Monthly Archives: April 2025

Making it Home

Posted on April 12, 2025 by julieallen36

Our last trip in the Hop on Hop Off Uber was the next day (Sunday). We’d done our packing and had to check out of the hotel at 11am. Our flight wasn’t until later in the afternoon so we had time for one more stop. One of the most visited attractions in Perth is the historic Perth Mint and it looked an interesting place to spend our last morning.

It was another very hot and sunny day and we waited for the start of our tour in the shady courtyard. I managed to blag a copy of the kids quiz which featured multiple guess scratch off answers! We decided to listen to the tour first and then see what we had learned.

The tour was very good and we learned about the history of the place as well as getting to gaze upon and even handle plenty of gold! The Mint was established in the 1890s as a subsidiary of the Royal Mint in the UK. The population of Western Australia was growing very rapidly due to the discovery of gold at Kalgoorlie, Coolgardie and Murchison. The Mint produced coins for the growing colony as well as being the place that miners brought their raw gold to be turned into coins and bullion. We handled huge replicas of some of the most famous gold nuggets including ‘Welcome Stranger’. This is the biggest gold nugget ever discovered and was found by two Cornish Miners in Victoria, Australia in 1869. It weighed 72 kg or 192 pounds. The miners were paid £9381 for it back in the day but at 2019 gold prices it would be worth £2.3million. The plastic version I handled weighed slightly less and was worth about £2.34

Once in the Mint itself we wandered freely around the exhibition which had real gold and silver nuggets on display. It also held the 1 tonne record breaking coin. This didn’t look real but is made of 99.9% pure gold with a lovely bouncing kangaroo on it. Its face value is Aus $1 million. We enjoyed standing on the scales and having our ‘Weight in Gold’ recorded and then also trying to lift the real gold ingot. This weighs 400 ounces and is totally enclosed so that, even if you can lift it, you can’t scarper with it. Bad luck thieving Brummies!

The final stage and indeed highlight of the visit was watching the ‘gold pour’! This is where we got to sit where the furnaces are and watch our guide as she got dressed up in all sorts of PPE and poured the molten gold out of the ‘Crucible’ pot and into the Ingot mould. This was all very dramatic and done in the dark.

We bought some souvenir gifts in the shop and then made our way back to the hotel where we had a bit of time by the lovely pool and then got changed ready for our flight. We got another Uber to the airport where the Qantas lady was able to resolve the issue we’d had with our seats so that we could sit together on the way home. Phew. Now we just needed to relax so it was a bit unnerving when the very loud alarms went off when we were part way through security. The tannoys said that there was a ‘security breach which was currently bring investigated’. It kept saying this over and over again v loudly. The staff went into lockdown mode and we were asked to stay where we were. It felt as if there might be a terrorist on the loose but the security lady said it was more likely to be someone vaping in the toilets.

Eventually, we were allowed to go and made our way through to the Gate with Jane in her wheelchair. Unfortunately, the retail experience through here was very poor so my plans for last minute purchases were made impossible.

Once on the plane we settled in for the 17+ hour flight home. Very little sleep was had by either of us but all in all , it wasn’t too bad. We arrived back at Heathrow at 5am and I was very glad when our lovely taxi driver, Luke, came to pick us up and drive us home.

I think it will take me some time to process my feelings about the whole trip, the ups and downs but my overall sense is of a new respect for the vastness of this country and a love of its people, animals and strangely -trees. As we were driving to the airport in Perth I saw a sign with a helicopter (rescue) on it and the words ‘Help. It’s what Australians do’. How true that is.

Well that’s all very nice but I must say I feel very relieved to be home with Jane, safely in one piece. I always knew that Australia is basically out to get you ever since reading Bill Bryson’s book ‘Down Under’. So let’s leave things with the words of Bill Bryson-

Australia: It has more things that will kill you than anywhere else. Of the world’s ten most poisonous snakes, all are Australian. Five of its creatures – the funnel web spider, box jellyfish, blue-ringed octopus, paralysis tick, and stonefish – are the most lethal of their type in the world. This is a country where even the fluffiest of caterpillars can lay you out with a toxic nip, where seashells will not just sting you but actually sometimes go for you. … If you are not stung or pronged to death in some unexpected manner, you may be fatally chomped by sharks or crocodiles, or carried helplessly out to sea by irresistible currents, or left to stagger to an unhappy death in the baking outback. It’s a tough place.” 😳🫣😀

Now we’re really thankful that we made it back!

Categories: Uncategorized | Tags: Australia, Perth | 1 Comment

Bells and Botanicals

Posted on April 6, 2025 by julieallen36

Sunday would be our last full day in Perth and we had considered getting on the Hop on Hop off Bus. However, in the end we decided that there were three main ‘stops’ that we wanted to spend our time at so we’d just hop about by Uber instead. We actually woke up to some cloud today and temperatures of a mere 28 degrees.

Our first stop was to return to the Bell Tower at Elizabeth Quay. It is a very modern structure made with copper and lots of glass. The lady on reception told us we were in luck as the bellringers would be doing there thing today between 12 noon and 1pm. The bell tower includes the 12 bells of St Martin’s in the Field, Trafalgar Square London and these form part of a 16 bell peel with two extra chromatic notes. They are the second largest set of change ringing bells in the world. The bells from London were rescued from being scrapped in 1988 and donated to Western Australia in exchange for the metals for new bells to be made for St Martins in the Field.

In addition,there is one absolutely enormous bell called the ANZAC Bell. It’s made of gold, copper and tin and is the largest swinging bell in Australia. We visited the 5th Floor of the Bell Tower in time to see this being rung at midday. Luckily our ears were protected by the glass encasing it!

Next we went down to level 4 where you could see all the 16 bells ringing as the Bellringers began to do there thing. The sound brought back memories of royal weddings and other events back in London.

There was lots of information on the wall about the bells including a note of the inscriptions in each. I was doing a bit of sketching whilst listening to the bells when this older gentleman, approached and made a comment about the bells. Somehow, I got chatting to him and he introduced himself. It turned out that he was the main man behind the whole initiative to bring the bells over to Perth. He was here visiting with his son and family and his name was Laith Reynolds. He asked where Jane and I came from and when we told him he said that he’d lived in Burford (Cotswolds) for many years and had just sold his house there! Next thing you know, Laith invited us to join him and his family for a behind the scenes view of the bellringers! Of course we were up for this! So down we went to the 2nd level and into the bellringing chamber where there were eight people holding onto the ropes. We had to be absolutely silent and if anyone asked, we were members of Laith’s family! Laith is massively keen on everything related to bellringing- hence his passion for saving these bells.

Afterwards we felt very privileged to have been allowed into the inner sanctum. But more than this- to have met Laith. I Googled him later and found that he’s an incredible chap. He was a fine example of the Australian Entrepreneurial ‘Have a Go’ spirit. He and his wife had lived all over the world (Canada, Bangladesh, China, Hawaii and of course Burford! ). He’d worked for Philips developing two way radio systems, then branched out on his own into mining, agriculture and now even healthcare- developing new blood tests to detect cancers. What a guy.

I admit we were a little star struck by our meeting and afterwards we needed to cool down with an ice cream from the Gelateria. It had been recommended by someone at Rosebridge House. I had pineapple and mint and Jane had the special which involved vanilla, raspberry ripple and Vovo biscuits. Both hailed a success.

By now it was 2pm and we caught the free Blue CAT bus to Kings Park. This is one of the world’s biggest inner city parks and is actually located just above our hotel. There is a Jacobs Ladder that climbs up to the entrance of the park but that’s no use to us! We decided to concentrate our efforts on just the Botanical Gardens part of the park and the first stop was the very classy gift shop. Here I bought several items for inspiring future art projects!

We started at the War Memorial which is in memory of the ANZAC troops who served in WW1. Being Sunday there were lots of families enjoying the green space and we liked the views across to the Perth Skyline once more.

Once we entered the Botanical Gardens proper we did a little circuit which allowed us to explore the different regional areas, magnificent Eucalyptus trees, beautiful Banksias and Baobab. I was particularly keen that we walk along the raised walkway and glass bridge that took us through the tree canopy. It did actually start to rain as we were doing this but it only added to the magic of this place as the sun made everything sparkle.

Jane was very tired as we made our way around but we did complete our circuit and then decided to have a quick beer before catching our Uber back. We sat out side in the cafe admiring the views over to the city and the setting sun. The Eucalyptus trees lining the street were absolutely stunning and burned an image in my memory. It was so lovely that we decided to stay and eat here which was a good decision as the food was delicious.

I’d been struggling to piece all of the different parts of Perth together in my head. Sydney made perfect sense but somehow Perth seemed to be these disparate areas that had no real connection. However, I think the visit to Kings Park brought things together for me and meeting the legend, Laith Reynolds, was the icing on the cake. What a good day it had turned out to be.

Categories: Uncategorized | Tags: Australia, Bell Tower, Kings Park, Perth | Leave a comment

A date with the quokkas at Wadjemup

Posted on April 3, 2025 by julieallen36

On Saturday we woke up early which appears now to have become a thing! Today was one we’d be looking forward to and we were very glad to still be able to make the trip. We were off to Rottnest Island to see the Quokkas and this time, in the wild.

Originally, we had been due to catch the ferry from Freemantle and then hire bikes to get around the island as there are no cars. Luckily, in the circumstances, we’d been able to change our booking and were now leaving by ferry from Barrack Street Jetty, Perth and ditching the bikes in favour of the ‘Rottnest Bayseeker’ bus tour. This turned out to be a right result.

Firstly, the ferry up the Swan River to Freemantle was great. We had seats up on the sun deck (in the shade) and the captain gave an interesting commentary as we went along. The views changed as we left the city skyline behind then went past the houses of the rich and famous on the beautiful, lush banks of the river. When we got to Freemantle we were quite surprised to see the huge cranes and container ships…maybe it was a blessing that we’d had to cancel our stay here!

It was lovely and warm up in the sun deck but once we got out into the open see it became a little more rocky and breezy. I kept my eyes on the horizon as the lovely crew served us Icepops to keep us cool. After an hour and a half since setting off we were arriving into the pretty harbour of Rottnest Island. As we approached we had an Indigenous welcome as the island ‘Wadjemup’ is sacred in the Aboriginal history. All of a sudden it became incredibly peaceful and calm and it felt like this was a place we were going to love.

This reminds me of something I’ve been meaning to talk about. Although we haven’t really been on an Aboriginal ‘heritage’ tour or directly learned about ‘Dreamtime’ stories, we have seen hints along the way. One thing that is very noticeable is part of the ‘Reconciliation’ with the past. For Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island peoples, Australia’s colonial history is characterised by devastating land dispossession, violence and racism. The most obvious part of this reconciliation process that we’ve seen is known as an ‘Acknowledgement of Country’. This manifests itself in statues in the various cities and towns, signs at Airports, in verbal greetings to trips and events and on all the different websites. The podcast I’ve been listening to on the History of Australia begins every episode with an Acknowledgment of Country.

For example on arriving in Rottnest the greeting might go like this

“As we arrive here today, we’d like to acknowledge the Traditional Owners of the Wadjemup land on which we tread. We would like to pay our respects to the Elders past, present and future of the Whadjuk Noongar people.”

It’s important because for so long the Aboriginal and Torres Island peoples have experienced a long history of exclusion from Australian history books, the Australian flag, the Australian anthem and for many years, Australian democracy.

It’s an interesting approach and I noticed that when our tour with Shelita in Broken Hill began with such an acknowledgement, a lot of the older Aussie’s in the group raised their eyebrows and tutted loudly. Hm.

Certainly Rottnest Island played its part in this terrible history and we visited the little museum which tries to educate about this. Today the island is a place for happy visitors but in the past it was used to imprison and mistreat Aboriginal peoples who were put to forced hard labour in quarrying limestone and building some of the settlement that remains today.

Anyway…enough of the bleak history. Today Rottnest Island is more famous for two things 1) Its beautiful beaches and stunning waters and 2) The 1,300 Quokkas who call Rottnest their home and who are an Instagram sensation.

Quokkas are everywhere on Rottnest Island and in fact it’s how it got its name. Although these smiling little cuties are marsupials of the wallaby family but smaller, the Dutch guy who discovered the island way back in 1696 thought it was infested with rats ….hence he called it “Rottnest Island”!

Jane was v keen to capture the iconic photo of a Quokka standing up smiling, and we tried to tempt them with tasty looking leaves. They weren’t really playing and perhaps preferred the dropped chocolate ice cream outside the bakery.

The settlement area is very busy with people trying to get to grips with their bikes or stocking up on food and water for the day. But it is also very shady so great to keep cool and we enjoyed lunch of a sausage roll and a slice of Raspberry Lamington from the Bakery and cold ice peach tea.

After this we decided we had time to go for a short walk to Pinky Beach which should only take 20 mins through the accommodation huts (v basic) and trees. However, although the beach was very lovely with white sand and sea of every possible shade of blue and green, it was ridiculously hot. I felt incredibly frazzled and Jane got her sandals wet when a wave came in further than expected. This place wasn’t for us and I could get away quick enough to find a sheltered spot. What on earth had we been thinking when we thought we could ride around here on bikes? To be fair the 40degree heat is exceptional for Perth at this time of year but still….thank goodness for Jason and his VIP bus trip!

There were only about 10 of us on the 1:45 trip and the bus was lovely and air conditioned as we drove around the whole island which is bigger than I’d thought and quite hilly in places. We learned more about the history and the flora and fauna as we drove along the quiet lanes exploring all of the gorgeous beaches and swimming spots. Unlike Hamilton Island, Rottnest is a A grade reserve and totally government owned so there is very little development allowed and the Quokkas come first.

The tour round took about an hour and a half with just two short stops but the views through the windows were great and we took 100s of photos. Once back at the harbour it was more of less time to catch the ferry back to Perth. We again sat in the sundeck and enjoyed the cruise back in the fading sunshine.

Jane found us a nice place to eat in St George’s Terrace and we had a lovely meal at Sentinel. We felt a little under-dressed in our sweaty gear from the day out whereas other diners were all dressed up and off to the theatre! But who cares….those beers tasted really good. What a fabulous day and we happily found our way home once more via Uber.

Categories: Uncategorized | Tags: Australia, Perth, Quokkas, Rottnest Island | Leave a comment

Back on plan – Perth City Centre

Posted on April 1, 2025 by julieallen36

Finally, on Friday 28th March we were able to get our holiday back on schedule. The one thing we hadn’t had to cancel or rearrange was our stay at the Aurea Hotel in Perth City Centre. So after our last breakfast at Rosebridge we were back in an Uber and 30 mins later arriving well before check in at our final stop.

We had to wait in reception for our room to become available but it was very hot outside and we liked the Air Con. It looked like they weren’t going to relent and let us in before 3pm so we made a decision to go out. All of a sudden room 202 was ready for us to occupy. Lovely. We’d chosen this hotel because it’s relatively newly refurbished and got great reviews on Trip Advisor. It didn’t disappoint as our room was very spacious, with a restful picture of a beach as a backdrop to the beds, great Air Con and a balcony that overlooked trees and the city skyline beyond. It was so modern that we couldn’t actually work out how to turn the lights on!

We did a bit of unpacking and then headed out following the Receptionists guidance to catch the free bus to Elizabeth Quay (all buses in Perth CBD are free 😀). It was only a short bus ride and walk away and is an area that has seen massive redevelopment into a trendy waterfront attraction on the Swan River. It was named after Queen Elizabeth II in honour of her Diamond Jubilee year, following her visit to the area for the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting. It was opened in 2016.

Today, it was very quiet really and our first destination, The Bell Tower, which had been recommended to us by the boring chap back at the BnB was closed for a private function. Never mind, we could do that another day and meanwhile we wandered about taking photos of the skyline and modern pedestrian bridge and the Spanda Sculpture which is 29m high. There are quite a lot of restaurants etc in the area but I did notice that not all of these premises were occupied. Generally, I’d say that Perth had aspirations to be as cool and trendy as Sydney but had a way to go but all of the Uber drivers were very keen to tell us how thriving the city is and how much development is going on.

The city skyline is very impressive and over our few days here we saw it from various different angles. Lots of the buildings have company initials and names on them. I was intrigued to know who these were and what had lead to the economic development in Perth. Without doubt it’s been the focus on resource industries- mining and in particular – iron ore as well as Agricultural exporting. Many of the signs on the tower blocks are mining companies such as BHP, Rio Tinto, Chevron, South32 as well as the usual suspects of the world of finance EY, Deloittes and numerous banks. I also discovered that the richest person in Australia is from Perth. Gina Rhinehart is a mining magnate (Hancock Prospecting) and her net worth is Aus $ 29billion. And guess who she’s friends with in America?

Perth is diversifying and has a highly educated workforce and known for its innovation. Its location on the Indian Ocean within the Asia-Pacific region gives it access to fast growing economies. It looks like the future is bright for ‘The City of Light’. It also looks like I’m giving the boring man at the BnB a run for his money.

It was a very hot afternoon and The Island Brewery seemed like a good place to stop for a cold one. It tasted very good indeed and then we walked up Barrack Street to the ‘Best Fish and Chip Shop’ in Perth. Despite a slight mistake in ordering fish without batter (😇😆) it was indeed very good. And the mushy peas were suitably stodgy. This tatty little place is in a slightly seedy area, so we were soon back in an Uber and heading back to our haven beneath Kings Park. That makes it sound like we were sleeping on a park bench which obviously we weren’t.