Perth - City of Sunshine

November 15, 2025

Perth - City of Sunshine

February 2025

Given we only had one full day in Perth, we made an effort to get up early and get cracking!

First decision was breakfast, and we decided to walk down to the waterfront to enjoy a brunch at Elizabeth Quay on the Swan River. Our hotel was conveniently located on Hay Street in the Central Business District (CBD) so it was an enjoyable stroll down through the streets and plazas to the riverfront where our first Aussie brunch awaited us: loads of avocado, poached egg, bacon and a delicious coffee (we were soon to learn that coffee really IS great - always smooth, never bitter, and beautifully presented - wherever you go in Australia). Surrounded by richly coloured exotic plants and unfamiliar birdsong, we watched the boats ply the mighty Swan River around which Perth was born.

We toyed with the idea of a river trip but concluded it would take up too much of our day, so decided to walk back through the nearby park, popping into the Bell Museum and cathedral on the way. The Bell Museum, right next to Elizabeth Quay houses the original bells from St Martin in the Fields in London, together with the biggest bell in Australia, namely the Anzac bell. The Bell Museum was a millennium project and was built to look like a black swan, for which Perth is famous.

By now it was already getting very hot, so I was keen to get back for a quick bask in the rooftop pool of our hotel, but greatly enjoyed the stroll through the streets bustling now with workers going about their day. Rather than obsessing over must-do sights, I always think the best way to ‘feel’ a city is by participating in and observing the rhythms of local life: students grabbing a sandwich and sitting in the park; office workers bobbing in and out of cafes and restaurants; worshipers partaking in a service in the cool of the cathedral; shoppers and tourists mingling unknown to each other in the many retail districts, several of them recently renovated and re-developed, along with so many other areas in this capital of sun-baked Western Australia.

After some refreshment by way of the pool, we set off again, this time in the car as we were heading down to have a look at Fremantle and get a quick dip in the Indian Ocean. We couldn’t help feeling as we drove south, how Perth has a distinct American feel to it with its wide highways and out of town shopping hubs. The traffic flows freely in Australia (despite draconian speed limits) and soon we were pootling through the suburbs of Fremantle which seemed charming enough - a mix of a Hollywood set and modern seaside dwellings. It was all very agreeable and we pulled up into a convenient car park and had our first experience of the warm waters of the Indian Ocean. By the showers I fell into conversation with a friendly chap whose girlfriend came from Manchester and whose son was currently in Palawan in the Philippines where our eldest daughter also currently was. Oh what a small world it is!

With no time to dawdle, we got back in the car and headed north again to Hillary’s Beach Club where we were to meet the friends from home who we travelled across with as they were coming over to meet up with family over here in Perth. It felt strange to be sitting with them here on the edge of the largest continent in the world, as the sun set on those tropical waters, when we were more used to sharing pints together in our local pub in the winds and rains of North West England! Our rendezvous was 6pm for food and the joint was jumping when we arrived. But by 9.30pm the place was empty and the chairs were on the tables - this is going to get a bit of getting used to for me and N who have always had decidedly later eating habits!