Fremantle / Perth  -  Much warmer today - sunny and hot - 27C

We caught a train from Fremantle Station to the centre of Perth.  Perth is the state capital of Western Australia.  We were very impressed by this town - they have balanced old and new buildings perfectly in this city.  The centre of the city has two wide malls with street entertainers everywhere.  The shops are new and varied.  The lady at the Information Centre was friendly and very helpful.  On her advice, we caught a Red Cat.  There are 3 different loop bus routes around the city - the Red Cat, Blue Cat and Yellow Cat.  (There is soon to be a 4th one - a Green Cat). These are all free as are the normal city buses!  You can hop on & off wherever you like and they run every few minutes.  So with these buses we managed to have a look at most of the city returning to where we started. In between we took the ferry from Barrack Square across to South Perth.  (The train, ferry and buses to & from the station in Fremantly were all covered by a $4.40 TransPerth day ticket - excellent value   (for the Poms that is about 1.9 pounds sterling) even Stevo couldn't complain about that!!!

Perth has both Old & New Buildings

London Court - Built in 1937

We remember walking through here when we first arrived in Perth in 1972.  We were only in Perth for a month before travelling across Australia to the east but we remember it well and it has grown so much since then.  It was only a small town back then.

Lin at the entrance to London Court

 

There are many bronze statues around Perth.  The ones below represent the business man through the ages and are especially interesting.

 

 

 

Businessmen through the ages with the modern one in front

 

The earliest businessman - at the back of the pic above



 

South Perth - across the Swan River from Perth city



A Pub in South Perth

Perth City taken from across the Swan River

The ferry coming to take us back to Perth

The Bell Tower located in Barrack Square
beside the Swan River

The Bell Tower is one of the world's biggest instruments.  It is 82.5m high.  It houses the Bells of St Martin-in-the-Field.  These bells together with 5 specially cast bells were presented to WA to commemorate Australia's bicentenary.  There are galleries from which the bell-ringers can be viewed.

One of the Perth Malls - late arvo

A Bronze Statue in the Mall

A quick trip back to Fremantle on TransPerth's efficient rail system after a great day in a great city.

I have to add here that the mining boom is apparent everywhere here.  Money from mining is everywhere especially apparent in the high numbers of large, new, luxury homes being built.