Return to Perth

Did you know that 1,400 ship wrecks lie off the Western Australian coast? Admittedly it's the longest coast of any Australian state but the cause is a combination of challenging reefs and the westerly trade winds. Can you imagine all those Dutch ships in the 17th century hoping to find the Spice Islands but never quite knowing when to turn northwards after they'd rounded the Cape of Good Hope because they didn't have an accurate way of measuring longitude from a ship? Get it wrong and it's bang smack onto the WA coastline. There's a great museum in Fremantle that explores this history and in April, it also hosts part of the Bathers Beach Sculpture Exhibition. The other part is on the beach itself with some pieces capturing the essense of a shipwreck. The are pieces dug into the sand, others measuring the tide, some pretenting to be brilliant coloured seaweed under a jetty, some capturing the sea breeze, some perched out on the water, some sheltering on the grass be...

East of Perth city is an area which used to be the place were all those 'out of sight, out of mind' industries were housed. The ones that required access to running water but which one didn't want to see or smell such as abattoirs and tanneries. As these industries ran down or rather the patience of the city worthies about having them so close to town ran out, the land lay derelict until it was turned into a housing estate in the 1990s. It’s a slightly odd combination of housing and parks ...and art. There are places that acknowledge the indigenous heritage of the land but the units are rather tee and British in appearance. Low rise apartments buildings and houses with green grassy parks. In some ways, it is probably a very pleasant place to live. Water views. Close to the city. Cafes and restaurants.  We were there in early April to undertake a history and art walking tour run by volunteers from the East Perth Community Group. For 90 minutes we wandered along roads and pa...

Today, we sent our companion of nearly 17 years, Indigo, across the rainbox bridge. That's a phrase a friend uses when you have to say goodbye to a pet. With the help of a gentle vet, we put Indigo to sleep.  She's been an indoor cat all her life and apart from a couple of weeks, most of it has been spent within the confines of the Pink House. We knew that it was going to be a risk disrupting the life of a cat who in human terms was in her 80s. She's had more homes in the last couple of months than in her entire life. First there was Glenlyon Rd, then a 4 hour flight to Perth, a short stay in South Fremantle, a longer stay in Loch St and 10 days in the Furbaby Retreat while Susan and I were at the Port Fairy Folk Festival. We were open to the fact that she might not survive the transition and even said so to the vet when we went for her "Fit to Fly" certificate. But it's one thing to say it and another to face up to it. The lovely owner of the Furbaby Retreat ...

  Before I tell you tales of Government House, I have to confess that I had completely missed the point that "Boorloo" is the indigneous name for Perth. Here am I spending the month of April exploring the city during the "Boorloo Heritage Festival" and I didn't realise the significance of the name. My confession over, lets move on to another one. At the 1925 St John of God Ball held at WA's Government House Audrey Jacob calmly, and in front of hundreds of witnesses, shot and killed her ex-finance Cyril Gidley. Although she was seen and was alleged to have confessed "I did it" on the night, an all male jury managed to find her not guitly. How is that even possible? And the answer, according to a PhD candidate at UWA is that "there was a popular understanding that respectable women who had been seduced and abandoned, or jilted by their fiance or lover, have the right to take their revenge."  My experience at Government House was fraught bu...

  It's finally happened. We have the keys to 106 Archibald St, Willagee. We've started to move stuff in. We've met one of the neighbours. We've lined up most of the tradies we need to do some tweaks - a new oven, remove the gun cabinet (!), add some power points, change the shower heads....and so the list goes on.  In fact, that's not really fair because the house is in good shape and there isn't that much to do. So on Day 1 we simply celebrated our new home with a swim in the pool and a glass of champagne. My response to the empty house is it's lack of colour. For over twenty years, I lived in an apricot bedroom with an aqua study and a family room with fushia and yellow walls. There isn't a hint of colour in Archibald St apart from the rich dark burgundy of the jarrah floorboards and the red kitchen. I can hardly wait to start hanging up some art. We're taking the move slowly with the big shift of furniture and all those unpacked boxes sitting in t...

UWA is the most beautiful university campus of the many Australian universities I've visited over the years. And I'll boldly claim, without nearly enough evidence, that it's one of the most beautiful 20th century university campuses in the world. It's certainly up there with Stanford University where I studied briefly in 2005. Stanford in Palo Alto, California is situated in a similar climate to Perth and it's architecture is also similar - what the Americans call Mission Revival and in the case of UWA is described as  Renaissance Romanesque Revival .  This style is characterized by the use of limestone, brick, and Donnybrook stone, as well as elements like tile roofs and colonnade details, all inspired by Southern Italian and Sicilian architecture whereas the Stanford style is influenced by Spanish church architecture. In both cases, it's a response to the mediterranean climate of  California and South West Australia. Winthrop Hall Of course, mistakes were mad...

One of the Boorloo walking tours that Susan and I took was along Matilda Bay , the area of the Swan River near the University of Western Australia. It's a site full of iconic images such as the blue boat shed and Eliza , the diving girl, but it's been ruined in my mind by the Forrest Hall Precinct including the Wonil Hotel, which blocks views of the river as you drive past the University. I can't believe that the alumni of St George's College didn't object to their loss of water view although money (in this case, a donation from Twiggy Forrest's Foundation) quietens all voices.  Still, that loss of view would have been nothing compared to the loss for the indigenous people to what must have been a place of importance in terms of food and comfort. Still, walking by the river with its expansive grassy banks, past the rowing and dinghy clubs, with views of black swans and even (although not on our day) dolphins drifting past, is glorious. I don't know why I d...

  As we toured through Perth on our Boorloo walks, we found buildings that still have a family connection, even though their original purpose may have changed. Alan worked in what used to be the Treasury Buildings and after being left derelict  for 20 years, it's now called the State Buildings  and offers a combination of cafes and bars. During the time of emptiness, it was used for an inversive work in a Perth Festival. I'm not a believer in ghosts but during eeire experience at one point sheets of paper floated from above and I'll swear Alan was there, somewhere, with his green auditor's pen.  Old Treasury Building Another building he worked in is Council House . It was built in 1963 in the modernist style and has changed its colour over time. Normally, I dislike this particuar architectural style but for some unaccountable reason, this one appeals.  At one point, the Perth City Library was on the ground floor of this building. I suspect this is a very rare oc...

I didn't know that once upon a time, people in the Swan River Colony where going to be called Hesperians. Hesperia was the "golden west" for Aeneas, who fled Troy after the Greeks conquered the city. In other words, Italy, where myth tells us he founded Rome. Western Australia is a world where the sun sinks glowing gold into the ocean so one can see the appeal of Hesperia but luckily, some would say, the city was named Perth instead. A tad dull, perhaps, but somewhat less pretentious? Perth was the home town of Sir George Murray who was Secretary of State for the Colonies in the 1820s. In his brief control at the Colonial Office, the colony of Western Australia was founded in 1829. And according to the biographical note that I found "by his lavish patronage of relations and friends in Perthshire, the Australian colonies gained some third-rate public servants and many first-rate settlers with capital." For those of you who don't have any knowledge of the foun...

  Fremantle Fremantle is the port town at the mouth of the Swan River. It was visited by Dutch explorers in the 1600s and was the first area to be settled by the Swan River colonists when they arrived in 1829. It has retained its historic village feel over the decades. How, I don’t know, given the tendency to knock down anything old in Perth city during the 1960s and 70s.  There have been waves of reinvigoration over the years but somehow or other none of them have ruined the historic ambience of the town. In the lead up to the America’s Cup in 1987, the government founded the Fremantle Arts Foundation to make sure that the response to the Cup wasn’t just the development of commercial bars and restaurants. Alan, our father, chaired FAF and I remember pop up galleries and exhibitions, theatre companies and murals.  There there’s only one high rise building, the 11-storey Port Administration building. The trade off for preservation is usually lack of development and at ...

I have spoken about the glorious blues of Perth but I’ve been surprised by the number of people who comment on the colours that I wear (and Susan too!). Just yesterday it was the Qantas steward at the Loch St train station and the unemployed lawyer on the historic Perth walk. I still remember getting off a flight from Melbourne to Perth in the 1990s and feeling slightly discombobulated. I looked around, trying to pin point the source of my discomfort when I realised I was the only person in black. That traditional look of Melbournians. Although I wore that uniform when I lived there, I always added touches of colour - scarves, brooches, rings, glasses. But given a choice, I love bright colours. I might occasional stretch to a pastel but there has to be something bold about it in terms of cut or design or material to make up for the pallor. Some colour for the flight to Perth So I thought that my taste would be natural fit with the Perth scene. But it would seem that it’s world of light...

Because Susan and I were looking north and south for our new home, we also needed to explore the Northern beaches because we don't know them as well as the beaches from City Beach south. Some, like Scarborough, are surfing beaches and so not our style, Some like Trigg are small and rocky.  Because Susan had been forbidden to swim in the ocean for a couple of weeks after her medical incident, we only had our first northern swim on 26 February at Marmion Beach. There were some small kids filling all the space between the flags having lessons so we popped into the water near a small groyne. It was a slightly bouncy experience with the water pulling in and out quite strongly, but it was refreshing to be in the salty water again. We trialled our new fold-up shelter which proved its worth, enabling us to stay on the beach longer than usual, reading books. Next to the beach is Hillarys Boart Harbour which opened in 1988 shortly before I left to join the ABC in Sydney. As well as a marina,...

It used to be called the Heathcote Asylum. It was a place where Noongar warrior Yagan hunted. It's situated on a hill above the Swan River looking across to the University of WA to the left and Perth city to the right. You can see the little white yatchs skipping across the water. At its base there are white sand beaches where you can paddle in the river.  Now it has an art gallery and is host to a Makers Market that attracts hundreds of people. Crocheted animals and flowers now seem to be a thing. I'm glad I made my one attempt (a frog) years ago and turned my hand to slightly more practical things since (scarves and baby hats). All sorts of tastes from duck and fig terrine to raspberry honey and the best icepole ever: passionfruit, mint and lime.  All I could think of was the people who were locked up in the rooms one can still see as one explores the art gallery. Were they better or worse off than people with mental health issues now? There are regular stories about issues ...