Perth, the capital of Western Australia, has a population of approximately 1.7 million people, and is the second most isolated city in the world (after Honolulu). In terms of cities with more than one million people, it ranks as number one. Perth is geographically closer to Jakarta, in Indonesia, than it is to Sydney and Brisbane. Quite an astonishing fact. Many people who have never been to Australia are unable to comprehend just how enormous this landmass is. My flight from Melbourne took four hours, the amount of time it would take to reach Riga from Dublin!
However, that is where the fascinating facts about Perth come to and end. The city is incredibly unremarkable and did very little to excite me. Even by Australian standards, the city has very little old buildings symbolising its past. Most were torn down in the mid twentieth century and replaced by soulless ugly apartment blocks and more modern establishments. In addition, the city is incredibly quiet during weekdays, and the centre of town has absolutely no buzz whatsoever, unlike Melbourne where there always seems to be something happening on it's city streets.
There were a few things however that caught my interest. Firstly, the beautiful King's Park, the largest inner city park in the world, containing grassed parkland, botanical gardens, and natural bushland, which stands tall above the city's skyline offering impressive views. Another area of interest is the nearby coastal city of Fremantle, which with its relaxed cute streets offered more of a small town feel than neighbouring Perth. The main attraction here is Fremantle Prison, which was recently classified as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, due to its role as a convict site in the 1850s and 1860s. The tour of the prison was good value and offered an interesting insight into life as a prisoner back in the early days of the mid 19th century right up until 1991, when it closed. It still amazes me when I hear about how harmless some of the crimes were that were committed by the convicts from the UK all those years ago. It does not seem fair that somebody should be sent to a far away barren land, on effectively a life sentence (due to the high costs to return home) for stealing some bread from a local baker!
What Perth proudly possesses however, are the world's strictest bouncers. Anytime (and I mean ANY time) one would like to enter a bar or nightclub establishment a passport must be presented at the door. With the exception of an Australian drivers licence, no other identification meets these punters' high standards. It doesn't matter if you are meeting a few friends at 1pm for a Sunday roast, or Tuesday afternoon for coffee, the rule remains - no passport, no entry. To make matters worse, quite often once you present your passport you then go through a process which seems extremely over the top. Firstly your passport is scanned. Then you are led over towards a camera where the necessary mugshot is formed. Worse still, the bouncers here like to take the law into their own hands, and boot people out of their premises for "offences" that would not lead to any eyelids being batted back in Ireland. If you think the bulky, power-trip seeking gentlemen outside pubs in Dublin are bad, then you haven't seen anything yet!
I very much enjoyed my 6 nights in Perth, but mostly due to getting the opportunity to catch up with friends and cousins from home. As a tourist destination the city doesn't offer a great deal, and lags far behind Melbourne, Sydney, and even Adelaide in my humble opinion.
Tomorrow I set off on a 21 day odyssey with Adventure Tours Australia, which will take me up the isolated wonderland of the West Coast and Top End, to faraway Darwin. The camera batteries are fully charged and raring to go. From what I've been told about Western Australia, I'll be snapping non-stop!
Take it easy.
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