Only a day and a half really in these cities.

Perth first impressions as follows:
Perth Water / Swan River
Calm vista of a large estuary a welcoming carpet of still (ish) blue-green-brown
In front of skyscrapers projecting a modern and firmly utopian-capitalist vision
In town – buses that cost nothing to travel on – 3 city Cats in blue, green and red to get you around
In fact no transport costs anything in the central zone – trains or buses
So this is the first strangeness
In the evening we wander down Hay St mistakenly looking for restaurants. But this is the business and shopping district, closed down and full of after-dark end-of-the day people.
Including our first sighting on this trip of the hitherto hidden indigenous people. Dislocated, drunk and shouting things.
This is the Bill Bryson version of things – where the invisibility and lack of talking about it becomes an issue in itself. But of course people are talking about it now after Mal Braff and John Howard’s interventions. More of this later…

We abandon Hay St and head in a cab over to Northbridge with a Chinese-Aussie cab driver – very friendly. Full of chat. Not for the first time on this trip we are struck by the friendliness of strangers. He lands us in Sorrento. An Italian family restaurant presided over by a woman who has a hairdo like my mother used to get. This is karma I think and so it proves to be with a friendly atmosphere and lovely service and nice food. We had been touted at some length by the Fishy Place over the road and on the second day we went there. Not so great.

But the second day was really good with two outings/activities. In the first of these we rode the red cat round to ABOUT Bike Hire and borrowed four bikes.

We then cycled down to the Narrows Bridge and round the south bank of the river and back over the Causeway and Hennison Island. Only 10k but it was good to cycle again and the views were lovely. The park in South Perth allowed us to see all sides of Perth. A tidy beautiful area of parkland, strange birds, the Swan River, the views across to the WACA, the junkie needle depository in the toilets, the big houses, the trees of all different shapes…all of it memorable. But best of all – seeing the Black Swan. Picture the scene, a serene and beautiful pair of black swans in the middle of Perth Water, drifting idly across – an English tourist in a cycle helmet and dark glasses desperately running along the bank trying to get the perfect shot in front of Perth’s skyscrapers with the swans in the foreground.


Reminded constantly in the city of the Triffids, the late, great David McComb and that brilliant last album (well all of their brilliant albums in fact).

The other thing we did was ride the train out to Fremantle. And here the atmosphere was so different. This town was founded by the modest Captain Fremantle in 1829 when he declared the whole west coast of this vast continent for George IVth. As such there are loads of older buildings, no high rise, lots of reminders of smaller English municipalities, probably more echoes of New Zealand in fact. Very beautiful. Cafes and shops and sailboats and little malls. And we see and smell the Indian Ocean for the first time and look across to Rottnest Island – holiday destination of many South Western Australians. Some echoes of the actions of the founding fathers of this land are in the history of the Roundhouse – a building at the convergence of the new and old harbours, next to Bathers Bay where indigenous peoples were held prior to their deportation and enforced exile from the lands around Perth/Fremantle. It’s a sobering thought amongst all the undoubted beauty of the scene. There is also the gorgeous area in the middle around the parish church and town hall and statue to Australia’s wartime leader – Prime Minister Curtin – the only WA MP ever to hold that high office. Overall impressions of Fremantle are of a great, human sort of place.

Next up for us is the remote and strange Ningaloo Reef and Coral Bay. We have the good fortune to have our flight changed and moved back to 10.30. We are all a bit weay and the extra couple of hours sleep is most welcome………