Today, Wendy,
Laura, Sharon and I took the train from Fremantle Station into Perth City.
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| Perth Station |
After getting our
bearings we emerged from the station and took a wander through the CBD, pausing
for the obligatory mid-morning coffee break.
Then it was on up the hill to
King’s Park overlooking the City and the Swan River. King’s Park is immense,
and we only took it a small part of it as we were on foot, but what we was
impressive.
A very well placed
viewing platform looks out over the Swan River, with the City skyline off to
the left.
Further on into the park, there’s
a War memorial section, dedicated to all Australians killed as a result of war,
and we spent a bit of time wandering around looking at row after row of names.
By now it was time
for lunch and we decided that we were too hungry to make it all the way back to
the CBD so we sat down in one of the eateries in the Park.
After a very
pleasant lunch it was back into the city and a stroll through the Malls. The
streets in the heart of the city are narrow and almost claustrophobic by
Melbourne standards, but I couldn’t help but find the mix of old, historic
buildings nestled in right next to new and modern multi-storey office blocks pleasing.
Construction and restoration works seemed to be going on everywhere.
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| The old and the new |
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| Diagon Alley? |
Tonight we took a torchlight
tour of Fremantle Prison. Our tour started at 8:45pm and our guide, Chris,
began with a warning that the evening would contain stories and accounts that
were grizzly, gruesome, possibly disturbing, and all together not very
pleasant.
The prison was
built by convicts in the 1850’s, and later used as a local gaol in 1886. It was
served as a maximum security prison right up until it closed in 1991. In that
time, 46 men and one woman were hanged. The tour doesn’t hold much back, with
the flogging frame, gallows, kitchens, and solitary confinement cells all
visited, all with an accompanying macabre tale.
The tour is well worth taking, I won’t give anything away but, make sure
you don’t have a dicky ticker! |
| One of the 2.1 x 1.2m cells |
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