4/25/26: Phenomenal Perth!

I left off the last post with our tour of mostly Western Australia's Perth Central Business District's sights. Next up was the city's stately Government House, completed in 1854 largely using convict labor and home of successive Western Australian governors since 1863. The building and extensive gardens, located in Stirling Gardens, are listed on the State Heritage Register. 

Because it was ANZAC Day, the gardens were open for everyone to enjoy the magnificent field of crocheted poppies. I cannot begin to fathom how many there were, how many people volunteered to make them, over what length of time, and how long it took to 'plant' them! The scope of the project was mind-boggling and certainly far exceeded anything we'd witnessed before.

Another view of the Supreme Court, which we'd seen earlier that morning.

Crossing again through the Gardens, we returned to Elizabeth Quay, where we'd started the day. The area, named in honor of Queen Elizabeth II's Diamond Jubilee, is a major hub for dining, leisure, and transport, connecting the city center to the Swan River. We first entered the magnificent, 82.5-meter-high Bell Tower, where people could discover in the multi-story museum a world of bells and clocks dedicated to the art of bell ringing. The tower was Perth's Millennium Project and is one of the world's largest musical instruments. It boasted a ring of 18 change ringing bells, a "traditional English art form where heavy tuned bells swing in full 360-degree circles to create complex mathematical patterns of sound called methods, rather than playing standard musical tunes," and the 6,500kg ANZAC Bell that rings at noon daily.

Its star attraction was the Swan Bells, the 12 royal bells which had been donated by a London church to honor Australia's bicentennial in 1988. However, because of time, the hefty museum fee, and having to climb 130 steps, we chose not to view them. Fortunately, we lucked out and were there at the right time to hear them! The Ascot Race Turret Clock, originally housed in the former grandstand at England's famous Royal Ascot Racecourse, was acquired and donated to the Bell Tower after it was restored. 

We almost immediately discovered that the Elizabeth Quay tourist precinct was a dynamic place to stroll and marvel at Perth's 21st-century boomtown transformation. Spanda, a 29-meter-tall installation of looped rings, was one of several public sculptures along the river.

All the restaurants, cafes, and ice cream shops were doing a booming business because of the ANZAC national holiday. The citywide 10% holiday surcharge caught us by surprise because we'd never run into it before, and it seemed like price gouging. Perhaps it helped to defray higher holiday wages?

Because the adjoining Esplanade has been one of the city's main public gathering spaces, it has hosted many large demonstrations, marches, and protests. There was a speakers' corner, many Communist forums, and many political meetings, and protests were held there. The latter included the 1933 Treasury Riot at the height of the Depression, community protest in the 1960s over the Vietnam War, and anti-nuclear rallies in the 1980s.

The photo was taken during a referendum held in 1933 to decide if Western Australia, or WA, should withdraw from the Australian Federation. That sounded eerily familiar to my native Canada and the provinces of Quebec and Alberta, which have also contemplated separating from Canada.

The Quay was a thrilling place for a stroll on a picture-perfect day!

An iconic architectural feature of the Quay was the 20-meter-high suspension bridge, which was open to pedestrians and cyclists.

After crossing the bridge, we saw the First Contact sculpture by artist Laurel Nannup. I was glad to learn that the 5-meter aluminum sculpture depicted a bird sitting in a boat, representing how Indigenous Noongar people perceived European settlers' ships, as I wouldn't have figured that out otherwise. Nannup's artwork symbolized the Noongar belief that the ships were their ancestors returning from the sea. 

As the Indigenous Whadjul Noongar people have lived in Perth, or Boorlo as they call it, for at least 45,000 years, their connection to the country is immeasurable. It's important to understand that they were prohibited from even entering the entire 5km of the city from 1927 to 1954. What a dark chapter of segregation in the city's, state's, and country's history. 

A tad unusual in my mind was the sculpture of Maya: Wild Baby Hippo, a two-month-old, meant to draw attention to predators and to the fact that people are to blame for their shrinking habitat.

The Elizabeth Quay Carousel was an authenticVenetian-built piece.  

We hopped in the car to find more of the city's downtown sights. The Barracks Arch was located at the western end of St. Georges Terrace, where the ANZAC Day parade and St George’s Cathedral were. Originally part of a larger 19th-century building designed to house the Pensioner Guards, it was now the only remaining remnant of that original complex.

It's amusing now in retrospect, but Steven and I drove up and down the western end of St. George's Terrace a few times looking for the Elizabethan-style Cloisters, the first boys' public school "in the colony" established in 1858.

Many of the graduates of the Anglican-run school later became the colony's leading citizens. After the boys' school was relocated in 1872, the building was home to many groups. Plans to demolish the heritage property in the 1960s were abandoned due to public protest. Its retention was important in raising public awareness of the need to conserve links with the city's early history.

We then changed gears, heading to Kings Park, entering along Fraser Avenue's stunning boulevard of lemon-scented eucalyptus trees. Spanning 400 hectares, Kings is one of the world's largest urban parks, bigger even than NYC's Central Park! For tens of thousands of years, it has been a sacred birthing and hunting place for the Noongar. The park is a botanist's dream, as WA is home to more than half the country's 25,000 plants, and two-thirds of them are endemic to the state!

The Returned & Services League volunteered to assist the park's Board in 1922 with the maintenance of the park's Honor Avenues, an association that still continues. Each tree has a metal plaque inscribed with the deceased's name, age, unit, date and manner of death, and who planted it. What a terrific honor and service.

Kings Park, or Karrgatup, holds great significance to the Noongar because they believe it's where Wagyi, the Dreaming Rainbow Serpent, rose from the earth to wander through its landscapes, creating Derbari Yerrigan, or Swan River, on the way to the sea. 

The park's Wittennoom Floral Clock was made from a colorful bouquet of native WA flowers.

We began by walking along the Federation Walkway in the park's Botanic Garden, spending time initially in the Kimberley Region, from WA's far north. We were especially curious about this area, because in a couple of weeks, we'd be starting a ten-day cruise beginning in Broome and ending in Darwin in the Northern Territory, another of the country's states. 

This was our first sighting of a boab tree anywhere in Australia, and would be the first of many! We'd only heard it referred to as a baobab tree when we'd come across them in other parts of the world. 

We had an attractive view of the river from the garden's Two Rivers Lookout.

A sign said that the Mountain White Gum, a type of eucalyptus from summits on the King Leopold Range in northwest WA, can grow up to nine meters high. Though it's considered very vulnerable due to its restricted habitat, it has been successfully adapted to Kings Park.

A tree's journey: After traveling an amazing 3,200 kms from near Warnum in northern WA, the estimated 750-year-old Gija Jumulu boab tree was planted in July, 2008. The longest land trip of any tree this size in history required construction of a new bridge on the Great Northern Highway to be moved. The tree was a gift from the Gija people of the East Kimberley to the people of Western Australia. 

I recommend that you click on the map to enlarge it, so that you get a sense of how incredibly vast WA is! 

A smoking ceremony was performed by five Warmun elders shortly before the tree was allowed to leave the Kimberley and head south.

For the last leg of its journey, the Jumulu traveled along the outer suburban coast toward West Perth.

The 'wounds' on the boab's trunk were from tissue damage that occurred during its journey to Kings Park. Luckily, the tree's natural healing processes were at work and aided by the park's tree experts. Rooting bark was removed so that new healthy wood could grow and seal off the decay. In time, the wounds will be completely healed. 

More delights from the WA garden: 

A sugar gum eucalyptus:

I really liked the feathery Silver Princess Eucalyptus, a small, weeping tree native to Western Australia, often grown for its dramatic flowers and attractive, peeling bark.

The garden was so immense that we could have spent hours exploring each of the state's regions, but time was getting away from us. The grass had been cut like a putting green!

In the middle of the pond was the Pioneer Women's Memorial, a fountain honoring WA's pioneering women for their strength, courage, and tenderness.

We found the Boodja Gnarning Walk particularly interesting, as signs detailed native plants, bush tucker, meaning food in Australia, and medicinal trees. For example, leaves from the Kerbein or Coastal Sword Sedge were commonly used to make baskets, fishing nets, and other tools. Noongar people often ate the leaf bases from the fresh shoots raw or cooked. 

The Motorbike Frog, named for its distinctive croak, was represented in sculptures found in the pool near the stepping stones.

Fifty-three brass plaques embedded in the path through the Water Garden recognized the contribution women's groups had made to WA. Called the Pathway to Success, they were installed in 1999 as part of the WA Women's Suffrage Centenary.

The Water Garden Pavilion:

We would have given our eyeteeth to stroll across the Walkway Glass Bridge, but it was sadly closed for some reason. Can you imagine how much fun it would be to be transported 620 meters across a treetop canopy of towering karri trees?!

Instead, we had to console ourselves by traipsing through the park's bushland, taking the sandy Goshawk track through what felt like whoop-whoop, Australian slang for the middle of nowhere!

This stark memorial was originally called Minmara-Gun-Gun, a Western Desert Aboriginal phrase. But it was renamed in 2000 to Yorkas Nyinning, meaning women's resting place, to respect the association with the local Noongar people.

I had to use Google Lens to identify this flowering plant. It was a Grevillea, and was also soft as a feather!

Wouldn't you just want to try and go for a swing on this eucalyptus tree!

The Grasstree wasn't very imaginatively named, but it WAS appropriate!

Having begun our day at the powerful Anzac Day parade in downtown Perth, it was important for us to also visit the Western Australian State War Memorial in Kings Park, where an ANZAC Dawn Service is always held. Regrettably, the morning service, with approximately 30,000 attendees, faced minor disruptions when a small protest involving heckling and booing targeted Whadjuk Noongar Elder and veteran Di Ryder while she delivered the traditional Welcome to Country. The individuals were linked to an online campaign by an anti-immigration and nationalist group urging disruptions to Indigenous acknowledgments at national ceremonies. 

The cenotaph was erected to commemorate Western Australians who died in military service. It was heartwarming to see so many people still there near sunset.

We had to drive through the park's Jarrah Woodland to access the remote DNA Tower. The tower was built as a unique 15-meter-high lookout featuring a double-helix design inspired by the molecular structure of life and a famous French chateau. 

While Steven rested in the car after our long first day in Western Australia, I tried to conquer my fear of heights and climb the extremely efficient 16-meter-high staircase, which allowed more people to ascend and descend without bottlenecks. The views as the sun set were well worth the pit in my stomach!

Just in case you're curious like I was, DNA was first described in 1953 by James Watson and Francis Crick based on X-ray crystallography work by Rosalind Franklin. Only Watson, Crick, and colleague Maurice Wilkins won the Nobel Prize in 1962, as Franklin had passed away in 1958 and was therefore ineligible. By the way, none of the scientists were from Australia, which was why I thought the tower had been designed like a double helix.

I hope you get the sense from this post of how much Steven and I were really drawn to Perth - even though we'd only so far scratched the surface, it was truly phenomenal!

Next post: The drive to nearby Fremantle, aka Freo, and the ferry to Rottnest Island, where a dark side of the country's history played out.

Posted on July 31st, 2026, still from home in Denver, although we're getting itchy feet to hit the road again soon for another overseas adventure! Please take care of yourself and your loved ones.