The Woody's Great Aussie Trek: Perth City

We are very fortunate that Perth has turned the weather on for us. It is 21 degrees and sunny for the whole week ahead. Only a couple of weeks ago Perth experienced horrific storms damaging a lot of buildings and outing power for some time.

Perth is a very pretty city and the traffic is nowhere near as busy as Melbourne’s. From where we are staying it only takes 30min to town.

First up was a visit to the Bell Tower, which has become an icon for Perth. This historic ring of bells was given to the people of Western Australia as part of the national Bicentennial celebrations in 1988. Among its many attributes the Bell Tower includes the twelve bells of St Martin-in-the-Fields, which are recorded as being in existence from before the 14th century and recast in the 16th century by Queen Elizabeth I.

Climbing on a sun dial (next to the Bell Tower)

The Bell Tower

The Bell Tower from the Supreme Court

We walked into the city centre where they have a similar ‘no cars’ street to the Bourke Street mall. The kids did some souvenir shopping. There were some amazing buildings including an old English Mall and the Supreme Court Gardens.

Supreme Court - built in 1903

Before leaving the city I had to visit the famous WACA (cricket ground). Not quite as spectacular as the MCG, but it certainly holds a lot of cricketing history. The WACA Ground was officially opened in 1893 with the first match played on the turf wickets in February 1894. The ground has a seating capacity of 20,000 (can be increased to 24,500 on higher capacity matches).

The WACA

Over the road from the WACA is Gloucester Park (harness racing) which was once a mosquito ridden swamp between 1917 and 1920. The site was used as the Perth City Council's rubbish tip. The first race meeting at the track was held on 26th December 1929 and a crowd of some 17,000 people saw Alween, with F Mackander at the reins, win the opening event at the track named Brennan Park, in honour of the man to whom Western Australian trotting owed its existence. Across the Swan River you could see the old Perth Casino.

Inside Gloucester Park (WACA lights in the background)

The old Perth Casino

Perth is so lucky to have Kings Park and Botanic Gardens. It has the best view of the city, Swan River and the Darling Range. It has immaculate lawns, gardens, picnic areas, playgrounds and walking/riding trails everywhere. It is one of the largest inner city parks in the world (over 400 hectares) and annually visited by 5 million people. Our kids loved Rio Tinto Naturescape which has tunnels, cubby building, tree climbing and rope courses (not just your average park). Perth’s War Memorial is also located in Kings Park right at the point.