Wednesday, April 29, 2015

Perth, Australia

Until last weekend Perth was the only major Australian city that I have not visited. This error has now been fixed. 

Perth is a modern, clean, well designed city. Thanks to fast suburban trains, parks, beaches, walking/biking paths, it is probably much more liveable than Sydney, Melbourne, and Brisbane. 

Perth has monuments of their best public servants and of business people.

John Septimus Roe - layed out Perth and Fremantle.

Old and new, both looking good.

Public art.

A piece of medieval England in the centre of Perth.

Transperth trains - fast, clean, and frequent.

Aviation Heritage Museum in Bull Creek.


Australian claim to the invention of a flight recorder.

Catalina - the flying boat.

Australian Army, Vietnam War era helicopter.

Resting place of 23 Australian F-111 planes - a landfill near Brisbane. Why? Because they were used for spare parts to keep the rest flying AND there was asbestos in their bodies. 

Transperth either has a lot of money to replace scratched train windows constantly or their public awareness/shaming campaign is working.
Transperth's campaign against graffidiots.

More shaming.

Appeal to the good in us.

If you see it, or hear it, tell us about it.

See something, say something.

Mandurah, south of Perth, ANZAC day.

Indian Ocean in Mandurah.

Back in Perth.

A monument to immigrants.

Two black swans in the centre of Perth.

Perth's CBD.

Perth's CBD - Government House.

Old and new.

Footsteps in time.

Footsteps in time - the monument.

This is not Disney, this is in Perth's CBD.

Perth CBD - a green cafe.

Fremantle.

A common situation in Australia: narrow track with an extra rail for standard gauge trains, or vice versa. This shows that lack of standardisation costs more in the long run.

The bow of the HMAS Ovens in Fremantle, this boat can be toured, it is part of the WA Maritime Museum.

The bow section with 6 torpedo bays.
A specimen of a Megamouth shark beached in Mandurah south of Perth.

The Oberon class submarines had 7 periscopes for different purposes.

Fremantle was home to American, British and Dutch submarines during WWII.

Submarines with their base ship.

Australia had submarines already in WWI !

Tsingtao - a German colony in China.

American ships in Fremantle - part of the aircraft carrier group.

Fremantle - building restoration - taking off the layer of stucco to expose the original stone and brick wall.

Fremantle feels like that small city in Back to the Future in 1955.

Including the clock tower near the city square.

Another Disney moment in Fremantle.

Fremantle - this is real.

A perfect city beach in Fremantle.
There was also an Australian Army museum in Fremantle, but I did not get lucky this time - you can enter only at two specified times and I missed the last entry by 20 minutes. If you are going to visit, check the tour times first.