Day 52 – Perth

Today we spent walking around the city of Perth. Firstly we stopped at the Factory Outlet centre in Hay Street, as both Brendan and Sam had completely worn out their runners (all that walking in the Kimberley and Pilbara). Thankfully we were able to pick up some good runners for them both. Lily scored a new drink bottle, so she was happy. We enjoyed driving around looking at all the old buildings – Perth is a very pretty city.

 

Next up we spent a couple of hours exploring the beautiful Kings Park, one of the biggest city parks in the world. It has absolutely stunning views over the city of Perth, and the Swan River.

We also had another special reason to visit the park, to visit the Gallipoli memorial and find Brendan’s great great uncle Cyril Bolle’s name on the listing for the 11^th Battalion. It was easy to find, and we very pleased to find them.

 

We also had a drive around looking at the many individual plaques and memorials commemorating the lives of all the mostly young men that sacrificed their lives for their country. Very sad, and very poignant. We found the section where the fellow members of the 2^nd 2^nd Commandos Batallion, with whom Brendan’s grandfather fought, and thankfully returned from, were commemorated. So many young lives wasted, and it left us pondering just exactly how Charles Pickering survived his war in Timor, and returned home safe to his young family.

 

There is a wildflower festival on at the moment in Kings Park, so there are quite a few things of whimsy – such as ‘The Queens Tree’ complete with tiara.

The gardens are simply stunning – some of the best we have seen anywhere in the world. We enjoyed the Elevated Platform walk (overlooking the Swan River), and the treetops, and looking at all the beautiful WA flowers, banksias, everlastings, and especially the stunning colors of the kangaroo paws. Lily thought the red & green kangaroo paw should be called the “Christmas Flower”.  

 

We also enjoyed seeing the beautiful pink fairy orchids, and the floral clock with surrounding beautiful flowers.

After wandering around in the Spring sunshine, we then decided to visit the Royal Mint, and take a guided tour. We were glad we did, because it was a really great tour, and both kids really enjoyed it. Firstly we were taken into a room to watch a short video and to view the biggest solid gold coin in the world (it weighs one tonne). Then we wandered around the museum, looking at very old gold sovereigns, and everyone weighed themselves on a special machine that spat out a report telling you exactly how much you were worth (your weight in gold, literally!). The kids also stamped themselves a gold medallion as a keepsake. 

Then we wandered through the very old vaults, and tried to pick up a very heavy, very cold, solid gold bullion. (no free samples here!).  The next part of the tour was our favourite – we were ushered into a very old, strangely ventilated room, and took a seat. Our guide then proceeded to retrieve a small crucible full of gold from a very hot furnace, and then pour it into a special bullion mold. It was very impressive – liquid gold – a beautiful color!  He then dropped it in a vat of room temperature water, and it set almost immediately, so he then retrieved it and held it up before our eyes. Nice!

 

Oh, did I mention the gift shop?  Lovely, lovely jewellery (pink diamonds anyone?), which I resisted. Lots of special issue coins, charms, coin watches, and engraved beautiful gifts.  Must come back here one day when I have some money!

Alas, we ran out of time to see much more of the city today, so driving past the bell tower on our way back to the freeway to take us north, we headed for home.

 

The kids had the best time in the caravan park when we got back. They buddied up with some other kids on the jumping pillow and ran themselves ragged for an hour or so. They are both really starting to miss all their school friends, so it was great to see them relax and just have a play with kids their own age for a while.