1. Australia - Perth

Covering 3 September to 7 September 2019

the pedestrian bridge at Elizabeth Quay

Many years ago I was told that when filling in the immigration forms on a visit to Australia it isn’t advisable to the question “have you got a criminal record” to answer “I didn’t know it was still compulsory”.  Unsurprisingly such a question is not asked.

central Perth and the Swan River from Kings Park 

We’ve arrived in Perth, Western Australia after our overnight flight from Bangkok and from the customs man to the two or three bus drivers we’ve spoken to on the way into the city, everyone has been incredibly friendly and helpful.  The centre of Perth is very modern with big tower blocks interspersed with a good number of (fortunately surviving) early twentieth century ones, which are dwarfed.   The centre has a lively, prosperous feel to it and everyone seemed very young, I wonder why ?  Our hotel was a short free bus journey from the centre or a twenty minute walk and lay about halfway between the city centre and the 1,000 acre King’s Park with it’s absolutely magnificent Botanical Garden. 

and one of those older buildings

display made from seeds, leaves and flowers
- in the Botanical Garden shop

and some of the detail

native Western Australia plant bed in the Botanic Garden

King’s Park is full of large specimen trees and lies high above the city with views southwards across the Swan River.  The Botanical Garden (also free – think about that Kew Gardens at £toomany a pop) covers about forty acres and specialises in indigenous Western Australia plant species – and there are an awful lot of them.  Many are endemic, which means they grow nowhere else in the world.  They’re not seen growing in gardens worldwide because they have evolved to grow in the extremely poor nutrient levels of Australian natural soils.  Put them elsewhere and they’ll die because the soils are too rich.   Some of you will know that we’re both interested in wild flowers but lots of these Australian plant species are unlike anything we’ve ever seen.  Granted, they have branches, leaves and flowers but lots of the flowers, admittedly seen through European eyes, just look bizarre to us.  I haven’t noticed a fragrant one yet either.  I can imagine a Star Trek episode where all the major crew members plus the unknown one who is going to be killed arrive on an unknown planet’s surface and Spock says “well it’s plant life captain but not as we know it”.  If I had to pick one family of plants to sum up the strangeness compared to what we’re used to, it would be the Kangaroo Paws, photos are included.

Red and Green Kangaroo Paw

Black Kangaroo Paw

It was certainly cooler earlier and later in the day than we expected.  One morning our hotel receptionist told us it was 3 Centigrade (37F) but temperatures picked up quickly during the day.  We really liked Perth, it seemed immensely civilised with a good deal of civic pride and everybody was friendly.  In the three or four days in Perth we hardly saw a piece of litter and no dog mess at all.  Buses in the central district are frequent and free, there’s a city wide free internet service and a great library.  When we arrived we caught a bus in from the airport and it only cost us the equivalent of £2.40 ($2.90) each and the half hour train ride we took to Fremantle cost us the same. 

I can let you know what I thought of Fremantle very easily.  I’m not going to mention it any more. 

Now you’ll all know that Australia is big and regular readers will know that I usually put some sort of example to indicate country sizes.   Western Australia is twenty times the size of England and according to Lonely Planet it has a population of only 2.6 million people.  Just over 2 million of them live in Perth so clearly the rest of the state is somewhat denuded people-wise.  If you happen to decide to drive from Perth to Darwin, the capital of the Northern Territory, which is unlikely because it’s a little over 4,000 kilometres/2,500 miles, the largest town you’ll drive through on the journey is Broome in northern Western Australia with a population of about 16,500.  I think you’ll agree that there’s big and there’s BIG and there’s empty and EMPTY.

Our plan is to see some of it and we’re beginning with three weeks in a motorhome, hired from Britz but with Maui blazoned on the side, so I guess they’re the same company.  The one we got was slightly longer than the one we have at home but is a much cheaper conversion and with what I consider to be a lot of poor design.  That of course is my opinion but I do think it’s poor to have one mucky chopping board, no sharp knife and only one tea towel.  So we buy our own.  First stop is of course a supermarket where we fill up with supplies.  Booze has to come from a separate shop because it doesn’t seem to be sold with everything else as we’re used to.

We were advised at the Perth Botanic Garden to head north first and move southwards so we decided to just go to our northernmost point in one go and then return slowly.  The decision was that the Kalbarri National Park would be the northernmost point and we covered the 564 kilometres/350 miles on our first day.  The town of Kalbarri lies on the coast at the mouth of the Murchison River and is surrounded by the National Park.  On arrival and to our surprise we find that two of the three campsites available are full but we got a space in the overflow area of one of them.

and this is how big Australia is !