We arrived in Perth on Saturday 22nd October and booked into the Crystal Brook Caravan Park in the suburb of Orange Grove. (This is the park where Daniel Morcombes murderer was living when the police found him and set up an undercover police presence in the park to watch him before arresting him - to this day the park staff don't know who the undercover police were!!!!) Two of our Qld friends (Wayne and Cheryl) have been living here in the park for 12 months - Cheryl works part time in the park office and Wayne works F.I.F.O. mine work.
David's brother Tony from Canberra flew into Perth on Sunday - he is a Com. Car driver so was here to drive the
'important people' around during CHOGM. The Queen flew in to Perth Wednesday and one of her official duties was to open CHOGM on Friday. On Wednesday we did some sightseeing around Fremantle then had appointments in the afternoon, one of which was to get some car oils changed and a bigger exhaust system put on the car. We were to meet Tony in the city at his hotel for dinner that night but about 6p.m. just as John finished the car the power went off!!!! - so there was our car stuck up on the hoist and no power to get it down!!!!! and Tony to meet in the city!!!! Interesting!!!! At 6.45 John rang the power supplier and the recording said it wouldn't be back on until about 8p.m. but fortunately in was back on just before 7p.m. so we headed into the city to meet Tony.
Thursday we headed to Kings Park in the city -
Kings Park is the largest inner city park in the world - "yes" bigger even than New Yorks Central Park and Kings Park was also the first park to be designated for public use in Australia in 1872 and is host to Australia's largest wild flower show and exhibition. The stunning location overlooks the city and the Swan River with the Perth Hills in the distance. The Park is visited by over 6.5 million people each year and it covers an area of approx. 400 hectares and consists of unique bushland, tranquil parkland and botanic gardens.
(Extracts above taken from guide books - hopefully all true!!)
A large section of the park was barricaded off (so we couldn't see it all) and under high police guard as the Queen was maybe to visit there in the next few days - we met police on the walking paths, there were large numbers of police at roundabouts along the entry to the park - police boats on the Swan River below the Park, police helicopters hovering above the City, groups of police on many street corners in the city and along the roadsides and climbing down road embankments - we've never seen anything like it before!!!!!! There were police brought into Perth from every state of Australia (approx. 600) especially for CHOGM and the Queen's visit!!!!!
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| Entering Perth City |
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| Police guarding the barricades - one about every 30 foot!!!!!! |
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| And the gardeners hard at work - anyone would think the Queen was coming to visit!!!!!! |
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| Police guard on the Swan River below Kings Park |
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| View from Kings Park of the freeway |
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| Police chopper hovering over the city - apparently the chopper would hover until the fuel was low then another would come to replace it while the first one refueled!!!!!! We could see two hovering above the city from where this photo was taken. |
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| The large Perth welcome sign for the Queen (copying Hollywood I guess)!!! Perth City in the background. |
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| Tree top walkway in Kings Park - approx. 20 metres off the ground (scary)!! |
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| Above and Below - a Boab Tree that was moved from northen W.A. to Kings Park - story and route below. |
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| No admittance - Queen only!!! |
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| View from Kings Park |
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The Bell Tower in the city - we were actually lucky enough to hear the bells ringing a few times while we were waiting for the lights to change to green
The Bell Tower located on Riverside Drive overlooking the picturesque Swan River is one of Perth's most unique and must see tourist attractions. Filled with fascinating historic content and boasting a unique and distinctive design - resulting from a major architectural competition - it has become an icon for Perth and Western Australia.This historic ring of bells was given to the people of Western Australia as part of the national Bicentennial celebrations in 1988. Among its many attributes the Bell Tower includes the twelve bells of St Martin-in-the-Fields, which are recorded as being in existence from before the 14th century and recast in the 16th century by Queen Elizabeth I. The bells were again recast between 1725 and 1770 by three generations of the Rudhall family of bell founders from Gloucester in England, under the order of the Prince of Wales who was later crowned as King George II. They are one of the few sets of royal bells and are the only ones known to have left England.
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