A - Z of Australia - Q is for Queen's Gardens

Within the city of Perth´s boundaries there are 18 parks, covering a total of 140 hectares of land.
On the eastern end of  of the city of Perth, right in the middle of the city´s hustle and bustle is a lovely park - Queen's Gardens - opened and named in 1899 in honour of Queen Victoria, by the then Mayor of Perth, Alexander Forrest.
Situated near the WA cricket arena (WACA), the park is easily reached with the Red Cat (free bus).
The park is modeled on a London park, with a lake with ducks and a copy of Peter Pan´s statue.

Queens Gardens grounds of 3,3 hectares, were first a common area used as a venue for horse racing, then a brick factory and clay pit site until 1890, later a botanic garden. From the 1900´s new improvements were made, such as new entrance gates, new bridges, installation of electric lighting, so that the garden could be used in the evenings...
Although almost in the centre of town, the gardens are a quiet haven where you can lie down on the grass with a good book, have a picnic, watch the ducks and black swans in the lily filled lakes (the old clay pits), wander to the herb garden in one corner, admire the flowers, watch the bird life...The park has also become a very popular venue for garden weddings and wedding photos.

Queens Gardens - the white towers are the lights of the WACA stadium

Colourful flowers all over the park

To mark the Western Australian State Centenary in 1929, the Rotary club of Perth presented the city with a statue of Peter Pan, a replica of the one found in Kensington gardens in London. 
Another famous, but this time genuine article, is the bench used in the film "Notting Hill" where Julia Roberts and Hugh Grant are sitting at the end of the movie. It was anonymously donated to the city of Perth by a local resident, and it bears a beautiful inscription "For June who loved this garden, from Joseph who always sat beside her" and "June Wetherby 1917-1992".
The park is enclosed by a wrought iron fence, and the facilities include plenty of wooden seats, a gazebo, public toilets, and a drinking fountain.

My daughter sitting on that famous bench of the "Notting hill" movie

Julia Roberts & Hugh Grant on the bench that is now in Queen's gardens (photo from net)

The friendly ducks by the famous bench

A - Z of Australia - P is for Public Transport

Having lived in Perth for just over 5 years, I have used my fair share of public transport and find Perth´s public transport to be very organized, reliable and punctual.

If you need to plan a journey or look up maps of where to get a bus or train, just go to the Transperth site and you will be surprised with the wonderful journey planning tools, timetables, detailed maps with all the roads and the hundreds of bus lines going through them. The buses also carry copies of their specific timetable with a map, so you don´t ever need to feel lost. Apart from that most bus drivers are quite friendly and helpful. The transport system is divided into nine travel zones which are defined by circles around Perth city. Each zone covers an area between eight to ten kilometres wide circle.

In the city centre, Perth is well served by the "CAT" buses" (Central Area Transit) that are free.
There are 3 bus lines - the yellow, the blue and the red -  going in different directions and overlapping at certain points. Fremantle  and Joondalup in the north are also served by a free CAT service. These buses help reduce traffic in the central business areas, as well as being quite handy for visitors and residents, as they go past all the main attractions and you can hop on and off whenever you wish. They run at about every 8 to 15 minutes intervals, and there is no limit to how often you get in and out.

The orange "CAT" in Fremantle, a red cat stop in Perth city, the Busport in the city and the Red cat

All other bus services that are boarded within the city boundaries are also free, in the so called Free transit zone. The main bus stations in the city are Wellington Street or the Esplanade Busport.

On routes where there are more than 1 bus, or very busy routes, you would get a bus stop sign like the one below where you can see the timetable for each of the various buses (which would be at the back of this sign), and a map with all the stops to enable you to choose the best options.

The more comprehensive Bus stop sign with maps, routes, timetables

A simple bus stop sign with no timetable

Tickets: If you are a casual user, tickets can be purchased through the driver if travelling by bus, through ticket machines in some train stations, or ticket offices at the main bus/train stations in the city.

But if you are a frequent traveller, you should rather purchase a "Smartrider", which is an electronic travel card for $10, from a Transperth info centre either at Wellington street or Perth Esplanade station, or other Transperth outlets around the city, as it makes it easier to travel and saves you a little bit of money too, the trips are cheaper, and you will soon recoup the $10 spent on the card. 

The Smartrider card

Then just load the card with the minimum of $10 and tag on (scan into the card reader) when you climb the bus or go through the turnstiles at the stations and tag off at your destination and the correct fare will be deducted depending on how many zones you travelled. When the money is getting low, when you tag on it beeps differently and you know you should recharge with the bus driver or at the machines with your bank card, or online via BPay.
Smartrider gives you 15% discount on cash fares, and if you choose the "auto top-up" via bank transfer, the fares are actually 25% cheaper. If you top up with a bus driver, don´t expect change if you give him a note, the minimum would be $10, unless you have a concession card, and then it would be $5. The driver will give you a paper receipt, but you still have to tag on to validate the trip.

Primary and secondary students can get a Student Smartrider enabling them to pay a 50cent fare, when travelling to and from school regardless of how many zones. People over 60 can get a Senior Smartrider, with reduced fares during peak hours (7 to 9am and 4,30 to 6,30pm),  but free during off-peak hours on weekdays and during the whole day on weekends and public holidays. University students also get a concession Smartrider with discount fares.

Your ticket entitles you to 2 hours of transport in any direction, so if you are quick enough you can zip into a shopping centre for example, do your shopping and get back on the bus to go home, all for the price of 1 ride!
Registering your Smartrider card with Transperth, would enable you to block the use of your card if you lose it (just in case you have it loaded with plenty of money) and you would also be able to view your travel patterns and fares charged, online.

Just don´t forget to tag off  when leaving the bus, otherwise you will be charged with the default fare to the final destination of your bus, the next time you tag on.
If travelling by train, you would be charged the default fare for 7 zones, which can be quite expensive, in my case for example as I only travel 2 zones! Paper tickets or the use of the Smartrider card enables you to use buses, trains, the ferry service, just make sure to tag off and tag on again in the new means of transport. Very simple indeed and a very good system!!

Recently I was in Adelaide where you have to buy a paper ticket with 1 or 10 rides for public transport, but they are soon introducing a card system like ours. People were being interviewed about this future development, and someone was saying "it was time a card system was introduced just like they use in London"! I had to laugh, why London, she didn´t have to go that far, Perth has such a system introduced to the public in 2007,  and they are right next door to South Australia!

One of the most used bus routes in Perth is the Circle route 98 (clockwise) and 99 (anti-clockwise).
They run every 15 minutes during the day and every 30 minutes at night and on weekends, and they stop at most shopping centres, schools and universities in Perth. The maximum fare you pay will be a 2 zone fare, even though you might cross many zones during the full 3 hours and 20 minutes the bus takes to complete the full circle. Another curiosity - around 180 thousand passengers use the circle route buses every week!!

If you use a wheelchair or are pushing a pram, the driver will lower the bus and a ramp will come out to enable passengers to get on board. There are also allocated seats for senior or parents with kids, and passengers on wheelchairs.

Automatic Bus ramp for wheelchair users or prams

Seats for Seniors or wheelchair users in a train

Ferries - there is a ferry running between Barrack Street Jetty in the city to Mends Street in South Perth, it takes about 10min, and it´s a beautiful way to see either side of the river. I always take my visitors on a ferry ride. There are of course other ferries from the city to Fremantle and to Rottnest island, but unfortunately your Transperth ticket does not cover these, you have to spend a bit more!

Ferry that crosses between Perth and the suburb of South Perth.

Apart from hundreds of bus routes, there are also 5 train lines coming out of the main train station in Wellington street in the city centre. Trains run about every 12 minutes, except during rush hour when they run about every 3 minutes.



Most train stations have parking facilities, some that are free which obviously will get full pretty quickly and early, and then others that are paid up. Parking vending machines are being installed and soon you will be able to pay parking using the Smartrider too. But of course taking the bus to the stations is encouraged. Bicycles can be stored at certain stations too, or they can go in the trains as long as they are transported after peak hours.

Bike storage facilities at Bull Creek station

Bull Creek Train station with a train on the tracks (on the Perth to Mandurah line).

Some interesting facts about Transperth:

- they have a fleet of over 1,100 buses, 222 rail cars, 2 ferries.

- they operate over 11,200 time-tabled bus services, 1000 train services and 400 school bus services on a typical weekday.

- Last financial year over 131 million passengers boarded one of their transport services.

                      Transperth fares from July 2012

	STANDARD			CONCESSION
	Cash	SmartRider - cost per journey		Cash	SmartRider - cost per journey
		15% discount	25% discount		15% discount	25% discount
2 Sections	$1.90	$1.62	$1.43	$0.80	$0.68	$0.60
1 Zone	$2.70	$2.30	$2.03	$1.10	$0.94	$0.83
2 Zones	$4.00	$3.40	$3.00	$1.60	$1.36	$1.20
3 Zones	$4.90	$4.17	$3.68	$2.00	$1.70	$1.50
4 Zones	$5.80	$4.93	$4.35	$2.30	$1.96	$1.73
5 Zones	$7.10	$6.04	$5.33	$2.80	$2.38	$2.10
6 Zones	$8.10	$6.89	$6.08	$3.20	$2.72	$2.40
7 Zones	$9.40	$7.99	$7.05	$3.80	$3.23	$2.85
8 Zones	$10.20	$8.67	$7.65	$4.10	$3.49	$3.08
9 Zones	$11.00	$9.35	$8.25	$4.40	$3.74	$3.30
DayRider	$11.00			$4.40	$3.30	$3.30
FamilyRider	$11.00
Student					50 cents - no discount

Hope you have learned a little bit about Perth´s transport system.

Do you find that public transport in your city or country could be improved or is it an organised system? Is it cheap or expensive? You can see above the prices we pay for our fares. (I'm in zone 2, so relatively cheap)

 STANDARD

 CONCESSION

 Cash 

 SmartRider - cost per journey

 Cash

 SmartRider - cost per journey 

 15% discount

 25% discount 

  15% discount

 25% discount 

 2 Sections 

 $1.90

 $1.62

 $1.43

$0.80

 $0.68

 $0.60

 1 Zone

 $2.70

 $2.30

 $2.03

$1.10

 $0.94

 $0.83

 2 Zones

 $4.00

 $3.40

 $3.00

$1.60

 $1.36

 $1.20

 3 Zones

 $4.90

 $4.17

 $3.68

$2.00

 $1.70

 $1.50

 4 Zones

 $5.80

 $4.93

 $4.35

$2.30

 $1.96

 $1.73

 5 Zones

 $7.10

 $6.04

 $5.33

$2.80

 $2.38

 $2.10

 6 Zones

 $8.10

 $6.89

 $6.08

$3.20

 $2.72

 $2.40

 7 Zones

 $9.40

 $7.99

 $7.05

$3.80

 $3.23

 $2.85

 8 Zones

 $10.20

 $8.67

 $7.65

$4.10

 $3.49

 $3.08

 9 Zones

 $11.00

 $9.35

 $8.25

$4.40

 $3.74

 $3.30

 DayRider

 $11.00

$4.40

 $3.30

 $3.30

 FamilyRider 

 $11.00

 Student

 50 cents - no discount

A - Z of Australia - O is for Open Gardens

I first came across the Open garden scheme when a friend who lives in Tasmania mentioned that she was  busy preparing her garden to take part in an "open garden". She explained what it entailed and what charity she was supporting. As it happened a couple of months later two of my ex-work colleagues invited me to visit an open garden with them.
I really enjoyed the experience and we have since visited a few more, not only for the inspiration, but
it´s also a lovely way to enjoy the outdoors, have a cup of tea or coffee together, and an opportunity to ask the gardeners questions about their choice of plants, discover new plants or design ideas.

A dry garden

Open Gardens Australia is a not for profit organisation established in 1987, that organises the opening of private gardens for public enjoyment in all of the Australian states.

All sorts of gardens are opened to the public, from small city gardens to country estates, Open Gardens Australia has about 10 thousand gardens in its books, and each season about 600 private gardens are opened to the public, with over 175,000 people visiting these gardens!

If someone thinks they have a good, well maintained garden, they can request a visit from one of the selectors, and the Committee would then make a choice to include them in the visiting calendar.
On open days, usually on a Saturday or Sunday or the whole weekend, members of the selection panel and committee members, as well as friends and  relatives of the garden owner are at hand to help man the entrance, provide refreshments, answer questions, etc.,so the help of the 10 thousand volunteers involved each season is essential.
An entry fee of usually $6 is charged for anyone over 18. From this fee, 35% goes to the garden owner or the charity of their choice, and 65% goes to the Open Garden Australia, who after the deduction of their operating costs, distributes the surplus to the community as grants for garden related projects.
Yearly, around $350,000 is given to charities by the garden owners, with over $4,7million donated since 1987. Also since 1987, over $1,1 million has been given to community garden projects from those 65%.

The first "open garden" we visited was in Mosman Park, one of the most exclusive suburbs of Perth. The boundary walls were covered in plates and little pictures made of broken china, and the garage wall painted with a colourful mural, both being out of character with the style and cost of housing in that suburb, so I'm almost sure the neighbours wouldn't be too happy with that outdoor decoration!

Boundary walls covered in plates and tiles and a sunset painted on the garage door

Inside, the front garden mostly occupied by a swimming pool was surrounded by murals on the walls as well as some walls covered in colourful crockery and broken tiles at the entrance to the house.

Painted walls surrounding the pool, and a table and old bathroom basin get a mosaic makeover

The owner who was a porcelain artist started amassing any broken china she had, and friends and anyone else who heard of her plans to recycle broken china donated all their bits and pieces to her.
I like colour and I thought the idea of recycling was lovely but in this house it might be going a bit overboard...But who would wear yellow if everyone just liked blue? Tastes differ and this lady certainly had a different house and garden!

Walls at the entrance to the house

This next garden was a tropical haven in suburbia. Photos of the original garden had been put up showing that it had all been dug up and replanted over the years. It was a very hot day, but nice an cool under all the shady trees. The owners had built a lot of steps, bridges and hiding nooks to keep their grandchildren entertained, and that was a lovely touch.

The tropical haven garden

Shower with enclosed view of the garden

One of the most interesting features of this garden was a shower whose outside walls had been replaced by glass, facing the inside of an enclosed patio full of greenery. It certainly must be a wonderful feeling to have a shower bathed by the sun or under the night stars!

This next garden was a garden of a TV gardening presenter and it was a "study in the art of recycling" and very inspirational as well. The front garden was a "dry garden", and among various interesting ideas, the back garden had a water storage tank for rain water, chickens to provide eggs and eat leftovers, plants covered with mulch to protect from the harsh sun and keep the soil moist, a compost box, shade-cloth was used to cover the vegetable planter boxes when the weather was too hot...

Chooks, mulch and vegetable boxes

This last garden was an inspiration to me and I have decided to remove the grass on my front garden and will replace it with a dry garden.
It's all being planned at the moment and I'm trying to convince my husband it will be a good idea too of course, as he will not have to be out there removing an endless number of weeds every other weekend!
Although I suspect he likes to remove the weeds, it's a relaxing pastime for him...

Celebration week!

This has been a week of celebrations starting with my son´s birthday on the 4th of September, my husband´s on the 5th, and then a very important event on the 6th which was my son´s Graduation ceremony.

The ceremony was held at the Perth Convention and Exhibition Centre and attended by the graduates and their families. When we arrived the foyer was already teeming with students and families in an excited mood, taking photos, talking, students talking to colleagues...

Before the ceremony in the foyer of the Convention centre

After the graduates were called to take their allocated seats, the guests were ushered in and the ceremony started just after 7pm., with the entrance of the academic procession of university dignitaries wearing traditional academic dress, who took their seats on the stage. We were all requested to stand and the National Anthem was sung by a Soprano, and the Vice-Chancellor opened the proceedings with a speech.

The Graduates sitting in the middle of the auditorium and the guests are starting to take their seats

A soprano sings the National Anthem

The graduates waiting to be called onto the stage

Then the Chancellor was called, and row upon row of students in their scarlet gowns with hoods edged in different colours according to the graduate´s degree colour - violet for law degrees, green for science degrees, blue for art degrees, pink for Masters...were called onto the stage, their name was announced and their diploma was handed to them by the Chancellor.
The various faculties of Bachelor students were first, then the Masters, and the few last ones were the Doctors of Phylosophy (Phd), who then took their place on the stage, sitting beside the other Professors who represented each of the University´s faculties.

Walking on stage towards the Chancellor

The Deputy Vice-chancellor, also made a speech and I was deeply touched and emotional when two diplomas were awarded posthumously to two  students who had died - one a young girl from the Singapore campus, who died without completing her degree but who was an exemplary student with very high marks throughout her degree, and the other an older gentleman who died with cancer, but who even through his chemotherapy continued studying and finished his degree a short while ago. A family member of each student was called to the stage to receive the diploma, and was given a very long and deserving ovation.

Almost at the end of the ceremonies, an honorary degree was granted to Mr Sydney Corser (AM OBE CitWA) (AM - member of the Order of Australia,OBE - Order of the British Empire, citWA - Western Australian citizen of the year), a man with a most fascinating life history.
Sydney finished his schooling in 10th grade, started his working career at the age of 17 as a carpenter, later became a successful businessman first as a builder, then as a residential property developer. He was instrumental in implementing the use of the concrete slab in the building of housing in Perth.
He decided to further his studies and graduated from university at the age of 55. He has been a very active member of various Board of Directors in private and public companies, as well as being a very active sailor from the age of 17, having won various championships.
Now, at the age of 82 he is less involved, but still enjoys mentoring those in need of support and advice, and he urged the graduates to find a mentor to help them in their future life.
He quoted a very interesting phrase: "You can see further if you stand on the shoulders of a wise person". True indeed!!

Mr Sydney Corser making his acceptance speech

The ceremony came to a close with hundreds of balloons dropping into the central rows where the graduates were sitting, to the applause of the audience.

They were then asked to exit row by row into the foyer where coffee, tea and biscuits were laid out for students and guests.
It was time for more photos with the diploma this time, hand in the hired gown and then we went to dinner to an overpriced Chinese restaurant near the Swan Bells Tower, to celebrate this wonderful occasion. Michael was very proud of his achievement, and although he is already working in his field of study it was the culmination of the recognition of his efforts, and we as parents were very proud to be able to participate in this occasion.

Michael holding his B.Sc. diploma

A-Z of Australia - N is for Northbridge

Northbridge (formerly known as "North of the Bridge" and "North of the Line" when still part of the CBD) is a suburb north of the Central business district, known famous or infamous for it´s nightlife.

It can be reached by foot from the Perth railway station and the Wellington street bus station, or by the free "CAT bus" (central area transport).
Originally a swampy area it was later drained in the 1860´s by convict labour, so construction could start. In the 1890´s due to the gold boom, many hotels were built to accommodate prospectors and rich people.
During World War I, the elite moved out of the city, and due to European immigration, Northbridge was populated mainly by Greeks and Macedonians.  Perth´s first Orthodox church is here located.
Post war European migration brought a lot of Italians to Australia with a culture of the outdoor alfresco lifestyle and outdoor cafés, which was introduced to this area.

Nowadays the suburb contains a wide range of ethnic restaurants with cuisines ranging from Asian to Mediterranean, as well as being the hub of Perth´s nightlife.
It can get quite rowdy on the weekends with drunken youngsters and a lot of Policemen always present to keep problems to a minimum.
The few times I have been, I never encountered anything out of the ordinary and we had a good time eating out in the Chinese district or going to a movie in the beautiful Cinema Paradiso in James street, but then we probably weren´t there that late at night when the youngsters are out in force and we didn´t go into the bars either!
Cinema Paradiso is an attractive building with a lovely Art-Deco foyer, with four small cinemas showing mainly foreign language and independent films and is also home to Perth´s film festivals.

Foyer of Cinema Paradiso (photo from their site)

The Piazza with the gigantic screen and funny illuminated seats

Street Sculpture

The entrance to the "Chinese Quarter"