Day 76-79 Day Tripper (Part 1)
The Perth transport pass is actually called a ‘Dayrider’, but I think the Beatles song title ‘Day Tripper’ is more catchy! And I’ve been taking a few days trips around Perth over the last few days, exploring like I’m still travelling. Interspersed with this have been the mundane tasks of setting up life here: finding where the shops are; how to use the transport system; getting a local SIM card; and buying groceries. I won’t bore you with the latter dear reader, let's stick to the exploring.
I got the train into the CBD (do you remember what that means? - basically what the Aussies call the ‘toon’) from Stirling Station. I’ll cover most of Perth CBD in Part 2, for now, I was keen to explore Perth’s south coast. From the CBD I got the train out to Fremantle and had a look around.
Fremantle is a Port in Western Australia within the greater area of Perth. It was settled by colonists in 1829, named after an English naval officer (Captain Charles Fremantle), and is known locally as ‘Freo’. Freo is full of beautiful colonial-era architecture, but also has a modern arts and culinary vibe, and is home to one of the West Coast’s Aussie Rules Football teams.
However, Freo is most well known for its convict-built Fremantle Prison, as Fremantle became the primary destination for convicts sent from Britain. The prison was still in use for a long time after 1868 (when convict transportation to Australia ended). When I visited the prison, there was a band playing in the nearby ‘Freo Social’ bar. Aptly the band was playing Johnny Cash’s ‘Folsom Prison Blues’!
Much of the surrounding area is influenced by the prison, with one hotel named ‘Warders Hotel’! However, the prison isn’t all Freo has to offer. I went to the beach, imaginatively known as ‘Bathers Beach’ (it does what it says on the tin!). It was amazing watching the sunset there.
The previous night I had also been near Fremantle but not seen much of it. I was there to go to a Scottish Society whose thing was Scottish Country Dancing! The only times I’ve done anything remotely like this has been at weddings, or the Ghillie Dhu pub in Edinburgh (where I had several Belhaven Bests and a few whiskeys in me!). However, regular readers of my blog will know I try to find any Scottish connections wherever I go, so I thought I’d give it a try.
Speaking of Scottish connections, there is a Victoria Quay in Fremantle. The reason this interested me was because I used to work in Victoria Quay in Edinburgh’s Leith. The cool kids called it VQ, and it was just a government office building. The Freo version however was a proper port! The port was in fact deepened for commercial shipping and played an important part in the gold rush, and WW2 as a submarine base.
But back to the Scottish Country Dancing Society. It turned out to be good fun. They were an older crowd, but I’m used to that from the cruise ships. I was the only Scot just off the boat (literally and figuratively!), although some had been born in Scotland, and others had family ties. One or two still had strong Scottish accents. Everyone was really friendly and welcoming, and even though I was absolutely hopeless, they put up with me and asked me to come back. One of the group even gave me a lift home!
Another one of my trips was to Cottesloe Beach. This is according to my guide book “one of the most iconic locations of Western Australia”. It was certainly popular, as even on a midweek afternoon it was busy.
Cottesloe reminded me a bit of Coogee Beach (in Sydney) 20 years ago. Like Coogee it was a relaxed and fun beach, although I think it was the hotel at Cottesloe that reminded me of Coogee the most. As I talked about in one of my Sydney posts, I used to frequent the Coogee Bay Hotel for a refreshment or two, after a hard day of soaking up the sun on the beach. Maybe I’ll end up doing the same at Cottesloe this summer, although it will be less 'water of life' and more actual water (as I no longer drink)!
Coming back from my day trips, and changing trains in the CBD, I broke my journey by enjoying a few of the early Christmas celebrations in Perth. The CBD was lit up, Christmas music played, and live bands were performing. There was clearly more to see in the CBD, so that would be the next ‘Day Tripper’.
To be continued…