It's Friday lunchtime in central Perth and the traffic is bumper to bumper on King George's Terrace, one of the principal east-west arteries. The cafes and restaurants are packed, and from the sandwich shops queues of frazzled office workers spill out onto the sun- bleached pavements. Welcome to Australia's most isolated and fastest growing city, headquarters of a phenomenal mining boom that is propping up the nation's economy. If Perth doesn't sound like a place for tourists, think again. It's one of Australia's most appealing cities, and the buzz of all that frenetic wealth generation actually adds to its charm; you just need to be clever about how you tackle it. My first mistake was hiring a car; Perth is confusing to drive around, and anyway the public transport is first-rate, with free buses and trains in the centre and good suburban links. Fremantle - the laid-back port at the mouth of the Swan River, which bisects Perth - is the ideal spot to start exploring. A 30-minute hop by train from the city centre, "Freo" is arty, bustling and fun, with handsome buildings dating from the 1890s Gold Rush, shops selling furniture of local jarrah wood, a great weekend market and any number of galleries. One highlight is the Maritime Museum, which features not only a collection of historic vessels but also the "Welcome Walls" - 300-odd panels engraved with the names of migrants who disembarked in Fremantle from the mid-19th century onwards. The walls, which overlook the harbour, are a reminder of modern Australia's multicultural origins, and the names are interspersed with poignant quotations. "My grandfather arrived here first, leaving his mother in a small village in Italy, and never saw her again," states one, adding: "A brave man for a brave new world." Western Australia was, of course, inhabited before Europeans arrived, and in Fremantle several major Aboriginal pathways met. The locals, it is said, would feast on whales which frequently became beached at Bathers Bay, nowadays a popular swimming spot. After white settlement, an Aboriginal prison was built on Rottnest Island, just off Fremantle; before being shipped over, prisoners were held in the Round House, a stone jail set on an elevated headland. The building has a spooky atmosphere, and is considered a sacred site by local Aborigines since many of their ancestors died there. Ferries connect Fremantle with Rottnest, which has a small museum and secluded white beaches.
Among the old fishing boats and pearling luggers in the Maritime Museum is a more modern vessel: the fibreglass hull of Australia II, bankrolled by the high-flying Perth businessman Alan Bond. It was one of Australia's proudest moments when the yacht's crew wrested the America's Cup from the New York Yacht Club for the first time in 1983; the following day, after a night of celebrations, the then prime minister Bob Hawke famously declared: "Any boss who sacks a worker for not turning up today is a bum." The Americans won the Cup back next time round, when Fremantle hosted the event in 1987, and Bond ended up in jail, convicted of Australia's biggest corporate fraud. But his shadow still hangs over Perth, a city in thrall to money, glamour and chutzpah. A symbol of the freewheeling excesses of the 1980s, Bond was released in 2000 and recently returned to his home city after a decade in London. Near the Round House is a Fremantle institution: Cicerello's, a fish and chip shop housed in a cavernous building with concrete floors, ornamental fish tanks and framed newspaper cuttings about incidents involving close shaves with sharks. Try the local sardines, which are highly sought after (and expensive) on Australia's east coast. You can eat outside on the wooden deck, next to the water, but watch out for marauding seagulls.
There is a much loved Arts Centre in Fremantle, located in an impressive neo-Gothic pile, but to view the best of the state's art head back to Perth and walk from the main railway station to the Gallery of Western Australia in Northbridge, just north of the city centre. The gallery has a wonderful collection of Aboriginal paintings, including works by the late Rover Thomas, a stockman from the East Kimberley region whose striking spare landscapes sell for a fortune at auction. Other indigenous artists to look out for include Queenie McKenzie, Christopher Pease and Johnny Warangkula Tjupurrula. In the same rather ugly and poorly signposted Cultural Centre precinct - it reminded me of the concrete jungle of London's Southbank - is the Western Australian Museum, the State Library and the Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts. The museum has dinosaurs, an indigenous history display and, embalmed in its own bath in a courtyard, a rare megamouth shark - one of only six ever captured. One last gripe: it's difficult to understand why the museum and art gallery close on different weekdays (Wednesday and Tuesday respectively), particularly as it requires a bit of a trek to get out to the Cultural Centre. Northbridge itself, though, is worth a wander; it's a colourful area with numerous cafes and restaurants, and is also home to the legendary Kakulas Brothers, a grocery with a vast range of imported Italian and Greek products including huge sacks of spices, herbs and nuts. (There is a sister establishment, Kakulas Sisters, in Fremantle.) Arguably, Perth's neighbourhoods are more interesting than the actual city centre, although the latter offers some imposing historic buildings as well as good shopping and eating. And next to the Swan River is the 82-metre-high Bell Tower, with its soaring glass spire housing 14th- century bells donated by St Martin-in-the-Fields Church in London to mark Australia's bicentenary in 1988. The bells are rung most days, and you can climb the tower.
One thing not to be missed in central Perth is the Mint, with its mind-boggling collection of gold coins, bars and nuggets - including the second-largest nugget in existence, which tips the scales at 25.5kg - and its excellent displays about the history of Western Australia's Gold Rush. Visitors can watch a gold bar being poured and buy gold items at the gift shop. The Perth Mint, which also sells investment products, struggled to keep up with demand for coins and bullion during the global recession. It was the discovery in 1892 of gold at Coolgardie, in the desert 600 kilometres east of Perth, by two prospectors, Arthur Bayley and William Ford, that secured the future of the then struggling Western Australian colony. The pair collected 540 ounces in an afternoon; the following year an Irish prospector, Paddy Hannan, struck lucky at nearby Kalgoorlie, now the site of Australia's biggest open-cut gold mine, the Super Pit. News of the underground riches brought immigrants flooding in, quadrupling the population of the "Golden West", as the colony called itself, within a decade. Grand architecture dating from the Gold Rush includes the railway station, town hall and St John's Anglican Church in Fremantle and, in Perth, a cluster of buildings in the East Murray Street Precinct. In the courtyard of the Mint, a limestone building entered through an archway and massive double doors, is a bronze statue of Bayley and Ford. For an insight into Perth's geography, as well as outstanding views of the city and Swan River, catch a bus (routes 37 or 39) to Kings Park, a tranquil 400-hectare oasis on the slopes of Mount Eliza, just west of the city centre. The park, planted with native bushland and crisscrossed by walking tracks, is popular with joggers and dog walkers, particularly in the early morning. The cafe opens at 9am, and the park also has one of Perth's best restaurants, Fraser's, with food to match the panoramic vistas.
The highlight, though, is the Botanic Gardens, with their native trees and plants from around Western Australia, including the Kimberley and Wheatbelt regions. One giant bottle-shaped boab tree, believed to be about 750 years old, was transported here in 2008 from East Kimberley, more than 3,000 kilometres away, to make way for a new bridge across the main north-south highway. There are also eucalypts, banksias, ancient cycads, acacias and grevilleas, not to mention an abundance of birdlife, including rainbow bee-eaters with their brilliant plumage, kookaburras (their cackle from the treetops is unmistakable), rainbow lorikeets, galahs and pink-breasted Australian ringnecks. An elevated walkway, built at the height of the forest canopy, offers particularly good views. Snaking across the horizon are the hills of the Darling Escarpment, which to Aborigines represent the body of Waugal, or the rainbow serpent, one of their ancestral deities. The confluence of the Swan and Canning Rivers, visible below, was an important meeting place for the local Nyoongar people.
Fraser's serves lunch seven days a week, but for a change of perspective take the train to Cottesloe, Perth's favourite beach. Alan Bond - back among the ranks of Australia's wealthiest men, thanks to oil and diamond interests in Africa - built a new AUS$4 million (Dh13.6m) mansion there, with a view of Rottnest Island, before returning from London. You're spoilt for places to eat, although the Indiana Tea Rooms - a Cottesloe landmark which has recently been spruced up - has good quality seafood, pizzas and bistro fare. Also perched on the beach is Barchetta, with its Italian-influenced menu; ask for a table on the airy balcony. Did I say airy? The beaches around Perth might have dreamy white sands and turquoise waters, but often you'll find that it's blowing a gale. That's great for surfers, but if you fancy dipping in the Indian Ocean without being tossed around too vigorously, choose your beach carefully. Mettams Pool is a sheltered spot about 15km north of Cottesloe, excellent for swimming and snorkelling. Here's the one area where a car comes in handy, as this stretch of coastline - known as the Sunset Coast, for reasons which become obvious as the light fades - is studded with beaches, all charming in different ways. There are local buses, though, as well as a cycleway that hugs the water. Each time I visit Perth, I become enamoured of a new area. Subiaco, just west of the city centre and close to Kings Park, has cafes, boutiques and the Subiaco Oval, the home of Australian Rules football in Western Australia. It hosts premiership games for two leading teams, Fremantle and the West Coast Eagles. Among Subiaco's best-loved eateries are Chutney Mary's, an Indian restaurant, and, next door, its younger sibling, Little Chutney's. Then there is up-and-coming Leederville, where the main thoroughfare, Oxford Street, is jammed with shops and cafes (try Cranked Coffee or Kailis Bros Fish Market & Cafe), and funky Mount Lawley, a five-minute taxi ride from central Perth. You could happily while away a week in this laid-back, lively, multi-faceted city. travel@thenational.ae
The flight Return direct flights on Emirates (www.emirates.com) from Dubai to Perth cost from US$1,526 (Dh5,065) including taxes. The hotels Double rooms at The Sheraton (www.starwoodhotels.com) cost from $181 (Dh665) including taxes. Located close to the Perth Mint, some of the rooms overlook the Swan River. Double rooms at The Richardson (www.therichardson.com.au), a beautiful boutique hotel in West Perth situated close to Kings Park and Subiaco, cost from $420 (Dh1,540) including taxes. Buses and trains are free in Perth within the central Free Transport Zone (FTZ).
