Icons of Influence Walking tour

One last post about my outings with the family while they visited in March, and I'll be back to posting about current events.

Because of a 8 hour delay on their departure flight, the family managed to win extra time that we used doing a walking tour of Perth.

We took the train into the city, but were about 10 minutes late to join the walking tour that departs at 11AM from the Information centre at the Murray street Mall near the Perth station.  I decided we could still go ahead and got a map to follow the same trail.
These are some of the highlights:

State Buildings - is a group of 3 buildings which includes the original General Post Office, the Lands department and the Titles Office, all built in the late 19th century. They are situated in the corner of Barrack street and St.George's terrace, marking point zero, from which all measurements of distance from Perth are taken.
The buildings were empty for many years and have recently been renovated, now housing a top class hotel, restaurants and bars and some boutiques.

St George's Cathedral -  an Anglican church in St. George's Terrace, it was completed in 1888,  and it's interior is worth visiting because of it's many beautiful stained glass windows. 

Perth Library - not an old building, but a recently constructed one, stand just behind the Cathedral. If you climb to the 1st floor you can see a rather interesting painted ceiling.

Government House - also in St. George's Terrace, the residence of Western Australia's Governor, was completed in 1864 and is set in 3,2 hectares of beautifully manicured gardens.

Although not able to go inside (the house is only opened to the public a couple of times a year), the gardens are open to the public on Tuesday's, Wednesday's and Thursday's from 12 to 2pm.  (the photo of the house below was taken last year, on one of the open days)

And by the way, the present Governor is the Honorary Kerry Sanderson, the first woman to hold this position.

Perth Boys School - it was Perth's first Government school building, constructed by convicts in 1854, to look like a church so as to impose a sense of duty.

Next to it stands the Perth Technical School, built in 1910.

  

Forrest House Replica and Bishop's gardens-  At 221 St. George's Terrace, stands a replica of the home of Alexander Forrest - an explorer, investor and politician, Mayor of Perth in the 19th century, who built a house on the terrace in 1895.

The replica houses a popular bar - Rigby's. You can also visit the gardens behind the Forrest Centre building that stands right next to the replica - Bishop's gardens, a lovely relaxing refuge for the office workers with statues and waterfalls.

Barracks's Arch & Parliament House - At the top end of St.George's Terrace stands the Barrack's Arch, all that remains from the former Pensioner's barracks built in 1866 to house the ex-soldiers employed to guard the convicts.

Due to public protest, it avoided being demolished in 1962 to clear the view for parliamentarians at Parliament House. Eventually the back part of the building was removed to make way for the Kwinana freeway in 1966, but the main Arch was preserved.

From here you can look back and have a good view of St. George's Terrace.

Parliament House was opened in 1904 and can be toured on Mondays and Thursdays at 10,30am.

All along the Terrace there are plaques on the pavement recognizing the many people that have influenced the growth of Perth and Western Australia. (below right)

You might have noticed too that all these original buildings stand along St. George's Terrace, which was designed to be the city's powerhouse, a large avenue parallel to the Swan River. 

Today St George's Terrace is still Perth's powerhouse, housing many of the world's biggest names in business.

And so ends our walking tour of Perth's iconic buildings. Hope you enjoyed the armchair tour. We walked close to 12 thousand steps that day!!

                                                                                                                                  15th march