Perth’s Public Transport Network – My First Impressions

Not so long ago I wrote a high level overview of Perth’s public transport system.

To be honest, this information was very much gleaned from research I had done on the web so now that I’ve been here for a couple of months and experienced some of Perth’s transport system first hand I thought I’d write a new entry to give you an idea of what to expect from Perth’s transport options if your thinking about coming to this part of Australia.

Since arriving in Perth at the end of December I’ve found myself using Perth’s public transport system a lot more then I’d have ever of imagined.

When we were renting in the Northern Suburb of Mindarie Keys, I think I only drove into the CBD once (on my first day) and to be honest, I was pretty surprised at how busy the freeway was at about 7am.

Many years ago the freeway in Perth was described as a new freeway looking for cars (or something like that) and even now, when driving on the freeway outside of rush hour it’s a positively pleasant place to be and that’s how I remembered it from our time in Perth last February. Read more

Popularity: 8% [?]

All About Perth - Perths transport system

Perths Transport System

Perth is served by Perth Airport in the city’s east for domestic and international flights and Jandakot Airport in the city’s southern suburbs for light aviation.

Perth has a road network with three freeways, nine metropolitan highways and no toll roads.

Perth metropolitan public transport, including trains, buses and ferries, are provided by Transperth, with links to rural areas provided by Transwa. There are 59 railway stations and 15 bus stations in the metropolitan area.

The Government of Western Australia has significantly increased metropolitan public transport funding in recent years. Initiatives include progressive replacement of the bus fleet and the SmartRider contactless smartcard ticketing system. Additionally, the rail network has been expanded in the northern and southern suburbs as part of the New MetroRail project.

The Indian Pacific passenger rail service connects Perth with Adelaide and Sydney via Kalgoorlie. The Transwa Prospector passenger rail service connects Perth with Kalgoorlie via several wheatbelt towns.

Rail freight terminates at the Kewdale Rail Terminal, 15 kilometres south-east of the city centre.

Perth’s main container and passenger port is at Fremantle, 19 kilometres south west at the mouth of the Swan River .A second port complex is being developed in Cockburn Sound primarily for the export of bulk commodities.

Popularity: 5% [?]

All About Perth - Tourist attractions in and around Perth

Tourist attractions in and around Perth

Weeks or even months can pass in Perth without substantial rainfall. One of its main attractions are its beaches, located along the city’s coastal suburbs. Perth’s beaches are not as developed as becahes in other Australian cities.

Perth City

The centre of Perth is located on the northern bank of the Swan River, a part of the River known as ‘Perth Water’ and roughly comprises three parallel sections.

The central business district, close to the river, runs along St Georges Terrace and Adelaide Terrace and is the historical core of the city. It includes Government House and several office towers. Parliament House is on the hill to the west looking along St Georges Terrace towards the Darling Scarp.

The retail district, which has its focus on the Hay and Murray Street Malls. These pedestrian malls are interconnected by arcades and walk through shops. Over time the number of hotels in this area has declined, with new hotels being built at the eastern and western ends of the city. Forrest Place, connecting Wellington Street and Murray Street, is a popular meeting spot, and is the site of political rallies and public events. Closed to traffic and redeveloped in the mid-1980s, it is flanked by the Commonwealth Bank and GPO buildings on the west, and the Forrest Chase retail development on the east.

The entertainment and cultural precinct, known as Northbridge commences at the point where the railway land cuts through the city. It extends for at least four blocks north, and is bound at the east by the Library, Art Gallery and Museum, and to the west by the northern suburbs railway.

Kings Park Perth

Kings Park occupies 1,000 acres (4.06 km²) of the crest of a large hill (Mt Eliza) overlooking the CBD.

Larger than New York’s Central Park (843 acres (341 ha)), Kings Park contains Perth’s botanical gardens as well as tracts of natural bushland.

During spring, Kings Park bursts into a world-class display of wildflowers, which is a popular tourist attraction. In August 2003, the Lotterywest Federation Walkway was opened in Kings Park. It is a 620 m long elevated walkway through the treetops, providing a remarkable bird’s eye view of the park and gardens as well as sweeping views of the Swan River.

Perth is a relatively green city, with an abundance of parks and tree-lined boulevards.

Swan Bells

The Swan Bells is a bell tower siting on the edge of the Swan River. It is a copper clad structure representing the sails of a ship.

It houses bells from the church of St Martin-in-the-Fields, which were gifts from the United Kingdom to the people of Australia on the occasion of Australia’s 200-year anniversary of colonisation.

The Swan Bells was opened to the public in 2001.

The government of Western Australia took a significant amount of criticism for creating the Bell Tower; it was said that the significant funding allotted for the project (millions of dollars) could have been better placed into the health and education systems, and that the structure could have been better designed aesthetically.

The Perth Convention Exhibition Centre

The Perth Convention Exhibition Centre opened in September 2004. Situated on the river foreshore, only a short walk from the CBD, the Centre is WA’s only purpose built convention, exhibition and meeting centre. It can cater for functions of up to 2500 delegates.

The Centre is expected to attract increased tourism for the state. It is jocularly referred to as ‘The Hayshed’, because of its flat and extended design which originally was intended to resemble a gum leaf.

Perth Mint

Perth Mint is the oldest still-operating mint in Australia. One of two legal tender mints in Australia, the other is in Canberra.

It is open to the public 7 days a week and includes displays and the Perth Mint Shop which buys and sells precious metal proof quality gold and silver coins, bullion, nuggets and jewellery

Islands off the coast of Perth

There are a few islands off the coast of Perth, notably Rottnest Island, a significant tourist attraction.

Other nearby islands include Garden Island (home to a naval base), Carnac Island, Seal Island and Penguin Island. It is possible to walk from the mainland to Penguin Island at low tide. All of these Islands are ‘A’ class nature reserves with restricted access.

The deep shipping channel between Perth and these islands is called Gage Roads, the site of the America’s Cup yachting challenge in 1987.

Fremantle

The historical port city of Fremantle is located at the mouth of the Swan River, and is home to many attractions including Fremantle Prison and the mammoth newly-constructed Western Australian Maritime Museum. Located on the dock at Victoria Quay, the museum houses ‘Australia II, the yacht which won Australia the America’s Cup in 1983. Also in Fremantle is the Maritime Museum shipwreck galleries, with recovered artifacts and part of the hull of the shipwrecked Dutch ship Batavia, from hundreds of years ago. A more recent vessel, the Oberon class submarine the HMAS Ovens has been retired next to the Maritime Museum.

Fremantle (or ‘Freo’ as the locals call it) is renowned both locally, nationally and internationally for it’s easy-going, laid-back lifestyle. Cafes are the heart and soul of Freo, and one cannot visit Fremantle without going to the Fremantle Markets, before having one of the many varieties of coffee on the city’s infamous Capuccino Strip - South Terrace. There are numerous arts and crafts stores to suit all tastes and budgets. Fremantle is well-known for its local Arts scene.

At nightfall, Fremantle is a music-lovers’ paradise. Venues such as the Fly by Night Club and the Newport Hotel offer intimate, but venerable paradises for concerts, other events, or merely chilling out. Fremantle showcases the best in local and international talent. In addition, Fremantle offers many opportunities for clubbing with venues as the Harbourside, Millennium and the Metro.

Other must-see attractions include the Fremantle Arts Centre, as well as the historic precinct around the Round House - Western Australia’s earliest remaining building.

The Aquarium of Western Australia

Perth is home to Australia’s largest underwater walk-through aquarium, AQWA (The Aquarium of Western Australia), at Hillarys Boat Harbour, about 20 km North of Perth.

AQWA first opened in 1988 as Underwater World, but changed its name in 2001 to emphasis it’s links to Western Australia and to avoid confusion with the Underwater World in Singapore, has over 400 species of marine life including fish, sharks, fur seals, sea dragons, turtles, crustaceans and stingrays in a natural like environment.

Following the closure of the Atlantis Marine Park in Yanchep, Underwater World was the home to performing sealions and dolphins. In late December 1999 all of Underwater World’s dolphins died, with forensic tests revealling that the cause of death was deliberate poisoning. AQWA is also used for rehabilitation of injured or sick sea creatures, mainly sea lions, turtles and seals.

Whiteman Park

Whiteman Park is situated in picturesque bushland 25 minutes North East from the City Centre, it forms the western boundary of the Swan Valley wine region. The Park covers an area of more than 42 square kilometres (16 mi²) with nearly half of this classified as high value conservation bushland or wetland. The Park also protects the southern portion of the Gnangara Water Mound - a large underground water source that supplies up to 40% of metropolitan Perth’s drinking water.

The Park takes its name from Mr Lew Whiteman (1903-1994), a prominent local identity and enthusiastic collector of artifacts. His family settled in Guildford from England in the late 19th century and Lew acquired some land around Mussel Pool in the 1940s. This, and other land held by a variety of private owners, was purchased by the State Government in 1978 and combined to form Whiteman Park.

All native wildlife in the Park is protected and more than 100 bird species have been identified. Along with 32 reptile, 7 amphibian and 8 mammals. The Caversham Wildlife Park, containing over 2000 animals and birds of 200 different species, recently moved into an area of park near the Village. There are also a number different collections of transport and machinary equipment as well as working historical tram and Rail lines

Swan Valley Wine Region

The Swan Valley wine region is approximately 16km East of Perth and is Western Australia’s oldest established wine region. It is home to over 35 wineries, many of which have restaurants or cellar-door facilities that are open to the public. Bus and boat tours of the swan valley run regularly from the city.

Perth Beaches

Relatively warm water and mild to large swells make beach-going a popular activity during the warmer months of the year.

Perth’s Indian Ocean beaches stretch for 30km north of the Swan River. There are also inshore beaches along the Swan River at Crawley, Nedlands, Peppermint Grove and Mosman Bay on the north shore, and Como, Canning Bridge and Applecross on the south.

Swimming beaches include the popularCottesloe , near the Cottesloe train station, City Beach, Swanbourne Free Beach, which has nude bathing, Scarborough Trigg and Hillarys.

Popularity: 5% [?]

All About Perth - Perth Education

Perth Education

Perth is home to four public universities, and one private university: the University of Western Australia, Murdoch University, Curtin University of Technology, Edith Cowan University, and the University of Notre Dame respectively.

The University of Western Australia, which was founded in 1911, is renowned as one of Australia’s leading research institutions.

The university’s monumental neo-classical architecture, most of which is carved from white limestone, is a notable tourist destination in the city. Curtin University of Technology is Western Australia’s largest university, and was known from its founding in 1966 until 1986 as the Western Australian Institute of Technology (WAIT).

Murdoch University was created from land held by UWA in the late 1970s. Edith Cowan University was established in the early 1990s to cope with tertiary education needs in the north west metropolitan area of Perth. The University of Notre Dame was established in 1990 and was the first Catholic university in Australia.

Popularity: 5% [?]

All About Perth - Perth Sports

Perth Sports

Perth is very conducive to an outdoors lifestyle, and this is reflected in the wide variety of sports available to citizens of the city. Perth was host to the 1962 Commonwealth Games and also the 1987 America’s Cup defence (based at Fremantle).

Australian Rules Football is a popular spectator sport in Perth, with over 1,030,000 attending WAFL and AFL matches, more than any other sport in the state. [1]

Interestingly, Perth has the strongest regional (State/County/Province) field hockey competition in the World. There are many field hockey clubs for children, men, women and veterans (over 40 year of age). Western Australia (especially given it only has 10% of Australia’s population) hugely contributes to the national Australian men’s and ladies’ hockey teams which have both been winners of Olympic Gold Medals.

Perth is home to several teams which are part of national sporting competitions:

Two teams in the Australian Football League (AFL): the West Coast Eagles and the Fremantle Football Club (the “Fremantle Dockers”). The “home” of Australian Rules football in Perth is Subiaco Oval.

A state cricket team, known as the Western Warriors.

A football (soccer) team, Perth Glory, which is a part of the newly re-formed soccer competition known as the A-League. In the past Perth Glory have been a relatively successful team by winning the last two NSL (National Soccer League) seasons (2002-03 & 2003-04).

A team in the National Basketball League, the Perth Wildcats, who are one of the most successful teams in the league’s history. However, the popularity of basketball as a spectator sport in Australia has sharply declined since the early 1990s.

A rugby union team, the Western Force, in the Super 14 competition. Perth also hosts the “Perth Gold” team in the Australian Rugby Shield competition. Rugby league briefly maintained a Perth team in the national competition (1995-1997), known as the Western Reds (Perth Reds in the Super League season)

In 2002, Perth hosted the World Lacrosse Games, which included the World Lacrosse Championships (won by the United States), the Australian Youth Lacrosse Championship, a Masters (35+ year old), Grandmasters (45+), and International Open Championships.

The 1991 and 1998 FINA World Championships were held in Perth.

Every year Perth hosts the Hopman Cup, an international tennis tournament, generally in the first week of January. This is held at the Burswood Dome, and presents Perth on an international stage.

Perth is also home to the annual Avon Descent whitewater event, and the annual Rally Australia.

Every summer the Australian cricket team plays a test match and one one day international matches at the WACA ground. Of the two touring teams for the one day internationals one will play two games the other will play once.

Popularity: 4% [?]

All About Perth - Perth Culture

Perth Culture

Social structure

The “Western Suburbs” between Perth and the Indian Ocean, contain the highest income suburbs notably the locations of homes of the wealthiest individuals becoming landmarks and tourist attractions.

The “Eastern Suburbs” around the airport are less desirable suburbs, many light industry and main roads co-exist with the residential areas. Crime rates are higher in the “Eastern Suburbs” than the “Western Suburbs”.

The “Northern Suburbs” extend from Northbridge to Joondalup and are mostly based along the coast, contain a lot of new housing, new developments & many new migrants especially from the UK decide to live here.

The “Southern Suburbs” are where the bulk of Perth residents live, extending from Kwinana in the South West, Armadale in the South East, Fremantle in the West & Belmont in the East. Most houses in the “Southern Suburbs”, including Fremantle, were built before 1970 and they are established suburbs with most residents being Australian Citizens.

The majority of industry and jobs in Perth, outside of the CBD, are based in the Southern Suburbs.

The outer suburbs, well away from the city to the north and south, are referred to as “Mortgage Belt” suburbs, where the low to middle income population of Perth are often commented about during Federal and State Elections as to their collective responses to government policies that might affect their well-being.

Isolation and attitudes

Western Australia, or specifically Perth was the most reluctant participant in the Commonwealth. Residents of Kalgoorlie and Albany voted to join the Commonwealth, and the proposal of these areas being admitted separately was considered

The secessionism has been a recurring feature of Western Australia’s political landscape since shortly after European settlement in 1829. The idea of self governance or secession has often been discussed through local newspaper newspaper articles and editorials and on a number of occasions has surfaced as very public events including a State referendum in 1933. Organised groups have been established to agitate when the timing has been to their advantage. Prominent Perth business people continue to raise the possibility of secession.

Almost all the stereotypes of an Australian (’rough and tumble’, friendly, athletic, etc.) exist in Perth and are very much an integral part of Perth’s culture. When one thinks of a typical Australian stereotype, it came out of Western Australia.

Perth Ethnicity

Because Fremantle was the first landfall in Australia for migrant ships coming from Europe in the 1950s and ’60s, Perth experienced an influx of Croatian, British, Macedonian, Italian, Dutch and Greek migrants. The name of quite a few migrants who arrived during this period are listed on an honour board outside the Maritime Museum. More recently, large-scale immigration to Perth by air from the UK has continued, giving Perth the highest-proportion of British-born residents of any Australian city. In some areas in the far south of Perth (Rockingham) and the far north of Perth (Joondalup) the populations are higher than 20 per cent British by birthplace.

Perth also has substantial immigrant communities from South East Asia such as Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Indonesia, China, India and Sri Lanka (Many of whom emigrate from their home countries for educational purposes). The Indian community includes a substantial number of Parsees who emigrated from Mumbai. Another source of immigration has been Southern Africa, with many white South Africans and Zimbabweans settling in the city.

Many migrants are from New Zealand, due to the fact that New Zealanders, unlike other foreign nationals, are eligible for ’special category’ visas, which allow them to live and work in Australia.

Popularity: 5% [?]

All About Perth - Perth Weather and Average Temperatures

Perth Weather and Average Temperatures

Perth summers are hot and dry, summer lasts from late December to late February, with February generally being the hottest month of the year. The hottest ever recorded temperature in Perth was 46.2 °C (115 °F) on 23 February 1991.

Winters are cool and moist, though winter rainfall has been declining in recent years. The official temperature for Perth has only twice reached 0 °C, on 15 July 1997 and 27 July 1998. Even in mid-winter, maximum daytime temperatures only occasionally fall below 16 °C (60 °F).

You can view the average temperature for Perth throughout various parts of the year by clicking the small thumbnail to the right of this post (opens on a new page).

Though most rainfall occurs during winter the wettest ever day was on 9 February 1992 when 121mm fell. On most summer afternoons a sea breeze, which locals refer to as “The Fremantle Doctor”, blows from the south-west cooling the city.

Popularity: 8% [?]

All About Perth - Perth City Skyline

Traditionally, Perth and Perth’s Swan River have usually been viewed and photographed from Kings Park, situated on a hill to the south-west of the city or from the South Perth foreshore. The historical record of the view shows clear river banks close to the city and a low skyline through to the 1960s. Since then, the filling in of the northern side of Perth Water and crowding of the skyline have continued unabated.

Perth’s city skyline displays the economic prosperity the city currently enjoys. Its tallest building, Central Park, is by some measures the sixth tallest building in Australia.

Perth is a relatively small city in comparison with Sydney and Melbourne, the capitals of New South Wales and Victoria respectively, but it is still the fourth largest city in Australia.

The Central Business District is the financial centre of Perth, and while a hive of activity during the work week, is relatively quiet and deserted during weekends. Despite Perth’s CBD being quite small Perth has many large suburbs which have shopping centres, supermarkets, cinemas, takeaways and many other amenities.

Popularity: 5% [?]

All About Perth - Geography and Water Supply

Geography

Perth is set on the Swan River, so named because of the native black swans. A Dutch expedition in 1697 captained by Willem de Vlamingh led to Vlamingh naming the river after the black swans. It is a city that fills the sandplain that lies adjacent to the Darling Scarp known as the Bassendean Sand Dune Ecosystem. The metropolitan area extends to Yanchep in the north, Mandurah in the south, total distance of approximately 125km by road. From the Coast in the west to Mundaring in the east, a total distance of approximately 50 km by road.

The coastal suburbs take advantage of Perth’s oceanside location and clean beaches. To the east, the city is bordered by a low escarpment called the Darling Scarp. Perth is on generally flat, rolling land - largely due to the high amount of sandy soils and deep bedrock. Perth metropolitan area has two major river systems, the first being the Swan and Canning Rivers. The second is that of the Serpentine and Murray Rivers, which discharge into the Peel Estuary at Mandurah.

Water supply

In recent years, climate change has resulted in reduced rainfall in the region, reducing inflow into dams by two thirds over the last 30 years. The lower runoff into Perth’s dams and groundwater supplies, coupled with Perth’s relatively high population growth, has caused concerns that Perth will be “out of water” within ten years.

The Western Australian State Government has responded by introducing mandatory household sprinkler restrictions in the city. The State Government has also begun the process of constructing a sea water desalination plant in Kwinana (expected to be finished in late 2006).

Due to the emission of large volumes of greenhouse gases involved in sea water desalination, this plan has been criticised by some as environmentally unfriendly. The state government considered piping water from the Kimberley region, however this proposal was rejected in May 2006 due mostly to the high cost. Other proposals under serious consideration are extracting 45 gigalitres per year from the Yarragadee aquifer in the south-west or constructing another desalination plant.

Popularity: 5% [?]

All about Perth - History of Perth

Well, as I’ll be living there one day I may as well provide some information about our future home. I’ll break this post into a number of sections

Perth is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Western Australia, and is the fourth largest city in Australia, with a population of approximately 1.47 million in June 2005

It is a coastal city, located beside the fantastic Indian Ocean, and situated on the Swan River in the lower south-western portion of the Australian continent.

History of Perth

Although the British Army had established a base at King George Sound (later Albany) on the south coast of Western Australia in 1826 - to forestall rumoured annexation by France — Perth was the first full scale settlement by Europeans in the “western third” of the continent.

The town was established in 1829, as the capital of the Swan River Colony, a free settler colony. In 1850, as Western Australia, it became host to convicts, at the request of farming and business people who wanted cheap labour.

Naming and founding

The name Perth was chosen in 1829 by James Stirling. Stirling, a Scot, implemented the wish of Sir George Murray, Secretary of State for War and the Colonies, that the Swan River Colony settlement be named after Perthshire, which was his birthplace as well as his parliamentary seat in the British House of Commons.

On 1 June 1829, the colonists had their first view of the mainland and Western Australian’s Foundation Day has since been recognised by a public holiday on the first Monday in June each year. James said that Perth was “as beautiful as anything of this kind I had ever witnessed.” On August 12 that year, Mrs Helen Dance, wife of the Captain of the ship Sulphur, cut down a tree to mark the day of the founding of the town. Queen Victoria announced the city status of Perth in 1856.

After a referendum in 1900, Western Australia joined the Federation of Australia in 1901. WA was the last of the Australian colonies to agree to join, and did so only after the other colonies offered several concessions, including the construction of a rail line to Perth (via Kalgoorlie) from the Eastern States. In 1933 Western Australia voted in a referendum to leave the Commonwealth with a majority of three to one in favor of independence, but the election held at the time overturned the incumbent “pro-independence” government, replacing it with a government who did not support the independence movement. When the new government petitioned the United Kingdom for independence, the United Kingdom refused to act against the wishes of the government of the day.

Perth has prospered by becoming a key service centre for the natural resource industries, being the closest city to huge reserves of gold, iron ore, nickel, alumina, diamonds, mineral sands, coal, oil and natural gas. Most of the world’s major resource and engineering companies have offices in Perth.

Popularity: 5% [?]