WEST’S WINNING WAY
There’s much more to Western Australia than just its fabulous food and wine
From the moment the flights to Perth were booked, colleagues were suggesting a trip to Margaret River, but there is more to Western Australia than its famous food and wine region — and it starts with its capital.
For starters, money has been poured into opening up the Swan River to the CBD. A $440 million development of Elizabeth Quay on the river has included the creation of a new inlet and an island home for the 90-year-old, heritage-listed Florence Hummerston Kiosk.
This Perth landmark was dismantled brickby-brick in 2012 and painstakingly rebuilt at its new home and is a perfect spot to watch the sun set — a novelty that never wore off on our trip. The development also features the 29m sculpture Spanda, made from steel and carbon fibre and designed by WA-born artist Christian de Vietri, that symbolises water ripples and links the river, land and sky. Overshadowed by the development is the Bell Tower, with 18 bells including the oldest in Australia.
There are plenty of river cruises, but if you are on a tight budget, for just over $3 you can take a quick trip across the river on the council ferry. It’s best at night, when the skyscrapers are all aglow with a kaleidoscope of lights.
Sticking with the theory that it is better to spend your tourist dollar on experiences rather than accommodation, we struck a good online deal at the Great Southern Hotel in Northbridge, just a block from what became our spiritual home-away-from-home: The Brisbane Hotel. Complete with its laid-back beer garden, palm trees and lorikeets, and scrumptious lunchtime steak sandwich.
Another surprise find was Sneaky Tony’s rum “speakeasy”. It’s aptly named. To gain entry you must have the password, posted each day on the Facebook site, which doesn’t list an address (you’ll have to get someone in the know to tell you). There are no signs outside, just a large, black door down a dimly lit laneway, but once inside it’s a rum drinker’s paradise. Bottles line the back of the bar from floor to ceiling and, as well as in glasses, the drinks are served up in large bowls with ladles. It’s different, fun, and I wish we could get one on the eastern side of the continent.
An older demographic will twig to something being “good-different” in WA — the Sandgropers continue to defy the national obsession with pokies in pubs. Not a single one-armed bandit is to be found along the wall of any pub or club you will walk into, although there are battalions of them inside Australia’s second-oldest casino: Perth’s ridiculously sprawling palace of gambling at Burswood, the city’s entertainment and sports precinct.
For every other West Australian food and liquor establishment “character” is the selling point, and a stroll around downtown Perth soon assures you that competition for the pub-grub dollar is fierce and apparently very viable. Northbridge is an easy 15-minute walk from the city centre, and a block away from one of the four (free) bus services that circulate throughout the inner city. Better still, Northbridge is home to the city’s best Asianstyle restaurants and smaller eateries.
No trip to Perth is complete without visiting Kings Park and Botanic Gardens. You need to put aside plenty of time if you want to see all of the 1700 unique native species it claims to hold, not to mention taking in the impressive State War Memorial. The park has a prime spot on Mount Eliza overlooking Perth city and the Swan River, making it a perfect selfie space.
What wasn’t on the itinerary and turned out to be a surprise find was London Court, a laneway between St George’s Terrace and the Hay Street Mall in the city. Built in 1937 for wealthy gold miner and financier Claude de Bernales, the Tudor-style court has at one entrance a replica of the “Great Clock” at Rouen in France, and at the other a replica of London’s Big Ben.
So without even mentioning the Perth Zoo, a quick train trip to Fremantle, a tour to the beaches including Cottesloe, a drive past the former home of the America’s Cup and a sightseeing tour of the mansions of the rich and (in)famous — think the late Alan Bond and Rose Porteous Hancock — Perth isn’t so much a tourist stopover as a destination.