Perth
9 - 10 November 2022
We arrived at the Double Tree in the Northbridge section of Perth at around 2 PM. See below for the view from our hotel room.
After unpacking the car, we ventured out shopping for things we forgot or intentionally didn’t bring.
Lesson Learnt: You cannot be brand loyal when shopping in a foreign country, usually you can find what you need, but with a different name. Also, Aussies don’t seem to do vitamin e or Calcium Citrate.
The Firestick, using NordVPN , worked like a charm. Unfortunately, we didn’t bring the correct power adapter. After lots of searching, we found one at Bunnings (=Home Depot). With much glee, Anthony plugged the US power strip we brought into the adapter, immediately killing all but two of the power outlets in the room.
We had dinner at the Brass Monkey Bar next to the Hotel, great food but zero service.
The next morning we had a huge breakfast at the Hotel Restaurant. Anthony went full English plus a bowl of fruit and yogurt. Julie got poached eggs and toast, with sausage and fruit.
We purchased replacement rain jackets in a shop on Hay Street. We were both pleased we got a New Zealand made jacket, Macpac, that we can’t get in the US. The logo looks like Mount Doom, from THE MOVIES.
After purchasing our shiny new jackets, we walked around Elizabeth Quay.
Inner City Perth has a system of free buses that run every 15 minutes. From Elizabeth Quay we went back to the Hotel and caught the Blue CAT bus to Kings Park.
Kings Park is the largest Urban Park in the World. It is 50% larger than Central Park in New York. We only saw a bit of the park today, but will be back for a longer look the next time we are in Perth. There is a War Memorial obelisk in the park, a monument to the Australian casualties in the “Great War” and WWII. Brilliant red poppies, knitted from yarn, surround the monument.
Later that evening, we caught the train to Freemantle, to attended the Torchlight Tour at the Freemantle Prison.
The prison is an imposing 19th century limestone structure, completed in 1885, built in 3 years by the convicts who would eventually live there. It initially housed convicts from England and Ireland who were shipped (literally) to Australia. At the time, Western Australia was underpopulated, and the convicts provided needed labor for the colony.
In 1886, the prison was transferred to Western Australia, and was used to incarcerate men, women and juveniles. The prison conditions were horrible. Initially, the cells were 4 ft by 7 ft and prison was severely overcrowded. Flogging was used to punish prisoners as late as 1940. And the prison was used for 44 executions. The Guards were trained not to intervene in fights, it was too dangerous for them. After a prison riot to protest the conditions at the prison, in the early 20th century, the walls were knocked down between two cells which doubled the living area. As the population of WA grew, so did criminal activity. So bunks were added to the rooms (and sometimes mattresses on the floor) to accommodate the increased population. The same WA government that would not build new prisons was too cheap to modernize the prison. The government decided to decommission Freemantle prison in 1983 but it was not finally closed until 1991.
The tour had plenty of jump scares and gruesome stories, the worst about a hanging were the corpse was decapitated. But the prison itself, and the horror of day to day life in an imposing relic from the 19th century was the most disturbing part of the tour.
All the restaurants were closed by the end of the tour, so we got fancy pretzels from a shop in Freemantle, and caught the train back to Perth. When we got back, the electricity worked in our room.
