janeyray

Just thought I would post places of interest that I've visited since being in Perth. Not all of them are mentioned in the tour books and well worth a visit.

1. Freemantle Markets

2. Hilliarys Boat harbour - lovely safe beach for children, water park and excellent restaurants. Lovely fish and chip shop -Sharkys.

3. Bells Rapids - Cathderal Av off Gt Northern Highway - lovely spot to see loads of different birds.

4. Mundaring Wier and Hotel - Great Sunday afternoon Carvery, loads of wildlife and lovely picnic area. Follow Gt Eastern Highway to Mundaring, then take the Mundaring Wier road.

5. Whiteman Park - Excellent picnic/play areas for children - Wildlife park - museums etc. Off Lord Street.

6. The Mazes - Neaves Road, off Pinjar Road.

7. Koala Wildlife Park with picnic and bbq areas. Off the Wanneroo Road heading North.

8. Yanchep National Park, off the Waneroo Road , heading North. Loads to do, museum, bbq, childrens play/picnic areas.

9. Fasta Pasta in Dianella, brilliant food at low prices.

10. Helicoptor rides over the city, $140 for half an hour ( can do shorter trips), brilliant!!! From Riverside Drive (City) on Heli pad site.

11. Milston Gardens Restaurant - Big tables outside cater for large amounts! Busy Sunday lunchtime, has an enclosed garden area where the children can play. (closest thing to a beer garden!) Excellent food. West Swan Road, Henley Brook.

12. Duckstien Micro-Brewery, good restaurant, beer garden. West Swan Road, Henley Brook.

13. Toodyay - About an hour east along the Gt Eastern Highway. Great scenery along the way, very small settlers village with museum.

14. 'The Boat' pub and restaurant at Mindarie Keys, excellent atmosphere, children welcome (to stay till any time!), live bands lovely food.

15. Indian Tea House - on the Beach at Cottesloe, lovely inside and excellent MASSIVE chocolate cake!!

16. Sandleford Winery - Good guided tour and tastings!! West Swan Road, Caversham.

17. Horse riding at Brookleigh Equestrian Estate - Gt Northern Highway (north bound).

18. Margaret River Chocolate Company - tour and restaurant $10 for lunch. West Swan Road.

19. Guildford - some lovely old buildings and small antique shops, excellent cafes serving 'Devonshire Cream Teas'!!

20. Perth Royal Show - 27th September til 4th October 2003 - Claremont Show grounds. Animals, stalls, firework display etc etc

21. Lake Joondalup - great place to feed the parrots and kangeroos from about 5pm, picnic and bbq areas.

Janey

Kath

Jane - you've been busy - wow! Thanks for that, there is still plenty for us to do this summer.

Loopy

Jane, excellent list, done about half so will try some of the others.
Can you cross The Boat off though, terrible place full of hoons & drunkards? (Only joking, it's my local and it gets far too packed already!).

Looking for a new stables, is Brookleigh any good? What sort of prices would we expect?

Will try and think of some more to add to your list.
Big Foot at Lancelin, excellent fun. A huge school bus which goes 4wd over the dunes. You also get to stop and go sand boarding/sledging if you like.

Loopy

scitta

Thanks Janeray for the wonderful list, just in time. We will be visiting Perth next month and am going to print out your list and take it with me.

This site has been so helpful and informative, when I discuss anything about Oz, and Perth with my sister who has settled there since quite a few years, she is surprised and says I seem to know much more than what she does (thanks to Britishexpats)

DianeOZ

Bleedin heck Jane - you put me to shame, I've done about 4 of them!!!

Thanks for the list though, Family fun time here we come!!!

Diane

hevs

Thanks Jane. We will hopefully be in Perth at the end of october, will try to check some of it out! You have been really busy

salonit

Great!!!!!!!!!!
Theres my itenarary done for my visit in xmas!!!!!!!!Thnx a lot for very useful informative and detailed post!!!!!!
with all these things to do / see why would anyone wanna leave Perth
( dont answer that - coz i understand its hard to get a job! etc )

Larissa

Wow! That's great!!! I was going on a bit of a downer about the whole process but now I'm
Can't wait for the Margaret River chocolate tour- at that price I could go every time I get PMT!!!!

ssmith

Have been doing the tourist thing cos we have Mother-inLaw staying so that list is really useful. A few others further south are as follows:
1. Mandurah boat trip - takes you round canals to see very large homes and also up the river where there is a very good chance you will see dolphins

2. Port Bouvard cafe just outside Mandurah - canalside cafe with good food and great views of canals

3. Jolly Frog cafe just outside Mandurah also - another canalside cafe with good views and walk alongside canal have seen pelicans, dolphins, rays and recently 2 whales there

4 Ravenswood pub - Ravenswood riverside pub with gardens boats moor here very picturesque views of river and good reasonnably priced food

5 Rockingham foreshore good restaraunts and good views saw dolphins here last week

6 Penguin Island another good cafe restaraunt with great views - boat trips available to island mid sept - end of june

7 Point Walter just outside Fremantle fantastic views picnic areas beach cafe and restaraunt and once again saw dolphins on Sunday

wizzywozza

Got any more that are in Central Perth?? I am there 5 times over the next 5 weeks - just been last weekend - but I only get about half a day there at a time so need to see things near to the Holiday Inn on Hay Street. Did Fremantle markets and the malls in Perth last Saturday, got the Perth show covered - anything good going on next Tuesday arvo????


Cheers ....... Sharon

dibrucewillis

Wow! Thanks for that Jane! I was feeling a bit low until I saw that list and now I feel all excited again about our proposed move.
Hubby's told me that hes not bothered about migrating but hopefully when he sees your list it will change his mind.

I am going to print it and take it with us if ever we do go
It certainly looks like there is lots and lots of things to do.

Thanks
Diane

lynnj

Wow Jane

You dont like to sit back and do nothing do you, fab list i'll have to take it with me when we come, cant help noticing how many of them involve food and/or drink i'm supposed to lose weight when i get there not get even bigger!!!!!

Lynn

MartinD

Great list!

We've been in Perth a couple of years now, and would add the following to the list:

FREMANTLE JAIL:
Fantastic! The best place we've been so far - a really informative, creepy, and insightful look at how things used to be (convicts cut the original stone for the main buildings and lived in tiny cells with no sanitation and no cooling - in a limestone building that retains the heat!), up to the recent past - the place was operational up to the 1980's. You visit the execution chamber where WA's last hanging took place in 1968, Moondyne Joe's (famous bush ranger & criminal sort) 'escape-proof' cell, and a stunning protestant chapel with the first example of a vaulted ceiling made from local hardwood (The early Brits has to invent new techniques to get the stuff bent into an arch). Also some surviving examples of Aboriginal art from convicts who went on to do better things for themselves.

MAHOGANY INN:
(on the great Eastern Highway, 40 minutes of so from the city)
This is a great old 'coaching' inn made from old beams and running a tea room/restaurant/B&B. Moondyne Joe lived here for some time (and escaped from the police via tiny upstairs window!), and you can still see carvings made in the floorboards by the kids that used to live there in the 1800's. Now it also acts as a bit of a museum for odd and ingenious implements - many invented from neccessity by the early settlers. A tour costs a couple of dollars for a half hour or so, and with a cup of tea and cake makes for an easy visit out from the city (with great views on the way back all across Midland to the towers of Perth City in the distance)

YORK:
This gorgeous little town is about 2 hours inland, and a real olde-world aussie town. It has a motor museum, holds an annual music festival (this weekend if fact!), and a great hotel. We went last year to see a 'Legends in concert' event in the town hall - what a laugh!
A great business here is called 'Jah Rock', which makes furniture - pop out there an you MUST visit the toilets - they have spectaular carved triple-sinks make from a soild piece of Jarrah (local hardwood, very deep rich red colours), which is polished to the max!


FURTHER AFIELD:

PINNACLES DESERT - 3 hours or so drive north, but a great way to experience some of the sheer open space of WA - and also practice overtaking triple-trailer roadtrains! (HINT - very carefully and on a very loooong stretch of straight road!). They also have a reserve up there for some of the oldest life forms on earth - Stromalites (big bubbles in the mud!). The Pinnacles themselves are just so weird and out of place that it's worth the trip - you will also see the devestation of bush fire damage for many, many Km's on the way into the park.

BLUFF KNOLL:
A 5 hour drive south to the Sterling Mountain range, and you can spend half a day walking up & down the highest peak in the South-West - with view right down to the Southern Ocean on a clear day. The Knoll plays a part in local (Nyoongar) Aboriginal Dreamtime lore - and if you get there in the early morning you'll see why - great coulds of boiling clouds cascade off its peak due to temperature inversions, making it look like the sky is falling down to the ground - spectacular. For longer walks you can incorporate three other peaks called the 'Ridge Walk', which will neccesitate an overnight camp up on the range - come prepared for that!

MONKEY MIA:
A great 2-day drive north, with a stop 1 way in Kalbarri to feed the pelicans in the morning, and a stop on the return leg in Geraldton (a great B&B here is the GreenGables - http://www.wn.com.au/GREENGABLES/ - get the Fawlty Towers music and the request for guests with a sense of humour!. Christina and Henry are the 2 great Aussie types who run the place and make you feel just like one of the family, and it was great to meet real Aussie travellers here stopping over on long journeys back to inland towns from meetings & visits).
Monkey Mia itself is a small resort (and expensive - stay in the nearby town of Denham if you can and drive the 10 minutes to see the dolphins), where dophins arrive from the wild each day for a free feed. My wife and daughter both got to hand-feed a dolphin each, which they loved - but no petting of the animals allowed! Accomodation on the resort is basic, and damn hot in the summer.


That it for now - marathon typing session! Perth has a stack to so - this relly is just the tip of the iceberg!

suz

Hi Jane,
Good one,but how on earth do I print this off I'm usless with this computer any ideas anyone???
Suz

hevs

Click on "show prinntable version" at the bottom of the page, then go to File, Print and it should work, (i think)