Frommer's Australia from $50 a Day 13th Edition - To Parent Directory

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CHAPTER 9 . PERTH & WESTERN AUSTRALIA
Arcade off 207 Murray Street Mall (& 08/9481 4400), open Monday through
Thursday from 9am to 5:30pm, Friday 9am to 9pm, Saturday 9am to 5pm, and
Sunday from noon to 5pm.
For an untouristy lowdown on the city’s restaurants, cultural life, shops, bars,
nightlife, concerts, and the like, buy the excellent local glossy quarterly magazine
Scoop (A$8.90/US$5.80; www.scoop.com.au), available in bigger newsagents.
CITY LAYOUT The city center is 19km (12 miles) upriver from the Indian
Ocean, on the north bank of the Swan River. Hay Street and Murray Street are
the two major thoroughfares, 1 block apart; both are bisected by pedestrian
malls between William and Barrack streets. It helps to know that Adelaide Terrace
and St. Georges Terrace are the same street. The name change occurs at Victoria
Avenue.
MAPS Of the many free pocket guides to Perth at tour desks and in hotel lobbies,
Your Guide to Perth & Fremantle has the best street map, because it
shows one-way streets, public toilets and telephones, taxi stands, post offices,
police stations, and street numbers as well as most attractions and hotels. The
Royal Automobile Club of Western Australia (see “Exploring the State” at the
beginning of this chapter) is a good source of maps to the entire state, as is Map
World, 900 Hay St. (& 08/9322 5733).
NEIGHBORHOODS IN BRIEF
City Center The central business
district (called the CBD) is home to
shops and department stores connected
by a honeycomb of shopping
arcades. A good introduction
to Perth’s charms is to take in the
views from the pedestrian/bike path
that skirts the river along Riverside
Drive. Within walking distance on
the western edge of town is Kings
Park & Botanic Garden.
Northbridge Just about all of
Perth’s nightclubs, and a good many
of its cool restaurants, bars, and cafes
are in this 5-block precinct just
north of the railway line, within easy
walking distance of the city center.
James, Beaufort, Aberdeen, and
Lake streets roughly bound it. What
locals call the Cultural Centre—an
umbrella term that means the Western
Australian Museum, the Art
Gallery of Western Australia, the
State Library, and the Perth Institute
of Contemporary Arts—is here too.
The free Blue CAT buses deliver you
right into the heart of this buzzing
precinct.
Subiaco This well-heeled suburb
is on the other side of Kings Park
from the city. Saturday morning
wouldn’t be Saturday morning for
Perth’s see-and-be-seen crowd without
a stroll through “Subi’s” cafes,
markets, upscale boutiques, antiques
shops, and art galleries. Intersecting
Hay Street and Rokeby (pronounced
Rockerby) Road are the
main promenades. Take the train to
Subiaco station.
Fremantle Not only is this Perth’s
working port, “Freo” is Perth’s second
city heart, and locals’ favorite
weekend spot to relax, eat, shop, and
sail. A careful 1980s restoration of its
Victorian warehouses saw it emerge
as a marvelous living example of a
19th-century seaport—kind of like
Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco
without the stale commercial taint.
Fremantle is 19km (12 miles) downriver
on the mouth of the Swan. See
“A Day Out in Fremantle” later in
this chapter.
Scarborough Beach This is one
of Perth’s prize beaches, 12km (7 1 ⁄2