Laurence and Henry's Big Adventure: Perth

View of City Centre Perth

Perth is Australia’s most westerly city along the Indian Ocean, and the most isolated city in the world, as it is closer to Asia that it is any other Australian city. With a population of approximately 1.5 million people, it is very similar to Calgary with grid like streets and miles and miles of sprawling suburbs. The city core or CBD as they call it is a collection of old and modern architecture built along the banks of the Swan River. Here we explored the pedestrian streets of Hay and Murray street and wondered through many arcades most notably the Tudor styled London Court with its jewellery and tourist shops.

Kings Park

Swan River below

The city has very slow pace and is easy to navigate through on foot, so we strolled up the Swan River and took in the sights Kings Park and the unique vegetation of the Botanical gardens. We also made our way through to the trendy areas of Subiaco and Highgate and the bar district of Northbridge, to take in some of the cities culture.

Swan Bell Tower you will find the original bells of the London's

St Martin-in-the-Fields, which once heralded the

homecoming of Captain James Cook

As I am travelling with Laurence we also made a stop at the Perth Cultural Centre and viewed the permanent art collection as well as a temporary exhibit from Venice the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, which we saw parts of when we were in Italy.

Henry joking around in front of gallery

The most unique part of Perth is by far the Swan River bay, so we took a tour boat down the river to where it meets the Indian Ocean at Fremantle. This historic port waterfront is a wonderful collection of sandstone structures and a great reflection of a time gone by. Here we walked through a wonderful old style market, through art galleries and along the wharf front facing the turquoise Indian Ocean. Here was the original Round House (the oldest building in all of Western Australia) built in 1831 for convicts’ arriving in the area from Europe. This town is a real charmer and a wonderful collection of great buildings from many periods of the past.