Perth, what is there to see?

[davidpretorius]

Hi, my wife is to be matron of honour at her friends wedding in perth in october. She loves this organising stuff, so whilst she is in that "wedding" zone, i might sneak some astro stuff in.

anyway, i have a young family two girls 2 1/2 and 6, we will be arriving mid week and staying for around a week. The weekend will be tied up with all that wedding stuff, but i am keen to make a little family holiday out of it.

What are some of the things to do in and around perth and surrounding areas, given a 2 hr drive is a long time for us taswegians?

thanks for any input

[vindictive666]

have a look at kings park thats worth it :)

[rogerg]

Hmm, some things I can think of...


Take a drive up through the hills: Kalamunda, through to Mundaring Weir Dam, then Mundaring. Possibly continue out to York for lunch so you get a feel for the Wheatbelt (great place for astronomy, although York is the closer edge of it). Have lunch at York, drive back. York is about 60-80mins drive direct from the city. There's a couple of places to stop off at along the way like Mt Observation which shows you some Wandoo forrest (a sparce type of forrest that is spread throughout the wheatbelt, and at the right time of year can look great). York has nice cafe's & pubs to get lunch or a snack, and the Avon River to eat by if you like a picnic.


Most visitors like checking out some beaches, I'm not a huge fan of the city beaches so rarely go there. I'd suggest driving north to Guilderton, it's about 60-80mins again north from the CBD. Nice beach and small town. You could continue north a little more to The Pinnicles, they are a tourist hotspot and are interesting to see, once. But that might become a bit of a long day if you go to the Pinnicles.


Other touristy sots are Aqua - one of those underwater marine places you walk through, it's about 40mins drive north of the CBD, in an area with beaches and cafe's around again. The Zoo, while being a fairly standard tourist spot is nice, good for the kids and close to the CBD (10mins).


Heading south you could go to the beaches at Mandurah (40mins from CBD), inland to the forrests of Dwellingup (90mins from CBD) to see some logging history, nature reserves, some nice walks, etc. Also heading SE is Dryandra.


For astronomy, ASWA has it's Astro Camp at Dryandra in October (October 20 - 22) which is always a great weekend (visit for a night or 2 or just the Saturday). Dryandra is a very important nature reserve about 90 - 120mins drive from Perth where there is lots to do and see - CALM has a program there where you can book in to see nocternal mamals at night on a tour, there's lots of 'self drive tour' kind of drives to follow through the woodland, lots of walking tracks, etc.

If you like nature stuff, there is a privately owned nature reserve what conducts night tours, about 50mins from the CBD in the Avon Valley, they are great and you get to see lots of rare and endangerred animals.


The Swan Valley (30mins north of CBD) would give you all the wineries, cafe's, mini golf, crafts, etc that you can handle. Also up in the hills is the Bickley Valley Win Trail, that includes home made icecream, pottery and some crafts but is much smaller than the Swan Valley region and best visited on a weekend.


And, if you're here at the right time to visit an ASWA Lunar Night (October 28) it is about 30mins from the CBD and usually has a good turnout of 15-20 members with a good range of scopes and will give you a good dose of astronomy :-)

Roger.

[davidpretorius]

thanks guys, my wife is impressed and doesn;t think this site is such a waste of time for me anymore!

it looks like the 14th will be the weekend

[GrampianStars]

Northbridge @ nite' ;)

[Volans]

G'day David,

Perth Planetarium known as "Horizons" for some indoor astronomy and it's right beside the SciTech science museum.

If you like beer then try to get hold of some Little Creatures Pale Ale...they brew it just down the road in Fremantle and it is awesome stuff!!

And I've just remembered...the WA museum has 3 huge meteorites on display from Mundrabilla which are pretty impressive.

Peter.

[beren]

Gday Dave some things I can quickly think of....
1.Day exploring the city CBD-nice way to start is coffee and breakie at the barrack street jetty and use the free public city transport to get around.Plenty of cafes and pubs to choose for lunch etc.WA museum and art gallery, Horizons and Sci-tech are close at hand and plenty of shops to check out.
2.Perth Zoo, one of my favourite places , its a good days outing.Theres a few more wildlife parks near Perth
3.Fremantle like the city is a good days exploring, the maritime museum is pretty good with views of the entrance of the harbour.
4.Swan river cruise- maybe integrate a visit to freo by catching a ferry from the city
5.Rottnest island -you can either catch a ferry from freo or hillarys boat harbour {30 mins north of perth and has some nice cafes/shops and sheltered beaches}.Haven't been to Rotto for ages but had a ball when I did go , kids will love the resident Quokkas {dwarf like wallabies}.
6.Penquin island - small island just of the coast near Rockingham and not far from Garden Island that serves as a base for the RAN
7.Adventure world -theme park, not to the same standard as the big ones in Queensland but still not bad {next door to it there is a bungee jumping venue}
8.Swan valley spring festival- think around that time the wineries in the swan valley have a series of art/wine and music festivals
9.Kings Park- top lookout views of the city and the swan river, nice walkways and a excellent place for a picnic.
10.Perth Observatory-has tours on Sunday afternoons {start at 3pm i think}, also its nice driving up that way to.

http://www.westernaustralia.com/en/

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v149/beren/Cityatdawn1Small.jpg

[Blue Skies]

Sorry to get technical but it's Horizon the Planetarium and it's next to Scitech which is an interactive science centre, not really a musuem (but I know that's what you eastern staters tend to call your science centres) If you come along you might even meet me there if I'm rostered on to be presenting that day. :D

[davidpretorius]

looking fanstastic, great responses all, thanks