The Perth Mint

The Perth Mint is Australia's oldest working mint, although today it only makes special coins, such as those that marked the Olympics in Sydney in 2000.

Perth needed its own mint when people began to discover gold in Western Australia in the late 1800s. At that time, there was a mint in Melbourne and one in Sydney, but the people in WA were not inclined to send their gold there to be refined! This mint was under British control until 1970, when ownership and control was transferred to the government of WA, so now they can keep all the profits. We were able to see molten gold poured into a mold, creating a brick worth over $350,000. Of course, that same brick gets melted and re-molded several times a day, year-round.

If you want to spend a lot of money, this is the place to do so (we restrained ourselves!). We were not allowed to take pictures inside the Mint so can't show you any of the goods, but here's a photo of the outside. By the way, if I'm worth my weight in gold, my worth today is almost $3 million!

The browner parts of the outside are local limestone, but the white limestone came from Rottnest Island, about six miles off the coast (we plan to visit Rottnest next week).

After visiting the Mint, we meandered toward the city center, where we purchased some souvenirs and had lunch, then headed for home, beating the first rain we've had since we arrived.

Below are a few pictures of St. Mary's Cathedral in Perth.

And the Perth Town Hall:

We have just over a week left! This weekend, we'll head south to the Albany and Margaret River areas. More after we get back.

New Norcia

New Norcia, WA, was created by Benedictine monks from Spain as a mission to the aborigines in 1847. At its peak, there were 80 monks at New Norcia and about 20 nuns. Today, there are only 9 monks and 1 nun. New Norcia is completely self-sufficient with no financial assistance from the Vatican. They operate a bakery (wonderful bread!) and used to make wine at the site. Today, the wine is made at a winery just south of New Norcia, then it matures in the wine cellars at New Norcia. The monks also make award-winning olive oil.

Throughout the years, the monks of New Norcia built a chapel, cottages, a hostel (now the hotel), colleges (schools) for boys and girls. They designed and built every building and everything in it, occasionally hiring locals to help. It's a beautiful place, and we were given a great tour by Trish, a Maori recently moved here from New Zealand. Anyone can stay at the monastery if they wish a quiet, retreat-like experience. The hotel is available for those who wish to make more noise!

Many children come to NN for "school camps," where they learn about the art that is housed there (the gallery and museum have hundreds of paintings that were purchased in the early days of the monastery), about the history of the aborigines that the monastery ministered to and about the history of the monastery and monks that started it all and continue it to this day.

Hotel at New Norcia. Very small rooms, with shared baths--however, all the rooms on the front side open up onto the veranda and some of the rooms have fireplaces. A great place to visit, although I'd recommend the spring or summer--it was pretty cold in the rooms today.

Inside the chapel at New Norcia. This one of the stations of the cross. Each station is multi-layered and textured. It started out as the brown layer, then the black was added, then the white. The artist was at liberty to make it relevant for the day (early 1960s) so one of the stations has several figures, including an Eskimo and an astronaut.

This is the organ at the front of the chapel--one of only two Moser organs in Australia. Imported from Germany, there are 2000 pipes (all these that you see are decorative), and an addition had to be quickly put on to house the organ. It gets played every Sunday at mass. When the pipes arrived in Australia in the 1940s, it took three months to convince customs officials that they were not trying to smuggle in German weapons in the pipes.

A view of St. Gertrude, the school that was built for girls. Both St. Gertrude and St. Ildephonsus have fabulous acoustics in their chapels, and now many musical groups use them for recordings.

The altar in the chapel at St. Gertrude's. The domed ceiling makes this the absolute best place for a concert. Would have loved to have our women's chorus sing in St. Gertrude's!

It was a good day, and we all have a lot of respect for this group of monks and nuns who dedicated their lives to serving the aboriginals without taking away the traditions that were so important to that group. This kind of life may not work for me, but they live what they preach every day.

Waneroo

You know that you are not in the states when you visit towns called Joondalup and Waneroo! Waneroo is where Beth works--for the Waneroo Regional Museum and Community History Center. We visited today and got the grand tour. It's a great place for Beth to be employed, and her co-workers all love her and will be sorry to see her leave.

http://www.wanneroo.wa.gov.au/files/700c885f-ecd3-4bda-8e5e-9e2b00c66afe/web_Regional_Museum_brochure.pdf
Waneroo is best known for its market gardens, small family farms that grow fruit and vegetables. Many years ago, farmers would start at midnight, two times per week, with their horses and carts to ride to Perth in order to get there by 6:00 a.m. to sell their goods. By the way, Waneroo did not have electricity until the early 1960s!

After visiting the museum, we headed down to the waterfront and dipped our feet in the Indian Ocean, then sat on the beach and read our books for awhile, listening to the water "crashing" onto the beach. A good day!

Wave Rock & More

Beth and Dan rented a car for the weekend--actually they've rented it for ten days, so we can go away next weekend, as well. After going to the local farmer's market Saturday morning, we got in the car and headed east to the small town of York, where Gary and Dan toured the motor museum, and Beth and I checked out the Residency Museum (so-called because the Registrant Magistrate used to live there). Both were very interesting. But the best part was when we found the shop that sold both olives and chocolate. The owners have four acres of olive trees, and she preserves the olives in different brines. She also makes truffles and other chocolate delicacies from chocolate she orders from Belgium. Yum!

After that we drove a bit further to the tiny town of Beverley, where we stayed in the Beverley Hotel overnight. It was an old-fashioned place with no forced-air heat, so our rooms were 58 degrees, and the bathrooms were off the outside porch. Beth and I agreed it was almost like camping (except that we DID have electric blankets, thankfully!).

The next day we drove a couple more hours to Hyden, home of the Wave Rock, a granite formation that looks like a surfer's wave, formed by millions of years of water and silt. It was amazing!

Another formation near there is called the Hippo's Mouth, and you can see why:

Then we headed home and had a bite to eat. Monday will be a day of laundry and taking it easy, we think! More later.

Freemantle

Before getting to Friday's activities --

Jet lag: Gary and I are doing amazingly well. In fact, Beth and Dan are feeling kind of "jealous" that we have adapted so well! We are absolutely fine during the day, although to be fair we have been on the move most days. I have a feeling that if we had just "vegged" out for a day or two, we would have slept most of the time. I usually start nodding off around 9:00 p.m., but try to stay up until 10 or so. Two pages in my book, and I am zonked! Then we sleep until 7 or 8 in the morning. It's really been great.

Cost of living: It's very expensive to live here; things generally cost about twice as much as in the U.S. However, the minimum wage is $17.00 per hour! One thing good about that is when you go out to eat or stay in a hotel, you never tip your servers or housekeepers. On the other hand, when you go out to eat, there is no incentive for the servers to "take good care" of you, so you're pretty much ignored until you get their attention--once you place your order, that is. Dan and Beth have gotten used to that and now find it rather annoying in the states when the servers keep asking all the time if you need anything else!

Also, just FYI: tax is included in the price of everything you buy; what you see is what you pay. What a great concept! And the smallest coin is 5 cents.

Back to Friday:

Beth and Dan were working so Gary and I headed to Freemantle. Located about 10 miles southwest of Perth, Freo (as the locals call it) is a popular place to go and is often called Western Australia's second capital. It's right on the Indian Ocean, and there is a lot of shipping that goes on around there. There are lots shops and restaurants and several historic places.

We visited the Round House, Freemantle's oldest public building and first gaol (pronounced "jail"). But it had only eight cells, so was quickly too small. Underneath the Round House is the "Whaler's Tunnel," which was cut through the rock to drag whales through, a great source of sustenance to those living here in the 1800s. The Round House is located at one of the highest points in Freemantle. At 1:00 each afternoon, the Freemantle Volunteer Heritage Guides (FVHG) raise flags each day and fire off a small cannon. This practice began in the early 1900s as a method of keeping everyone's watches aligned (and therefore keeping 'order' in the expanding colony.) If "guests" are watching, one of them is asked to fire off the cannon, and on Friday Gary got to do it (the volunteer once visited Peoria, Illinois).

We then toured the Freemantle Prison. This prison was built in 1858 by some of the 10,000 convicts transported to Freemantle from Britain. It's the biggest jail ever constructed in the southern hemisphere, and housed prisoners until 1991! Even then, the prisoners had only a bucket in their cells for their personal use and were allowed to take showers only three times a week, 4 minutes each. The conditions were pretty awful. One of the privileges that prisoners earned was that of painting their cells, and there are many cells with amazing paintings. (Apparently, the last six months that prisoners were housed there, they were given free rein in painting their cells, and some of them cannot be shown to the public, as you can probably imagine!)

 

We also spent a little time at the Shipwreck Galleries, where original timber and treasures from the "Batavia," a famous Dutch shipwreck, are on display. Beth and Dan joined us for dinner that evening in Freemantle, then we took the train back home again. A good day!

A Day at the Perth Zoo

Today, Gary and I were on our own, as Beth had to work. I woke up at 4:30 a.m. and started worrying that we wouldn't be able to find the right bus and would get totally lost. But, of course, Gary had everything under control, and we had no problems getting downtown and then taking the ferry across the Swan River over to South Perth, where the zoo is located. Once again, we had a beautiful day and enjoyed ourselves immensely.

So we saw our first kangaroo--in the zoo, of course. Beth says that the only other kangaroos we may see will be dead on the side of the road as, like deer in the states, they come out to feed at dawn and dusk, then get hit by vehicles.

Anyway, here are a few pictures. We forgot our camera, so had to use my iPod--not the best quality photos:




Black-Necked Stork

  

Red Kangaroo

The sun bear (so-named because of the "sun" on the bear's chest) is the smallest in the bear species.

Tonight we had dinner at a local Thai restaurant with a co-worker of Beth's and her parents. Had a wonderful meal and a great evening. Tomorrow Gary and I head to Freemantle on the coast; Beth and Dan will join us there after work.

Day Three

This morning, Beth and I went to the Australia quilt and craft fair, a national fair that travels to the major cities. Picked up some fabric  printed with aboriginal designs (I try to take at least one piece of fabric home from places I visit) and saw some magnificent quilts. So many fabric stores have closed around here that women from all over come to the annual fair to buy supplies, so there were many vendors of notions, fabric, yarn, etc. Packed, but fun!

Gary did some walking around Subiaco and took some photos:

 Magpies

This afternoon we visited the Royal Western Australian Historical Society, where Beth volunteers once a week, cataloguing some of the textiles.

The RWAHS is right across the street from the University of Western Australia, where Dan has his research appointment in physics.

Some great architecture on campus (also some not so great, as is pretty common at most universities, I think--certainly at NIU!)

Peacocks on campus

 Black swans in Matilda Bay, which is right by campus.

View of Perth from Matilda Bay. Puts NIU's little lagoon to shame, doesn't it? :-)

Banksia plant--the flowers look like big bottle brushes.

Day Two

We are awakened in the morning by the local birds, one of which--a big black bird that looks like a crow or raven--has a call that sounds like a yowling cat. The first time we heard it, I wondered if it was the kookaburra, but it's not; it's just a common bird in the area. Of course, now whenever we hear the call, the song "Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree" jumps into my head, so I'm singing it a lot!

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So, the only time (so far) that I'm freaked out by the traffic moving in the opposite direction from what we're used to is when we are crossing a street on foot. I always look the wrong direction, which is a very dangerous thing to do because drivers do not yield to pedestrians here, and they drive pretty fast. Plus there are lots of curves in the roads and it's hard to see them coming sometimes. I'm pretty sure I'll be nearly killed at least once before I learn!

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Today, we walked to King's Park, a 990-acre park in the middle of the city. Lots of memorials to people who died in various wars, a pioneer women's memorial, aboriginal art gallery, beautiful walks (including a high bridge walk) and plenty of vegetation. Flowers are not so much in bloom right now, as this is the fall season, although roses are very plentiful year round. We see them everywhere we walk, along with hibiscus. One of the trees common here is known as the paperbark tree, so named because the bark can be peeled off in strips. In fact, each year it sheds its bark, leaving a very smooth, almost white trunk.

Here are a few pictures from today's walk:

This giant Boab tree was moved nearly 2000 miles to Kings Park:
http://www.bgpa.wa.gov.au/horticulture/botanic-garden/the-giant-boab

 Banyan tree in King's Park

 Pioneer Women's Memorial Park.
The figure represents a mother with an infant in her arms, stepping forth to meet her destiny. It stands on a stepping stone in the pond surrounded by five other stepping stones and fountains, and is the centre piece of the Water Garden.
The symbolism of the three minute sequence of the water fountains begins with the bubblers representing bushes to be negotiated on the way to opening up land, rising to taller spouts representing trees around pioneer homesteads.

 Memorial to the Great War (WWI)

Downown Perth from King's Park

Day One

It's after 8:00 p.m. on our first full day in Perth, and Gary and I are surprisingly awake! Beth kept us moving today, which was good. We arrived early afternoon Sunday and were welcomed at the gate by Beth and Dan. Nice to come off the plane and see familiar faces--we've gotten used to meeting people at the baggage claim, and had almost forgotten wht it was like to have someone waiting at the gate. Nice!

Beth and Dan live in Subiaco, a "neighborhood" of Perth. It's a quiet town, with lots of quaint houses, a nice downtown area, and good places to walk. Today we took the train into downtown Perth, where we toured the Western Australia Museum, got a tour of St. Georges Cathedral, walked along the river, then took the bus back home. Beth and Dan got each of us a transportation pass, which we can use whenever we take the bus or train; they also got us a cell phone to use in case we get lost--which may happen!

 This is a Dragon Tree -- saw quite a few of these. This is the growing season in Perth, as the summer is much too hot for anything to do any growing. So there are many flowers and beautiful gardens right now.

 Bell Tower in downtown Perth. Includes the bells of St. Martin-in-the-fields. They ring at the top of the hour, with various tunes--we heard "Waltzing Matilda" today.

Swan River, which divides Perth and South Perth. Many people commute across it daily on the ferry.

Haven't seen any live kangaroos yet, but these sculptures in the park were pretty cool.

One of the streets in downtown Perth.

Time to call it a day; will try to post more tomorrow. I think we're visiting an old prison.