A popular thread now long buried in the archives dealt with what each of us saw as we looked out of our window. In the spirit of this past favourite, I tender that there may be some interest in comparing where you live against where somebody else lives. Apologies for the self indulgence, but I'll start the ball rolling...

Stales’ place

We live in South Perth, the centre of the known universe. Our house has a “cottagey” feel to it and is typical of the average place here. However, only hundreds of metres from here are houses with views of the river and city – the blocks alone costing in the vicinity of A$1.2 – 1.5M (halve it for USD). This is typical of Perth – even in the “flashest” suburbs you can turn a corner or drive down the street and be right back among some pretty ordinary real estate.

Our house was built in 1936 and is of the “Californian Bungalow” style very popular here between the wars. Leadlight windows, plenty of wood (floorboards, picture rails, skirtings, windows etc), ornate plaster ceilings etc.

South Perth

South Perth is located 3km south of the Perth CBD – on the south bank of Perth Water, a broad part of the Swan River. It was first Gazetted as a Roads Board on 19 June 1892. (“Roads Boards” were the historic Western Australian form of local government – created to administer and maintain the roads in what was (and is) a huge, but sparsely populated colony.) South Perth was Proclaimed as a city on 1 July 1952 and has remained the “City of South Perth ever since”. In 1999 its population was 37,523.

South Perth covers ~20 sqkm, of which 4.3 sqkm are parks and public gardens – (quite a high percentage I’d imagine?) There are 6 Pre Schools (my wife is the sole teacher at one of these), 12 Primary Schools, 1 government Secondary School and 3 private Secondary Schools.

South Perth has got to be a pretty unique place. I’m not that well travelled, but I can’t think of a place where you can lead a village lifestyle within walking distance (2 miles/3km) of the CBD of a major capital city? (We can’t get any closer, there’s a two mile wide river (“Perth Water”) between us and the tall buildings!). I said village lifestyle – the oldest houses around here range go back to the 1920’s (OK, I know we’re Johnny come latelies by world standards but, in Australia, 1920 was a long time ago!!) and block sizes are 400sqm to 1200sqm. (Don’t know what this is in acres, but our 615sqm block is about 40’ wide and 150’ deep.)

Perth

One of the great things about all of Perth is that there is no private ownership of riverside real estate. Well, there is....but we are talking no more than a couple of dozen blocks that benefit from some quirk of historic politics. This means that the foreshores of the two big rivers at the centre of Perth (the Swan and Canning) are available to everybody. It’s almost continuous parkland or beaches, with plenty of free electric barbeques, picnic tables. Running through these is an extensive network of cycle paths, used by both get fit types and commuters. In guiltier moments (usually after a week or two of conferencing and/or lunching), I do a lap of Perth Water – 10 km’s (~ 6 miles), the foreshore being 400m from my front door.

Perth itself is located in the south west of Western Australia, 15 – 20km upriver from where the Swan River flows into the Indian Ocean at Fremantle – famous for hosting the America’s Cup yacht race in the mid 80’s. It is reputed to be the most isolated capital city in the world, closer to Jakarta than it is to Sydney, Melbourne and the nation’s capital, Canberra. The nearest major Australian city (ie more than 40,000 people) is Adelaide, the capital of South Australia – a good three days drive away 2,700 km (2,000 miles) to the East.

Western Australia was stumbled on by Dutch sailors early in the 17th century looking for a quicker route to the Spice Islands (Indonesia) via the Cape of Good Hope. Many a shipwreck occurred during the 17th Century as the sailors missed the turn north and ended on the WA coast. Three hundred and twenty one shipwrecks occurred on the Western Australian coast between 1622 and 1945. Some famous examples are the “Batavia” in 1629, and the “Guldern Drakk” in 1656.

(An aside here re the Dutch East Indian merchantman "Batavia” - wrecked on reefs off the Abrolhos Islands in 1629. In a horrific chapter, a small band of bloodthirsty survivors of the shipwreck slaughtered more than 125 men, women and children. Many of the victims were eaten. The wreck of the Batavia was found some years ago and it, and its story, are graphically presented at the Maritime Museum in Fremantle. It's worth having a look at the Museum's site http://www.mm.wa.gov.au/Museum/march/department/batavia.html - though I note there's no mention of the cannibalism.)

Some of the early seafarers landed safely in WA, for example the buccaneer William Dampier and the explorer Dirk Hartog. Perhaps the most significant however as far as Perth goes was Willem de Vlamingh and his crew who discovered an estuary whilst looking for fresh water. They were stunned to find an abundance of swans which, in contrast to those known in Europe, were black. Vlamingh also encountered strange wild life on the small island 20 kilometres out to sea from the Swan River. The island was infested with large, hopping “rats” (or so they thought – these animals were known by the aboriginals as “Quokkas” and were in fact marsupials of the kangaroo family) so they named the place Rottnest ("rat nest").

In 1827 an English Captain surveyed the Swan valley the area and found an uncharted fertile valley that he decided was suitable for colonisation. Captain James Stirling travelled back to the colonies that had been established 50 years previously in the eastern part of “New Holland” and recommended to the Governor that a colony be founded in the Swan valley. After initially rejecting the idea, the Governor relented and on the 1st of June 1829, the first colony was established.

The going was tough for the new arrivals living on the beaches of Fremantle, Rottnest and Garden Islands. Many ships ran aground leading to the loss of the colonists’ possessions. They were inappropriately dressed for the harsh climate, water was scarce and influenza broke out.

Some of the land around the river was granted to the colonists, but the government retained the majority of the good land. By 1840 Western Australia had its first depression. Landowners struggled with the labourers, seeking to pay low wages for land clearing, which resulted in much of the local workforce departing for the eastern colonies. With England's goals still overflowing, a convict workforce was the best answer so it could be said that the murderers and petty thieves who arrived from 1850 to 1869 saved Perth from ruin. Productivity rose sixfold, the population dramatically increased and, after 19 years, Western Australia had its first export commodity, sheep. At about the same time (or slightly before?), sandalwood from the scrubby forests to the south east of Perth was exported to India, China and elsewhere in south east Asia.

FAQ

Western Australia is huge – TWICE the size of Texas, Japan and New Zealand combined. Bigger than all of western Europe (ie everything west of Germany and Italy inclusive – also including the UK and Ireland)

Average minimum temperature ranges between 12 and 15 degrees C. Zero is rare, 3 or 5 degrees overnight happens a few times each winter. Average maximum temperature ranges between 21 an 24 degrees C – though this doesn’t tell the story of summer, especially February. Try 30 consecutive days over 30 degrees – often including a week over 40 degrees!

Rainfall is low, chronically low at 24” – 36” p.a. Probably one of the few cities in the world where the TV weather presenters are genuinely excited to report imminent rain – or gleefully recount the rainfall for the past 24 hours. Official controls over water usage, even rationing, are regular summer events. The mean number of rainy days per month ranges between 2.5 (February) and 18.3 (July), with a total of 10 – 15 thundery days each year.

Perth is famous for its south westerly sea breeze, known as “The Fremantle Doctor”. I’m not sure what constitutes a breeze, but I think it’d be fair to regard the Doctor as more of a pocket gale! Kite flying, kite surfing and windsurfing are all very popular.


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Stinking hot days aside, it’s easy to love this place!

Really looking forward to learning about where you hang your hat!

stales