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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.
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