Let Perth Flourish

 

On the Coat of Arms of the City of Perth is the one word - Floreat - a latin word which means Let it Flourish. And after a day in this lovely City, it seems to me Perth has gone just that.

Waking Up

Having gone to bed at 2.30am this morning. I awoke at 8.23am and went to the loo and got ready for the day. Drew says he woke at 8.05am. 

With both of us awake, we did our ablutions, the shower here is really fast flowing, though the control is very sensitive, a tiny movement of the handle moves it from warm to freezing, so it is lovely, but don't knock the handle by accident. 

We unpack our cases, something we didn't have the energy for last night and go down to breakfast in the restaurant next to the hotel called Ivy and Jacks. There is a connecting door between the two buildings.  Breakfast is included in the room rate here and is a very good selection as the photos show. 

We again had three courses of breakfast each, still building ourselves up after the epic journey which started two days ago.

We came back up to the room, which has already been made up in the time we had breakfast. Having been too tired to do it last night, Drew took photos of the room this morning. 

Thankfully Captain Jack is well ensconced.

Sunday Mass

My original plan for this weekend had been to attend the Saturday Evening Mass at Perth Cathedral. But, clearly that option disappeared when the plane was delayed. Our sleeping in, necessary as it was, also excluded the 8am and 9.30am Mass. I therefore decided to attend the 11am Mass. We left the hotel at 10.15am and began the short walk (0.3 miles) to the Cathedral.

We stopped and looked around on the way - taking a photo of the Methodist Church at the end of the block on which the hotel is situated. The Methodists, in line with their tradition were singing with commitment and vigour as we walked past. 

With our meanderings we arrived at the Catholic Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception at 10.50am.  

The church was a combination of the old and new, with an main entrance and set of rows which were glass all around attached to the original three sides of the Cathedral.

Mass was packed, with over 600 people in the cathedral, including a number of people having to stand at the back as all the seats were taken. It was an amazing congregation with people of all colours, races and ages. Given how many churches I've attended recently when 66 is in the younger age group, it was good to feel like an oldey in a church with many children, youth and young families. 

The singing was lead by a really good thirty voice young male choir lead by the Cathedral's Director of Music: Jacinta Jakovcevic and the organist a 20 year old called Xavier Jarvis. They sang hymns that were very familiar to me - 'Holy Virgin by God's Decree' to start and 'Hail Queen of Heaven' to end - it is the 8th of September, which would, if not a Sunday, be the memorial of the Birthday of Mary, Mother of God.

Fr. Fernandez, the Director of Music, Organist and choir members

 - from the Parish website

They also led the singing of Charles Wesley's delightful hymn - Love Divine, all loves excelling - sung to the Welsh tune - Hyfrydol. Which went with great hwyl, even far from its original home.

Mass was celebrated by the Cathedral Dean, Fr Sean Fernadez, a native of Singapore, of Indian extraction, whose family immigrated to Australia when he was 14. It was truly a joyful celebration.

After Mass

Drew had taken the opportunity during Mass to take photos of the surrounding buildings, including the Catholic School opposite the Cathedral, the Cathedral Office buildings and other related items.

After Mass we were able to spend some time in the church taking the dignified, though restrained, stained glass. The photos will all go up on Flickr in the next day or two but the delayed flight, means my time to do this, has also been restrained. Here are a few to wet the appetite.  

London Court

One of the more quirky stops on our tour of the City was the alley called - London Court. It tries to capture a little of old England, with old style buildings, coat of arms and other features representing a London past. 

There is the air of Disneyfication about this place. One imagined Mary Poppins and Bert turning up at any minute! [Co-pilot's note: I, dear readers, resisted the urge to break into 'Step in Time']

Perth Mint

We next visited Perth Mint this government owned site still undertakes bullion transactions. Indeed, if today hadn't been Sunday they would have been selling and buying while we were there.

The Mint is a grand building with a fine entrance.

It is proud of showing its roots; with statues of gold miners at work.

The display of various artefacts was fascinating, but for a full insight you needed to take a tour, and the next one wasn't for fifty minutes, so we moved on.

Langley Park 

From the Mint we moved on to Langley Park it is a waterside and partly waterlogged (it has been raining in Perth for the last week - until we arrived, it is now pleasant and sunny) Park which runs along the Swan River. On Sundays it is full of runners, walkers, cyclists and people with prams - a busy but friendly place.

It was walking along the Swan River that I was asked for directions for the first time since coming to Australia. I wonder if I look Australian, or look well informed, because this occasion was followed by three more!

Barrack Street Jetty

From Langley Park we come to Barrack Street Jetty It was handy to find out way here, as we will be leaving from here tomorrow morning for our trip to Rottnest Island. 

The jetty is a working part of the Port, especially for tourism cruises and a selection of competing ferries to Perth Zoo - across the river - and Rottnest, of which more tomorrow.

The Bell Tower 

Directly opposite the Jetty is an amazing edifice called the Bell Tower, for obvious reasons. 

When next you are asked a trivia question about where the bells that say: "You owe me five farthings" are situated? Don't, like most people might, say: the bells of St. Martin's, which will be in St. Martin in the Fields Church, London - as the real answer, is that those bells that were sung about in that nursery rhyme are here in the Bell Tower in Perth - who knew, not I.

These bells are first recorded as being in existence from before the 14th century and were recast in the 16th century by order of Queen Elizabeth the First. They were updated further in 1725 and 1770. They were rung to mark England’s victory over the Spanish Armada in 1588 and for marking the New Year at Trafalgar Square, indeed, and the only slight Australian connection before they came here. The homecoming of Captain James Cook after his great voyage of discovery in 1771 were marked by the bells.

In the 1980s the church tower at St. Martin's was showing signs of stress due to the movement and sound of the bells. It was clear the church would fall if the bells were retained. There was a proposal to break the bells up and recast them into a lighter, modern peal of twelve, but instead Laith Reynolds, a wealthy Perth mining magnet heard of the plan to recast the bells and arranged a deal to bring the existing twelve bells to Western Australia as a gift to mark Australia’s Bicentenary in 1988 and in return, Western Australian mining companies donated sufficient copper and tin to cast a new peal of twelve bells for St Martin-in-the-Fields!

The Perth Bell Tower was built for these bells to be housed and celebrated.

Supreme Court

From the top of the Bell Tower we were able to see that across the road was the Western Australia Supreme Court, this wasn't on our list of places to visit, but enabled us to see a whole knew aspect of the City.

The Court is an august, working building, in the midst of a park dedicated to Captain Stirling, later Admiral Sterling, one of the inspirers of the Swan Valley Colony, the origins of Perth and Fremantle.

Oldest Building in Perth

Beside the Supreme Court is a small building with a sign outside saying it is the Oldest Building in Perth. 

It turns out it is the Court House from the early era of the colony. 

We went inside, while the space is small we were really impressed by the exhibits. Not only did it depict the look of a Victorian era court house, but it also addressed the role of the colonists on the local population, in a way which I've not seen done elsewhere in Perth. The map below shows the country (or land) of the various members of the Noongar confederation at the time the British arrived.

The display goes on to show how the British approach of doctrine of terra nullius (no one's land) applied to the colony. Imposing an alien approach to culture and law using the British legal system on a land and Aboriginal peoples who had, and still have, their own established systems of law. Some of which contradict the British approach. It was great to see this aspect of the colonisation, so infrequently mentioned, so clearly evidenced her. 

St. George's Cathedral 

Having completed the visit to the Oldest House we walked up to St. George's Terrace, just above that area, and came to St. George's Anglican Cathedral. 

The Church was open and we were invited to go inside. It could easily have been a British Church, transplanted here, so many miles away - except, thankfully, the acknowledgement of the land and its peoples

There are many examples of stained glass in the cathedral, both modern and traditional. I'm sure Robin will love every minute of it when we get them on Flickr.

Drew was also pleased to see that the Cathedral had Stations of the Cross, not present in all Anglican churches, so he can set me a challenge by taking them in the wrong order and getting me to rearrange them when they are loaded on to Flickr. Apparently, this keeps me busy and stops me thinking of new tasks to give him to do 😂.

Point Zero

Outside the Cathedral is the Point Zero sign for all the roads in Western Australia. The last Point Zero sign I'd scene was the one at the start of Canadian Highway 1, which begins in Victoria on Vancouver Island. 

Opposite the Point Zero sign are some statues of Kangaroos, which we enjoyed, having not seen any real ones yet!

Elizabeth Quay

Moving back towards the River Swan, we arrive at what was planned to be our destination before we saw the Supreme Court some hours ago! This is Elizabeth Quay, a newly refurbished area beside the River with a range of coffee shops, restaurants and bars and other entertainment.

It is very impressive and the boats, big and small, in the centre of the area between the quay and the modern bridge, 

makes it feel lively and vibrant.

Kings Park

On leaving Elizabeth Quay we walked the two miles along the well developed, and well signposted, riverside path to Kings Park. This large (990 acres) park was opened as Perth Park in 1897, to mark the accession to the throne of King Edward the Seventh it was renamed, in 1901, as King's Park and the apostrophe dropped off after time. (Which I just read on the website, as I'd been apostrophising it up to this point - now corrected).

The Park and their Botanic Gardens deserve a blog post in their own right, there is so much amazing flora and fauna it is hard to describe.

We spent two hours walking through the park, up the steps from the river level

to a location which gives great views back to the City.

 

Further into the park is the 1914-1918 and 1939-1945 War Memorial of Perth with its eternal flame.

The most significant element in the botanic garden is a Boab tree, brought from the Kimberley, way to the north of the continent, down to this park. 

The journey itself has a board explaining the complexity of the operation.

Return to the Hotel

Perth has the very civilised practice of promoting bus travel within the city, by offering free buses in the Central Business District (CBD) and a little beyond. The blue City Area Transport (CAT) covers a north-south route in the CBD, which includes Kings Park and our Hotel. So, having been out walking for 6 hours it seemed to make sense to catch the bus.

This was an interesting experience, as a young aboriginal lady got on the bus and began talking loudly to anyone who would listen and to those who tried not to. Much of what she said were from song lyrics, but adapted to take account of Aboriginal resistance to the coming of the 'white-fellas'. Some of our fellow passengers were nervous of her, Drew just asked me what drama school we thought she attended!! There were bits of 'Waiting for Godot' interspersed with her outpourings. She seemed happy enough, so we left her to it. 

Five stops later we were back at the hotel and drafting yesterday's blog post, while Drew looked at places to eat this evening. The place we went will be the start of the next blog post, so please come back for more!

Overview

Having left the hotel at 10.30am, we got back at 6.00pm. An hour of which I, at least, spent sitting and standing in Church. We have walked 24,000 steps which is 18Km or 11.25 miles. 

While the above, now I have written it up, sounds like a busy day, it actually felt quite gentle and relaxing walking through such a lovely city in such wonderful weather. 

There were many more things I could have retold, but I'll leave that to the proper holiday addicts who check out the photos on Flickr, when I've had the time to upload them.

In the meantime, we look forward to tomorrow's trip to Rottnest Island where the Quokkas live!