We only spent 3 months in Perth but it is very underrated as a city. While eeryone on the east coast of Australia looks at Perth as backwards – Perth is pretty much the opposite. Because of the mining wealth, Perth has much more to offer than a typical city of 2 million people as well as beaches within 20 minutes of the CBD and the Swan River. There are also many nice places to live – stretching along the river to the ocean and up and down the coast.
Locally, we spent a lot of time at Kings Park (a short walk from our apartment), CBD/Northbridge, Subiaco (nice inner suburb where Sharon found her workout community and other things to do), and the main tourist attractions like the Perth Mint and the State of Western Australia museums.
Kings Park
Sharon spent a lot of time in Kings Park during the days and attended a couple of docent walks in the Western Australia Botanic Garden.
Northbridge and CBD
We “discovered” Northbridge which dispelled the reputation of Perth being quiet and offered some life after 5pm. Sharon stumbled upon a nice surprise in the Art Gallery of Western Australia, both in the quality of the museum and a nice rooftop wine bar overlooking the CBD and Northbridge. Also within the grounds of the museum is the “Picobar” which is a old studio / garden that is nice for a drink or two.
Perth, for its size, has some of the best public museums systems we have seen – the wealth and resources is a major contributor. Between the Art Museum of Western Australia, His Majesties Theatre, the Perth Mint, and the State Museum of Western Australia, there is a lot to see. We found a 110 degree day and went to the Mint and State Museum while Sharon visited the Art Museum several times.
Subiaco
Subiaco was a inner suburb where we initially wanted to live, but couldn’t find a short-term rental. But we did spend time there as Sharon had her work out/pickleball place there and was taking a class there. Much more livable longer term than where we were located if you didn’t have a car (but we were fine short term). Similar to Bethesda in the DC area.
Aznac Day
One of my last weekends in Perth was Aznac Day – it is their Memorial Day. The night before we are out on my leaving drinks and walking down the street and my friend got hit in the back of the head by a pretty big guy – but next thing I knew they were hugging and were old mates and that he was a co-worker I had never met. So we had a good night out and ran into other extended co-workers at a restaurant (a lot were on leave from remote areas and back in Perth) – side note – they looked at me as weak as they were working 70 hours/wk in remote areas and Perth was their vacation. This lead to buying footy tickets and where we should go for “two up” – a drinking game played with a cricket paddle and gambling at the RSL (the Returned & Services League of Australia – like the VFW) which is only legal on Aznac day as there is a fundraising element. So we arrive at the RSL the next day and we are the only people under 80 – apparently Two Up is a bigger deal on the east coast. From there we went to see the Fremantle Dockers VS. Adelaide at the new stadium. There isn’t a Perth team, but Fremantle and West Coast Eagle who both play in the same stadium. Really great venue and atmosphere and moving halftime ceremony with veterans from WW2.
Overall we had a short time in Perth, only about 3 months, but a great experience made even better by my co-workers and customer that we worked with on a daily basis. I have separate posts for beaches in Perth and day trips.
Leave a Reply