NOT HAVING THE BLUES

 

 

Another arty photo I took yesterday in Perth, just to show I don’t need puddles to be creative. ;>))

Roel Loopers

STUNNING MURAL ART WORTH A VISIT TO THE BIG SMOKE

 

 

It is such a gorgeous day that I hopped on the train to Perth to look at the magnificent 27-storey high art mural by artist Matt Adnate on the new hotel in Hay Street that will be named after him; the Adnate Hotel. It is amazing, but difficult to photograph so I walked up all the nine levels of the adjacent car park to see if I could find a better location, but to no avail.

It is disturbing to see how many really mediocre and ugly highrise buildings are being erected in Perth, but great that there are many fantastic large mural artworks on some of them, especially in Northbridge.

Interesting the people one meets on a train ride. A talkative woman from Albany told us that she lives on a houseboat and had just sold her fish&chips shop after five years of hard yakka, while 26 year old Daniel told us he was on his way for a swim at Cottesloe after having spent two and a half years in jail.

While engaging with them I missed catching up with my old mate Michael Thorn, the CEO of Canberra based FARE-the Foundation for Alcohol Research and Education, who I saw hopping on the train as well. I wrote one of the very first articles for FARE’s blog many years ago.

Roel Loopers

THE BEST THING ABOUT PERTH IS FREMANTLE

 

 

I rarely go to Perth because the big city just does not interest me, but today I thought I needed to broaden my horizon a bit and jumped on the train to the big smoke.

It did not look anywhere near as bad and vacant as the media has been screaming about and during my two hours walking around I only noticed four beggars, so that ain’t too bad.

I thought to share these photos with my Freo readers. The top photo are shadows at the ferry terminal at Elizabeth Quay, the second one is more shadows at the traffic lights in Wellington Street, the third one is of arty seating at Rain Square, and the last one is a reflection at the escalators at Forest Place.

After having to endure standing next to Mathias Cormann at a pedestrian light for three minutes I was happy to return to good old Freo and am more convinced than ever that the best thing about Perth is Fremantle. 😍

Roel Loopers

WA TOURISM HAS PERTH BLINKERS ON

 

It is very annoying how Perth-centric the Tourism Council of WA and the State Government are with constant calls for more attractions in Perth, while ignoring to invest in Fremantle and elsewhere.

It is even more annoying when the latest statistics do not support spending millions in Perth when international visitors are heading out in droves to get an outback experience.

The growth of international visitors in Perth was just 1.3 per cent but the growth of Golden Outback international visitors was a huge 49 per cent!

In fact every tourism region in WA outgrew Perth in visitor nights and spending, with an increase for the SouthWest of 23 per cent and the Coral Coast of 13 per cent.

Most of the hundreds of international tourists I talk to at the Roundhouse say Perth is nice but just another major city, while Fremantle is cute and has a lovely vibe, but very many of them come to head out bush up to Exmouth and Ningaloo Reef, or down South to Albany, Esperance and Margaret River.

The WA tourism industry’s obsession with Perth is ill-founded and narrow minded.

Roel Loopers

 

WET, WET, WET, A GOOD DAY TO STAY IN BED

 

 

Because it is a bit of a slow news day today, and because it rained a lot over night, and because I am not looking forward to a very wet day volunteering at the Roundhouse, I republish the photo I showed yesterday, but this time in Black&White.

It was taken on the Melville foreshore just up from Point Walter, and if you look carefully you can see the Perth skyline through the rainy mist, on the right hand side.

Roel Loopers

 

GIVE ME FREO OVER PERTH ANY TIME!

 

 

 

I lasted just over an hour in Perth this morning as I find the CBD there rather boring.

I was surprised how quiet it was and how many vagrants were lurking around, and there were ample retail vacancies and for lease signs all over the place. Buskers played amplified music way too loud and so did some of the cafes.

Most of the new buildings under construction are average or worse, and the inappropriateness in context to heritage buildings is staggering.

The saving grace was the gorgeous tranquil architecture of the Cadogan Singing School at St George’s cathedral, and the stunning new Perth Library where window cleaners were doing a high trapeze act.

So happy to be back in Fremantle. It’s far from perfect, but so much more beautiful than the Perth CBD.

Roel Loopers

WHAT FREMANTLE CAN LEARN FROM YAGAN SQUARE

 

 

 

I am always committed to making Freo a better place to live, visit and work, so I hopped on the train to Perth this morning to have a look at the new Yagan Square and to see if Fremantle can learn anything from it for the Kings Square development. The answer is yes.

While Yagan Square has some really nice features the overall impression for me was disappointing. There is quite a bit of pretentious look-at-me design and the large space is ostentatious instead of good placemaking.

The Metropolitan Redevelopment Authority-MRA clearly did not learn from the Elizabeth Quay mistakes because there is far too much heat-reflecting hard surface of concrete and pavement and not enough shade. There are also the now typical BYB seats-Burn Your Bum, which will heat up from the sun.

The Market Hall inside is just another food hall but this one is dark and claustrophobic, so nothing to write home about either.

While the Yagan statue artwork is stunning I was surprised to see no story telling about the great warrior and Whadjuk Noongar history. It might be somewhere, but I failed to notice it, which means it is not significant enough.

There are a lot of struggling Balga grass trees, but I did not get a cultural experience about our indigenous history. That saddens me as it is an opportunity lost.

My overall feelings were that the square looks as if it was only partly designed and the rest just filled with concrete and seats, so please City of Fremantle learn from that and make Kings Square a much more special and enjoyable experience!

Roel Loopers

FREO SHOOTER’S PERTH PHOTO PERSPECTIVE

 

 

This morning I followed into the footsteps of some of the great photographers in the world, who battled storms on the high oceans, oxygen deprivation and avalanches in the high mountains, and extreme heat and cold in the deserts. All that hardship just to get some stunning photos.

I took the train to Perth and watched the mighty Swan River flow patiently under the bridges.

While I am not a great fan of Perth there is something exciting about the buzz of many people on the streets and the new development of Yagan Square looks pretty impressive.

Here the photos I took on my epic journey that lasted all of two hours. ; >)

Roel Loopers

HERITAGE OF THE FUTURE ARCHITECTURE

 

I hopped on the train to Perth to listen to the free lunchtime Musical Morsels concert by WASO musicians at the Concert Hall there and on my way took some photos of the new Perth library.

What an exquisitely minimalist and classic building this is that would be a great iconic feature at Fremantle’s Kings Square. It’s the kind of heritage of the future architecture that I would love to see in Freo and it was designed by Freo architects Kerry Hill who also created the new Civic Centre for the City of Fremantle.

And the free WASO concert with cellist Louse McKay was superb and around 130 people were in the audience.

Roel Loopers

EXQUISITE WESTERN AUSTRALIAN WIDLFLOWERS

I escaped away from Fremantle, council politics, negativity and buildings and spent a few hours just wandering around in Kings Park to enjoy the beauty of nature and life.

The wildflowers are out in abundance and there were heaps of people, the different cultures emulating the variety of colours of the everlastings.

It is exquisitely beautiful in Kings Park at the moment, so go for a trip and leave all your worries behind you for a while!

And my apologies for the images, I am unfortunately not a very good nature photographer. ; >(

Roel Loopers