Day 2 – A walking tour and a prison visit

Birthday girl

The CBD beckoned as the birthday girl, aka Bev, had booked a walking tour. We met beside the Western Australia Gallery of Art. We arrived in time to get a coffee setting us up well to go for the walk. There were about ten of us on the tour and our guide Alex (who was born in Wellington) talked with passion about “her” city. Her interest was art as much as anything so the walk included historic buildings, laneways which had to have art and lighting, good places to go for coffee and meals and a reasonable amount of history of the place. A lot of money has been invested in the city. Apparently it was divided into two parts by a railway line. North of the line was the entertainment district where the hotels, brothels and nightclubs were and the southern part where the money and business was. Recently they lowered the railway line to “join” the two parts.

One of the nice things about the city is the extent of pedestrianisation that has occurred. Two streets have had the cars and buses removed and it seemed to us to be really thriving.

The Australian Coat of Arms altered

We were told was a couple of amusing stories about the history. The first one was about the magnificent post office that was started in 1914 but not finished until a decade later at significantly greater cost than had been contracted. Of course, war and flu had intervened. When the architect of the building went to the Treasury to get paid, they told him he was not going to get full payment due to the delay. He got his own back though as the Australian Coat of Arms he installed had the Kangaroo looking over its shoulder toward the Treasury and the Emu’s head was tilted as well. Apparently, it took a while before the error was noticed, but the citizens of the city decided against any change. I was the only person to notice it when the crowd was asked what was wrong! A foreigner no less!

Much of early Perth was built by convicts as there was not enough labour so they were imported from Britain. Shades of convicts being sent to the front by Russia to bolster the army. They built the town hall and there are nice little touches with symbols such as arrows and noose.

They seem to have preserved lots of the older buildings with some having retail at the bottom but the upper levels in dire need of some wealthy developer.


Looking toward the CBD from Elizabeth Quay

The tour took us two and a half hours and then it was time for a search for something light to eat. We went to a little place called “Expresso and Proscetto” which we found out later had been only opened that day and was the city’s first alfresco café. The street in which it was located had been recently pedestrianised and had been a dying place with shuttered shops and lots of petty street crime. Nothing like that when we were there, in fact it seemed quite vibrant in the way that George St in Sydney has become after they put the trams up the middle.

After a very pleasant lunch we found a train to Freemantle where the plan was visit a beach and the world heritage listed prison.

By the time we had got there we had walked some considerable distance so we stopped for a coffee then tried to find the Prison. After getting some directions we arrived. Construction of the prison began when the first transported convicts arrived in Perth in 1850 from limestone on a hill above the township. The prison held convicts continuously from that date until it was decommissioned in 1991.

It was a fascinating tour. The conditions in which men and women were held were brutal and the cells were extremely small with some accommodating two prisoners at times. The women’s prison, which we didn’t see was apparently somewhat nicer but it is now a youth hostel. They have preserved it well and it is a testament to the ineffectiveness of such a regime. As the pictures show it is a large institution that held upwards of 2000 prisoners. The conditions were so appalling that several riots occurred to try to get better food and accommodation.

The train took us back to our accommodation so that we could change into nicer clothing for our meal at Petition a well-regarded restaurant in the Treasury building. A train took us back to the CBD and after a short walk we entered a beautifully preserved building.

The food was very good, not quite on par with Logan Brown but approaching it. We had a lovely night in lovely surroundings. It was interesting going into that part of town as compared to Wellington it was very quiet with no bars or restaurants to welcome people to the area.

By the time we got back to our accommodation we had walked about 16 kms.