COLOURFULWORLD

Friday 18 November 2016

Open House Perth II and Food Festival

As promised in my last post, here are some more venues that I visited during last weekend's Open House Perth.

3. City of Perth Library



The new Perth library is a super modern 7 storey round building, situated behind Cathedral Square, in Hay street, and inaugurated in March this year.
I'm glad I had a chance to visit it, as the interior is really amazing!  Covering an area of 3,500m2, and each floor is targeted to a different audience (if I can describe it that way!) - adults library, children's only floor, young adults floor, meeting rooms and multi-function room, History centre floor.  Free Wi-fi is available and public use computers too.
The ceiling that can be seen from the adults library floor was painted by Andrew Nicholls and called "The Isle is full of noises".
There is a terrace too with views over Cathedral square, Perth's city hall and even the Swan River. The children's area that can be seen on the photo on the second row has trees, bean bags and a roof with a view.


























4. State Buildings



Also in the Cathedral Square Precinct, on the corner of Barrack st and St George's Terrace, are the State Buildings, a 19th century building that used to be Perth's Post office.
It lay vacant for 2 decades and after extensive remodeling it opened about a year ago as a high-end retail and hospitality centre. 
On one side of the building is the entrance to a 48 room boutique hotel - Como - The Treasury, recently voted second best hotel in the world by Conde Nast travel magazine.
On top of the hotel is a glass box rooftop restaurant - The Wildflower.
There are a myriad other small restaurants, beer and wine bars, boutiques, chocolate makers, flower shop...

Como- The Treasury and The Wildflower restaurant in the rooftop glassbox
5. Curtin University - St George's Terrace hub
    

Originally Perth's Boy's School, this is the oldest government school building in Western Australia. Built in limestone was constructed in 1854 and resembles a church, although the bell tower and spire have been removed.
Last year Curtin University transformed the building into a central location to provide course information to prospective undergraduate and postgraduate students.
The main hall is also used for public exhibitions.


Inside the Curtin University Perth hub



















6. His Majesty's Theatre



This Edwardian Baroque theatre constructed from 1902 to 1904 during Perth's gold rush, is situated on the corner of Hay and King streets and seats over 2,500 people. 
When constructed, it Australia's biggest theatre and was one of Australia's first reinforced concrete building too.
After an uncertain future, it was bought in 1977 by the West Australian government who undertook a 3 year refurbishment.
I didn't go inside the performing hall as there was a long queue, so only took photos of the entry hall.














And after hours of walking I was feeling tired and famished...and it was time to get to the World of Food Festival that had started at 11am and would end at 3pm.

World of Food Festival 2015:

Government House

Held at Government House Gardens in St George's Terrace, by the Consular Corps of WA, this is a free annual event that features food stalls of traditional cuisines, cultural performances, petting zoo, children's games and face painting.

Gardens, Zoo, Games, Dancing, Food stalls

AND THE BEST WAS....I got to hold a little joey. My husband bought a Belgium waffle and a young girl there was holding him and I was asking questions and she asked if I wanted to hold him.
Of course I did! He 3 or 4 months old, was being cared for during a year in a foster program as he had lost his mom.
Apparently he slept in the girl's bed and was fed bottled milk 4 times a day, and hated being left alone in the backyard, as he considered himself part of the human family.

                


And believe it or not, after having had our late lunch here, my husband and I walked about 15 minutes  towards Elizabeth train station to return home, but decided to take a detour and have a refreshing ice-cream at Elizabeth Quay.

An so ended a wonderful and informative day...I don't know how many kms I walked but I walked many kilometres all over town and my feet were killing me!!!

View of Perth CBD from Elizabeth Quay
And to end it all - a refreshing ice-cream

10 comments:

  1. Very impressive. Open House in various cities just grows and grows. We saw the City Library and it was great but unfortunately the the upper terrace was closed for repair, which was odd because it is a very new building. The Quay gets better and better.

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    1. Thanks Andrew. Odd indeed, but the same happened with the water playground at Elizabeth quay, it was inaugurated in January but closed shortly after as it was found the water had some bacteria, and it still hasn't reopened!

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  2. Well you thoroughly deserved that ice cream after all that walking. We are so lucky to live in a country with a vibrant city life and lots to do and the climate to enjoy walking around in it discovering new places... she says wistfully :)
    Enjoy your weekend
    Wren x

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    1. Yes,and I much prefer the longer warmer year instead of the colder longer year of Europe. Perth has certainly grown a lot culturally in the last 10 years which is great for the younger generation.

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  3. You live in a beautiful and architecturally diverse city. There were so many beautiful things to see, but that theater was so ornate, it reminded me of frosting on a wedding cake. Beautiful.

    The library was gorgeous, too, but that joey was a joy to see with you holding it. Talk about bonding to humans!

    Those two wheelers used to be used in Sci Fi stories, and now they are common in Perth. what fun. BTW, I'm sitting in front of a heater and wishing my hands were warmer watching you devour ice cream!

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    1. Thanks Elizabeth, it's nice to be able to get a backstage view of these old buildings. I feel sorry for you, I really don't enjoy winter...

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  4. Oh well done Sami, you guys must have been exhausted after all that walking. We really are lucky to live in such a lovely city. Really, really love your composition in the first shot, excellent! How cute the little joey, irresistible 😊

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    1. Thanks Grace. The joey was really cute, so happy I could hold him.

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  5. Perth's library looks great and cosy. It must be quite big as well as it have many different floors. How cool that you could hold a little Joey! It's a sweet story. Do you think they will be able to keep him?
    And of course, a nice day like that could only end with ice cream!

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    1. The joeys are only fostered for 1 year, I suppose they would grow too big for a normal backyard. They then go to wild life parks as they are used to people.

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