Perth 9 – 12 January 2007

Found a pub in the city that holds the Perth Jazz Clubs weekly events. The venue was packed and we had a great time, but like good oldies were home by 11pm. The next day the weather was grey and felt like it might rain, but, no it doesn’t and the art gallery and the museum were the next attractions that engaged us.
The art gallery had a guided tour of indigenous art that we joined. This was a time to reflect on how much we had seen and learnt, as we recognised many of the artists and regional styles. The amazing aspect of the tour was that we sensed we had more insight into much of the art than the guide, who hadn’t been to the regions and used a European analytic view to interpret the paintings.
Then onto the suburb of Burswood that turns out to be a huge resort area on the south side of the Swan River. This was the location of the Casino, the only legal gambling outlet in WA, and was surrounded by a few grand hotels. The clubs in WA are very poor without the pokies and definitely don’t offer any cheap meals, or any food at all, in most cases. This was the first time since Darwin that we could get a subsidised meal. (Heather marvelled at the memory of the subsidised meals at Mayflower! Go Steve!) We tried our luck in the casino using all the free vouchers! The casino was decorated in the usual bad taste with massive amounts of glittering poker machines. After a meal, a drink and a flutter on the roulette table, we came out with $20 in front. The gardens in the surrounding parks and entrances were especially colourful with petunias on mass, much to Heather’s delight.
Spent one day exploring Perth Hills, including the dam that supplies water to Kalgoorlie 650 kms away. The pipeline was built around 1900 which seems amazing as they argue about the impossibility of building a pipeline from Lake Argyle in the north to Perth, although it’s estimated to cost $ billions. We enjoyed Kalamunda township which had a Blue Mountain character. Used the GPS to guide us back, as we felt completely lost due to all the changes in direction.