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