PART 2 OF DOWN UNDER ADVENTURE

   Naturally, my friends all knew of my trip, but one had mistaken the date and thought it was still a few weeks away. The phone rang and he started to relate his recent computer woe. Keeping an eye on the window I was drawn into the conversation when suddenly the taxi drew up outside. "Got to go," I said, "Taxi's here". Surprised, he asked where I was going. "Australia", I replied casually.

   To prove it (to myself?) I stepped outside and slammed the front door behind me.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

   After a night (by my internal clock) of fitful dozing, I finally roused to see brilliant sunshine gleaming around the edges of the window blind. It was, after all, 2p.m. local time. Where had we got to? Excitedly I pulled up the blind - and caught my breath. Breakfast arrived, but I could not take my eyes from the window. We were flying down the coast of the Malay Peninsular towards Singapore and the view of the islets below was spectacular. Fringed with white surf blending into the turquoise of the shallows, the whole scene was set in the deep blue-violet ocean. Never again will I make sardonic comments about all those colourful postcards.

   To those who don't know it, I must say that Changi Airport is a great place in which to spend time between planes. After the 13 hour flight from Heathrow there were now 4 hours in which to explore it and it was just great. Apart from the usual shops and a whole variety of eating places, the several delightful little gardens, each designed to a different theme, kept me happy. After a quick shower and a snack, and having spied out where the computers were I sent gleeful emails back home to friends, and then passed quite an enjoyable time until the next boarding gate beckoned with the final 5 hour flight ahead.

   Approaching Perth at nearly midnight, its lights sparkled and winked as the plane slowly circled and grew closer, lower. A bump, bounce - I'd made it. I didn't quite kneel down and kiss the ground but I stared hard at it and softly muttered to myself "Oz". My cousin's granddaughter was there to welcome me with a hug and we went outside to wait for her husband. It had been impossible to find a parking space (nothing unfamiliar there) so he was circling around till we appeared. Once home I was ready for sleep, but comfortably so.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

   August and September are not the best months, weatherwise, to visit the southern part of WA, in fact it was cold and wet with strong winds on many days. Too much like home. But I was tied to the date when I was to meet John and Ruth and had wanted to have some days in Perth and Fremantle before setting off up north. So I started off exploring locally before flying up to Newman, where I could rely on it being hot!

   My first visit was to the Perth Museum where it was the final day of a great touring exhibition of the National Treasures of Australia. I was so lucky to be there just in time to see this fascinating show that I would not have missed for the world. Exhibits ranging from Captain Cook's journal from his ship Endeavour, the notebook kept by William Bligh, Commander of HMS Bounty when the mutineers led by Fletcher Christian set him adrift, through to things like the original hand-written score of Waltzing Matilda, Don Bradman's favourite bat and a signed photo of Nellie Melba. An Australian kaleidoscope beautifully timed for me.

   I also had a look at the Art Gallery the following day to see the room full of aboriginal paintings, much more interesting to me than the exhibition of Egyptian artefacts upstairs which were on loan from Paris. Well... you can see them anywhere. Many of the paintings were of the kind we have become familiar with, the finely detailed pictures showing by a multiplicity of dots and lines the stories attached to their land, but there were also several semi-abstract paintings which would not have looked out of place in a European gallery.

Say the bells of St. Clements,

You owe me five farthings

say the bells of St. Martins."

   For superb views of Perth, King's Park cannot be beaten. The bus dropped me off at the end of Fraser Avenue, the long straight entrance to the park, and ambling down I heard the kookaburra's laughing call. On the wall here at home is a leather cutout of this bird which my uncle had sent home to his sister so many years ago and which I unearthed from my mother's papers after she died. Somewhere is the little calendar for 1923 which was once attached.

   The many gum trees along the avenue were planted in 1929 to celebrate the centenary of the founding of Perth and in summer must provide very welcome shade.

Views of Perth and Swan River from King's Park 

   Occupying an area of about 988 acres/400 hectares on high ground to the south-west of central Perth the Park looks down on to the Swan River, which at that point swells out in to a great lagoon in the heart of the city, giving it a beautiful setting. The Park includes a vast section of the original bushland which once covered the whole area before it was settled by westerners, a botanical garden which aims to conserve and display the wonderful wild flowers for which WA is so well-known together with native trees and bushes (like the banksia on the left) and also many beautiful and unusual memorials commemorating not only those killed in wars but also the pioneers - particularly women - who  opened up the land in the 1800's. 

   WA attaches great importance to the latter, reminders are everywhere and there was one such which stands out in my memory. It was an irregularly shaped body of water sheltered on one side by trees and bushes while elsewhere beautifully kept, springy lawns sloped gradually up to the winding paths above. In the lake, about a third of the way along, was a bronze statue of a woman balancing a child on her hip. She represented the resourceful women who so often bore the brunt of the hard work done by the original settlers, bringing up the children in an unknown land with few of the comforts enjoyed by those back home and very often, also, without her husband who was away working to support the family.

   I stood admiring the figure when suddenly some irregularly placed low fountains played around

it followed by a few more spreading further afield, still quite low. Charming. Then up sprang taller jets further along. Gosh, I thought, how lovely, as the lake danced in the sunlight. It all died down. But before I could turn away there erupted three extremely high fountains at a point in the lake to balance the bronze statue. Stupendous. They played for a while, sparkling as the light

   I wandered along the paths through the botanical gardens, and among the various specimen trees came across the odd looking boabs, the Australian species of the  baobabs, or bottle trees as they are also known. Another nickname is also upside-down tree. The boabs are to be found growing naturally only in the Kimberley region of WA. Said to be long-lived, several are considered to be well over 1000 years old. Having only ever seen pictures of this unusual tree I was delighted to see one "in the flesh" as it were.

    Rounding a corner I then saw along the way a cleared sandy space between the trees. Something was going on that looked interesting and I quickened my pace. At one side of the clearing were stone benches and I joined the scattering of people who were listening intently to Noel Nannup, an aboriginal storyteller, relating one of the ancient histories describing the origin of his people. In England I am a devotee of storytelling sessions, some are of the ancient mythologies known across the world, and several which have a more intimate association with East Anglia, where I live. But now, to hear these tales in such a setting, this was something else. The clearing was an old aboriginal meeting place dating from when they were the sole inhabitants, and the connection was almost palpable as I sat there listening to Noel, enthralled. I spoke to him afterwards and learnt that his sons were also carrying on the relating of these traditional histories, but I could not help wondering for how much longer they would remain in the consciousness of their people.

If any Aussies are browsing and can identify these Eucalypt flowers seen in King's Park, Perth for me I would indeed be grateful. [See Contact page] 

A kind Australian has identified these as Eucalyptus macrocarpa, or Mottlecah. Many thanks.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A complete contrast was my visit to the Perth Mint. Their booklet reveals an interesting history. Gold was being discovered in various parts of Australia in the second half of the 1800's but the greatest goldfield of them all was at Kalgoorlie in WA and in 1893 the big rush was under way. The Perth Mint was opened in 1899 as part of the British Royal Mint to refine the gold and produce our coinage. It is Australia's largest gold refiner and the leaflet gives some impressive statistics on the tonnes of gold, silver and platinum processed. It was not until 1970 that control passed to the State Government of WA.

   I took advantage of going to a "gold pour" in the original Melting House where - at a safe distance - we watched as a suitably clad operator heated gold to goodness knows what temperature and then poured it into a mould to produce a gold bar. Amongst the sample rock specimens that Will sent home to his sister was a minute, unrefined gold nugget and when I went into the shop to see the vast collection of gold coins, bars and jewellery ... well, I could not resist buying a tiny nugget. The two now sit together. 

Copyright Ivy Collins 2009                                                               Go to Part 3: Fremantle