s
after Western Australia experience a mineral booms and these newly founded
companies has money to burn. From what I understand, most of these buildings
are well over half empty, since many of these mining companies over
estimated the revenue that would be coming in.
The two other sites in Perth that I really liked were The Western
Australian Museum and The Art Gallery of Western Australia. Admission to
both is free, and at this point in the trip is quite welcome. The Museum was
almost as nice as the South Australia museum which I liked so much in
Adelaide. It is house in five massive buildings, including the Old Perth
Prison, and the whole museum makes use of multimedia displays and
interactive exhibits. It is very strong on natural and human history in
Western Australia, and is a great museum for kids. The art gallery is also
massive, much more than can be explored in a couple hours, but that is
usually my limit with art museums. It had a large section of Aboriginal art,
which is interesting, but I fear a bit to complicated to explain in less
than 1,000 pages.
point where the Swan River meets the Indian Ocean, is the highlight of this
area. Perth has a very modern look, but Freo (as the Aussies call it) has
maintained many of it's colonial era buildings and has a attractive feel and
laid back atmosphere about it. I arrived in Fremantle on a Sunday, and they
have famous markets on the weekend, but the crowds were so big I wondered if
there were any people left anywhere else in Western Australia. The markets
were good, but still not like Melbourne's Queen Victoria market.
Australia's oldest public building is located in Freo, the Round House,
which is right on the Indian Ocean and a great place to watch the sunset
from, which I did every night I was there. Fremantle also has other
interesting sites, including the Western Australia Maritime Museum and the
Old Fremantle Prison. The real charm is in the Esplanade, which has a nice
park on one side and some of the best seafood restaurants I have even eaten
in. Fremantle is also the gateway for Dolphin and whale watching that takes
place about 20 minutes to the south at a city called Rockingham, and Freo is
the closest port for boats going to Rottnest Island.
Ocean
Sunsets
Ocean and was given that name by Dutch mariner, Willem de Vlamignh, in 1696
when he visited the island and mistook the island's indigenous quokkas (a
small type of wallaby) for rats and called the island 'Rat's Nest'. Rottnest
is a small island 7 miles long at the longest point and 4 miles wide at it's
widest point. It began it's human history as an Aboriginal penal settlement,
and during WWII became an important depot for supplies and troops heading to
the Pacific theatre. It is now an immensely popular resort island, and the
crowds during the summer can reach epic proportions. The island is full of
beautiful coves and secluded beaches, and beside resident's vehicles and a
visitor's shuttle bus, the island is car free. Biking is a popular pastime
here, and the mode of transport I chose to get around the island. This was
fun, but the wind made it feel as if the temperature was lower than it was,
and I didn't realize I was getting so much sun, so being the really smart
guy I am, I didn't even think about sunscreen until I stopped in the
island's lone settlement of Thompson Bay for lunch. There I went to the
restroom and realized that I had become Lobsterman, burnt to the crisp.
Another popular activity here is snorkeling around the the many
shipwrecks that dot the islands coast. My favorite thing, however, about the
island was the quokkas. The island is the only spot in the world where these
small marsupials can be found, and there are some groups on the island who
love to get food from humans. It is very important not to feed them human
food, this makes them fat and causes their hair to fall out, but the stuff
they like to eat is on tress all around. It was easy to tell what trees they
liked because all the braches within their reach had been chewed up. All I
had to do was start pulling off the leaves higher up, and these little guys
appeared everywhere, looking for the hand out. I must have spent an hour
just pulling off the branches and feeding them. They so comfortable around
humans that they will let you gently pet them while you are feeding them.
They also loved the fresh water from our water bottles, as fresh water is
hard to come by on the island. Of all the interactions I've had with the
wildlife of this amazing continent, this was my favorite.