Playing in Perth

We are celebrating our "2 months in Australia" anniversary in Perth.  It is a lovely river city located on the west side of the continent and serves as the capital for the territory known as Western Australia (WA).  Blessed with gold, the area really began to grow as a boom town in the late 1800's. The area is rich in other minerals so mining remains a significant economic driver of the area.  We like the mix of old historic buildings and cutting edge sky scrappers that sit nicely together in the Central Business District of the city.
Old government building now hosts a H&M department store.
The waterfront hosts cafes, pubs, plenty of green spaces and miles of walking paths. There are sculptures and massive paintings on the sides of buildings sprinkled throughout the city as well as some really interesting shopping areas.  The food scene is overflowing with cafes lining every street and nearly every type of cuisine from across the globe available.
Waterfront area of Perth
We visited the Perth mint which was built in response to the massive amounts of gold found here in 1885.  The mint was actually owned by the British Commonwealth until 1970 but now belongs to the WA territory. 

Gold is still actively mined and some record breaking gold nuggets (think 80 lbs worth) have come out of this region.   We watched how gold bars were formed by hand until the late 80's in this mint which was pretty impressive!  This mint holds the world record for the largest coin ever produced.  The Australian One Tonne gold coin stands 2.5 feet high and is 4 inches wide.  She is estimated to be worth $50 million.
Her majesty Queen Elizabeth II
If you live in Australia, you are routinely reminded of the ties to the British Empire.  There seem to be many who live here who see themselves as Aussies first but the homeland is still England.  Perth is no different even though it is clearly a cosmopolitan town filled with a wonderful mix of European, Greek, Asian, Indian and Aboriginal cultures.  Of all the Aussie cities we've been to so far, this is definitely our favorite.

Next stop is out to Freemantle which is a coastal town that serves as the port for all of Western Australia.  We will have a view of the Indian ocean and look forward to walking on the beach again.

Cheers!

Dan & Cheryl






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