Fremantlebiz - Paul's Letter from Australia

A circle trip to Perth with the kids

My wife has the school-holiday excursion bug and so yesterday we bought an all-day family bus/train ticket and went to Perth. We left the bus at Canning Bridge and jumped on the newly completed Mandurah-Perth train. I reckon the entire trip into the city took us about half the time it used to.

We left the train at the Esplanade station. On the nearby grass acreage was a white circus-like tent which hosted a collection of wooden models based upon sketches by Leonardo da Vinci. My wife had been hankering to go to this commercialised rendition of da Vinci ideas ever since she read about it months ago.

After passing over a substantial sum of money we were inside. The models were presented in subdued light. Some looked like they'd been made from pine crates and stained. This rough patina made them look older than the modern efforts they were.

There were quite a few "Please don't touch!" signs, but there were also models which could be tested by winding handles and pushing and pulling levers. I think we all found things which were mildly interesting. I took a few photos for Fremantlebiz readers. The link is at the end of this entry.

The cleverest part of the da Vinci exhibition was the souvenir trap at the end. Leonardo might have wished he'd thought of it. My wife parted with a further $35 for a decorated umbrella which she then had to lug about for the rest of the day.

We'd taken sandwiches for lunch and ate them on some shaded lawn nearby. There was a large mob of Aborigines in another shady spot and they engaged me in conversation as we walked past. One of them, a Wongai from the Western Desert, said he had recognised me from the past.

After lunch we walked through Supreme Court Gardens. I noticed the Orchestra Shell had gone. I warned my kids never to use the public lavatories there. They're reputed to be a notorious hang-out for perverts and demented judges.

The onward march took us past Ritter's pole. There's a picture in the folio. Paul Ritter was an imaginative 1970s city planner who designed the drill stem projecting through a variety of mineral samples collected from around Western Australia. He eventually believed he had been shafted when he was sent to prison for an unconnected financial misdeed.

The building behind the drill stem is called Council House because it is the lair of the Perth City Council. Over many years Perth City councillors have garnered a reputation for exploiting personal clothing and entertainment expenses, and overseas-travel allowances. Modern architects view the building as a classic design so it has some sort of heritage protection.

Opposite Council House is the Anglican Saint George's Cathedral. It's just had an extensive restoration. We took the kids inside for a look. They behaved themselves, but I had to insist my version of Bart Simpson didn't light a couple of dozen candles. His motivation was not sufficiently religious.

In the city proper (where the shops are) we visited a large Hay Street book store. I bought a ten dollar Turkish cookbook which I was then obliged to lug about for the rest of the day. We also visited a new display of WW2 memorabilia in the old town hall. It was a bit feeble, but free.

The main destination target of my wife was now in the State Library. A display of the original puppets used in the ABC TV show Mr Squiggle and friends. Every conservative ABC orientated family loved Mr Squiggle et al. They were pioneers of children's mind-numbing entertainment back in the black and white days, and continued well into the colour period. Now their contacts have expired.

So there are photos of them in the folio too, and one of their creator Norman Hetherington. But I more like the photo of me with Mr Squiggle. I couldn't get his autograph because he was locked up in a glass case and appeared surprisingly lifeless.

It became time to go home. It was getting late and Northbridge is the favoured haunt of nocturnal ethnic gangs and drug crazed muggers. On the way to the Perth railway station we saw a seagull on top of an expensive-arts-grant statue. There's a cheery photo of that little happening too.

Oh, and there was a picture of the Perth cranescape which I took for Panoramio. Often the ever-present construction cranes are airbrushed out of promotional pictures of Perth.

Everyone rushed to get a seat on the train. There were a few creepy looking weirdos on board. (Not us.) This is pretty normal for the Perth-Fremantle rail line, but it's apparently worse at night.

In Fremantle we had to wait for our bus connection in front of the station. I noticed that there was the Bikini Girls Massage Parlour opposite. It didn't look very busy, or inviting. There's a pic of it in the folio and also another on the Panoramio site. I'd like to sometimes submit more offbeat stuff for Panoramio - warts and all depictions, without the usual glossy spin found in tourist images.

So where's the photographs of our visit to Perth yesterday? Just click on Mr Squiggle's pencil below.

A Perth excursion - 15 April 2008

© MMVIII Paul R. Weaver.

Click here to visit 'dogandcatwatcher', my YouTube website.

Original still photographs are stored online in a cache at my Panoramio website or my Picasa site. Most of them have a brief description and a link back to a relevant essay. Images on Panoramio can usually be enlarged several times by clicking them.

About the writer

Click here to see our backyard.

Check out each month's subject index on the Calendar Page for my "common-man" monologues about survival in 21st century Australia – plus a little history occasionally. An original essay is added most days as part of an undertaking to write at least couple of million words. Zzzzzzzz!