Three Days in Fabulous Freo - Day 1

Getting Our Bearings

We arrived at the friendly Fremantle Sailing Club mid-afternoon, got tied up, tidied up, checked in and given a brief orientation on the club and the area and then we were on our own. One of the key features of the orientation was mention of the free CAT (Central Area Transit) buses that circulate around the city and happen to stop directly in front of the sailing club. Free? Sign us up … tomorrow though. We were exhausted from our arduous 35 nm passage and needed our tot of wine and a quiet evening to recoup. We were up early to begin our exploration of Fremantle … Freo to the locals. We have just a few days. Where do we start?

Freo, located at the mouth of the Swan River, serves as the port for Perth. Named after Captain Charles Fremantle, the British naval officer who claimed possession for the Crown, the area was first settled by the British in 1829 by the Swan River Colony. It wasn't declared a city in its own right until 1929. We took the Blue Cat bus to orient ourselves to our new surroundings. There's a bus about every 10 minutes, so it was easy to jump on and off and get a feel for the place.

We did a full circuit on the bus, figured out where the local Cole's supermarket and the Info Center were, and reconnoitered a bit before getting off near Victoria Quay. This is definitely a working port. Huge cranes were unloading containers from freighters. Some of the old storage sheds have been restored and are now used as market stalls. We'll have to come to check out the E-Shed markets on the weekend if we're still here.

The Leeuwin II, a three-masted barquentine tallship used as a training ship, sat calmly at the wharf, her decks and rigging encased in scaffolding as tradesmen worked to give her some needed maintenance.

There were several whimsical wind vanes along the quay that caught my attention.

One of the delights of the city is its well-preserved architecture. We visited the Round House, the city's oldest building and the oldest intact building in Western Australia. Completed in 1831, it was built as a gaol (jail) and sits high atop Arthur Head with a great view of the city as well as the expanse of the Indian Ocean. It also served as a signaling station and location for navigation lights. I found a lovely watercolor on display by Jane Eliza Currie dated 1831, depicting the newly formed colony with the Round House in view.

Whaling became a thriving industry and was carried out at Bather's Beach below the Round House. The Fremantle Whaling Company excavated a tunnel underneath the Round House “to facilitate the transport of whale and merchandise from the beach to the town.” It's been renovated and reinforced over the years, but as we walked through it to the beach, we couldn't help but think of the hundreds of men and women before us that had walked this same path.

A time ball and time gun were erected on the site in in 1900 to give mariners and residents a daily time check. It was discontinued in 1937, but reactivated in 1998 to preserve the tradition. The canon sounds each day at 1pm.

We walked down High Street, historic buildings at every turn. One historic building turned out to be just a beautifully preserved facade with a car park behind it.

There are two museums we've decided we want to visit: The Western Australia Maritime Museum and the associated WA Shipwrecks Gallery. Tomorrow is supposed to be rainy … a perfect day for museums. In the meantime, a bit more walking around, a stop at Cole's for tonight's dinner and then a CAT bus back to the sailing club. All in all, a full and delightful day. We're ready for more tomorrow.

King's Park - Perth, Western Australia

When we asked several of our Western Aussie friends what to see in Perth, the number one answer, without hesitation, was King's Park. We saved it till last on our agenda in Perth so we could savor the park and its botanic gardens in the warmth and brilliance of a sunny day in Perth … something we hadn't seen much of since our return to Australia.  

Touted to be one of the largest inner city parks in the world and the oldest public park in Australia, King's Park occupies 4.06 km² (1,003 acres) on the slope of Mount Eliza overlooking Perth City and the Swan and Canning Rivers. I had downloaded a map of the park and botanic gardens onto our iPad and we headed out in search of several key park/garden attractions. The park is criss-crossed with paths and trails. Interesting sights are everywhere and there's lots to take in.

We walked along a path that followed the Swan River to find the Federation Walkway and the famed “glass bridge”. The walkway leads across an elevated glass and steel arched bridge suspended 170' (52m) in the air, allowing visitors to walk through a eucalypt tree canopy with treetops and their residents at eye level.

Wildflowers were just coming into bloom. It's nearly Spring here, don't forget. King's Park hosts the largest wildflower festival in Australia. Unfortunately, it's not scheduled till mid-September and we'll hopefully be well on our way well before then.

We climbed the 101 steps of the DNA Tower for great views of the park and surrounding area. On a clear day, they say Rottnest Island can be seen, but not this day. The DNA Tower is so-named because of its double helix design. In actuality, however, it was inspired by a double staircase in a Chateau at Blois, France, that just happened to also look like the DNA nucleotide.

Gija Jumulu is a giant boab tree that journeyed 1717 miles (3,200 km) from a remote area of Western Australia to its new home in Perth in 2008. This 36-ton tree, estimated to be about 750 years old, needed to be moved to make way for a bridge on the Great Northern Highway. They claim this to be the longest distance a tree of this size has traveled ... and who's to argue? Gija looked leafless and lifeless when we visited, but perhaps it was an off-season for him.

There are more monuments, memorials, statues and honor avenues in Kings Parks than any other park in Australia. They were all strategically set in lovely areas to honor events and people, especially military service, in Australia's history. The Cenotaph is the centerpiece of them all.

Over two thirds of the park is protected bushland, and the walks through this area were particularly pleasant. Despite the number of people here on a beautiful day, we had several paths to ourselves … and a photogenic kookaburra.

All in all, a delightful day getting to learn a little bit about Perth and visiting Kings Park and Botanic Gardens. I'll wager there are many Aussies who have never visited this fair city, so we feel fortunate that we have had the opportunity. Perth may be isolated from the rest of Australia, but no longer from us.

Exploring Perth, Western Australia

It may not be one of the world's great train trips, but taking the train to Perth from Mandurah was pleasant and quick. We purchased DayRider tickets for $12.10/pp which were good for unlimited transit on all TransPerth routes. A one mile walk from the boat to the bus stop, a 10-minute bus ride to the train station, a 50- minute ride on an electric train, and we were in downtown Perth City at 8am and keen to explore.  

We only had one day in the city so we wanted to make the most of it. We bought discount tickets in advance on-line for a hop-on/hop-off, double-decker sightseeing tour. We've found this is the best way to get a quick overview of a new city and then have the option of stopping off or returning to places that seem interesting. Friends had advised that King's Park was a must, so that was a must in our itinerary, but we wanted to make sure we saw as much as possible in this vibrant, isolated city.

We realize we're not your usual tourists. We weren't interested in the Crown Casino nor the discount outlets at Harbour Town, but we did pick up a some interesting nuggets of information as we whizzed past Queen's Park, Stirling Gardens, a statue on Hay Street, and the Perth Mint. My research had also turned up the Bell Tower and London Court as places to check out.

We started off with a coffee on the Hay Street pedestrian mall and wandered into the London Court just as the hourly bells tolled. According to the information provided, the clock face is a replica of the "great Clock" at Rouen in France . Four armored jousting knights circle the window when the clock chimes. Built in 1937 for a wealthy financier, stepping through the archways is a delight as your eyes behold an Elizabethan vendor's lane replete with Tudor architecture and motifs.

We headed back to Hay Street and followed it past the Mint and several alluring pubs until we came to Queen's Park. As we passed it in the bus, we'd heard a few catch phrases about Peter Pan and Notting Hill that caught our attention. Entering through the park's black wrought iron gates emblazoned Queen's Gardens1899, we stepped into a lovely, wide open expanse of lush green dotted with small lily-covered ponds alive with ducks, coots, moorhens and black swans.

In the center of the park stood Peter Pan, a replica of the statue which stands in England's Kensington Gardens. The statue, cast by the original sculptor, Sir George Frampton and autographed by Peter Pan's creator, Sir J.M.Barrie, was a gift to the children of Perth from the Perth Rotary Club in 1929.

One other piece of trivia ... the bench featured in the movie Notting Hill on which Julia Roberts and Hugh Grant sat and chatted is now a bench in Queens Gardens. Evidently a local man purchased the bench to propose marriage to his girlfriend. Alas, she declined his offer and he anonymously donated the bench to the city. It's inscribed “For June who loved this garden … from Joseph who always sat beside her”. We sat in it for a bit, letting some of its romance rub off on us. Awww!

Walking back along Hay Street, we passed the Perth Mint, the world's oldest continuously operating mint. We didn't go in for a gold-pouring tour as our time was short. I also didn't notice the guy hiking up his britches when I took the picture. Photographs sometimes render more than you'd expect.

We passed by Penny Lane which necessitated a quick pic and then headed down to Adelaide Terrace.

At the junction of Adelaide and Victoria Avenue, stands the statue of John Septimus Roe, surveyor, explorer and Perth city planner, looking as if he's waiting for the crosswalk light to change. Roe (1797-1878) is probably best known as the man who set aside public land for King's Park. However, it was his wife Matilda's fondness for her rose garden that prompted Roe to make a slight jog in Perth's main street (St. Georges Terrace and Adelaide Terrace) so as not to pass through her garden. I love these odd bits of information. They make the city seem more real and personal to me.

We continued down St. George's Terrace and passed by Government House, an impressive, rather ostentatious mansion, home to the governor of Western Australia and his family. Built between 1859-1864, the building and the lush gardens surrounding it are listed on the Western Australia Register of Heritage Places. It's pretty “wow”.

When we came to Stirling Gardens, Perth's oldest public gardens, we did a double-take when we saw a mob of kangaroos on the sidewalk and drinking at the fountain.

Perth's Swan Bells are located in a distinctive bell tower on the banks of the Swan River. Considered to be one of the world's largest musical instruments, the tower holds six newly cast changing bells as well as the twelve bells of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, which are recorded as being in existence as early as the 13th century. These are the only royal bells known to have left England and they've peeled for many an historic occasion from the return of Captain Cook after his Voyage of Discovery to coronations to the ringing in the New Year in Trafalgar Square for over 275 years.

Public art in Perth seems to be everywhere. In addition to what we've already described, there was a famous busker, Percy Button, immortalized in bronze on the Hay Street Mall. The Obelisk of Ores aka Harmony of Minerals in Stirling Garden is a tribute to Western Australia's progress in mineral expansion and recognizing its one millionth citizen. We loved Footsteps in Time, five separate sculptures which depicted five separate eras in Western Australia history from early Dutch explorers to a modern businessman. When we first saw the Memory Markers, we were at a loss to know what they represented, but learned later that they are stylized pen nibs signifying the importance of pen and ink in the planning of the city by its forefathers. We came upon the Tree of Symbols quite accidentally as we were walking to Queens Gardens and the Paper Planes, complete with a rumpled nose on one, was a delight. There was much more, but you'll have to discover it for yourself.

We sat through one complete tourist circuit on the bus and walked around lots before reboarding the bus and getting off at King's Park which deserves a blog post of its own. Tune in tomorrow.