Perth
New Years Eve 2013
First
about the State of Western Australia.
There is
much written about who found it first, well it simple really, it certainly
wasn’t a Frenchman or a Brit and as it was never lost no one found it! This
coast was in fact well known and had been visited by Europeans ever since the1500s,
prior to this it is more than likely the Chinese had visited this part of the
coast. Also Privateers of the likes of Dampier certainly did as well, so let us
just say that the first charts of the area, therefore the first documented
evidence is a chart by the Dutch.
Western
Coast explored by Dutch 1616 (Dirck Hartog)
By 1628
the coast of Western Australia was well charted and even along the South Coast
well into the bight.
Abel
Tasman Circumnavigated the continent between 1642 and 1644
But that shall be covered in more
detail at a later stage when I have finished with my tour.
A source
of much of my information is hard to find in conventional sources but you must
delve into small public libraries that contain accounts actually written at the
time or at least during the life of those that founded the settlements.
Enough
to say that there had been quite a few visits by ships of quite a few nations
to the Western part of Australia (or the Southland as it was then known as).
So after
the likes of Hartog, Van Diemen, Cook, Baudin and Flinders had been, saw,
charted and died next came the settlers, first convict penal settlements , then
as these prospered the eyes turned to the South and the West. As we have dealt
with the South earlier, I shall now deal with the West in. As you will remember
from earlier Adelaide was settled in a very orderly fashion, the model for this
was actually West Australia, though the settlement here far from easy.
After
the coast had been scrutinised and with the French breathing down their necks,
in the search for new settlements for the ever growing population back in
Europe. The British having just lost their colonies in what was to become the
United States of America, they needed to show their worth, so it was decided to
open up a colony in West Australia, so it was in Albany that the first flag was
planted and a military settlement founded. This lead the way to Captain
Sterling being sent to found a colony at the Swan River, this was first at
Garden Island and then further inland at Perth. The land in this part of
Australia is not as fruitful and drinking water was a great problem. The land
had not been surveyed and little was known of the interior or the native
population. The idea was that certain parcels of lands would be sold back in
London to wealthy land owners on the proviso that they would bring settlers to
work the land. This led to a lot of absentee landlords having massive tracts of
land being bought unseen, much of it of no use for agricultural farming the
main stay of any settlement (though the indigenous population had been managing
very well for hundreds of thousands of years prior to the invasion of the
Europeans).
So to my
last couple of days in Perth (though I shall be returning to catch my flight to
SE Asia).
NEW YEARS EVE
Unlike other
parts of the world, it is illegal to set off fireworks privately (you can’t buy
them so it is no good trying to set any off) it must be done officially, as at
the Sydney Harbour celebrations. This is due to New Year being in the middle of
the summer in these parts, everything is as dry as tinder and the very real
threat of bush fires has lead the authority to banning all private firework
displays.
Perth
unlike the other state capitals, has decided not to go in for a welcome in the
New Year firework extravaganza, but they keep their powder dry until Australia
Day, on 26th of January. Instead they shut off James street and have
wall to wall music and light shows, the street is full of an eating, drinking,
dancing throng.
I
visited the State Library in the Morning and the Art Museum in the afternoon.
Like all Libraries in Australia, they supply free WiFi connection, though in
this case not a very good one, but that wasn’t a real problem as the YHA had a
good one.
I will
not bore you with my visit to the library but will get right on with boring you
with the Art gallery.
The Photo's will be published when I have down sized them
Let us
start outside; here you will find a larger than life bronze of Merks the Shout
(or scream). On entering you can go in any direction you wish, there doesn’t
seem to be a pattern to follow, but Aboriginal art is well represented.
There
are a few European “masters” a bronze by Henry Moore, an August John the normal
hotch potch of European and some other
nice pieces, all in all a nice “little” gallery. It is not on the scale of
Adelaide, Brisbane or Sydney, but more like a City art Gallery back in the UK,
in Germany I would expect any city to have better. But they have tried.
First
here are some of “their” Aboriginal Art Works (probably the best reason for
visiting)
Then the
European works.
And some
of the more modern pieces.
I would
be visiting the PICA (Perth Institute of Contemporary Art) later in the week,
so I was hoping that I would see a few pieces there.
I then
found a very nice Dim Sim restaurant “The New Moon” on James Street, if you
want something else then try a bit further down the street, here is a real Dim
Sim (Sum) place. You wait until a space is free, if you come single or as a
pair, you will get a place almost at once.
The
procedure is you stand at the front door, get a number, if you come as a party
of more than 4 you may have a long wait to get a large table and there are no
reservations. They have 5 large round tables (able to seat 8 max at each), then
2 long tables with another 8 max, the rest are twos and fours. Do not try and
put two tables together, you will get short shrift from the waiting staff, I
actually saw a party being shown the door for arguing the toss. The staff are going from table to table with trays of
goodies, they also have heated trollies with steaming dim sums (the reason that
they don’t allow the pushing together of tables and adding on of chairs)
dodging between the kitchen and tables.
You arrive and are shown to your table,
a waiter (ess) will at once arrive and take your first order for food and
drink, after that you can order more but that takes time, you meant to take
from the trays and trollies, this is by far the quickest way of getting food.
As you are served it is marked on your table card. You then ask the waitress
for the bill, it comes and you go to the
front to pay, by the time you turn around the table you have been sitting at
has been cleared cleaned and the next punters are already being shown to it! I
would say that in the three hour lunch period (the only time they serve in this
manner and have the full range of Dim Sims, though you can eat them at any time
from the menu during the opening hours) they will have the seats filled at
least 6 times, if not more.
So I got
in, shown to a table and ordered my first Dim Sims Steamed prawn and minced
pork ( the chilli oil is free) I also ordered a pot of green tea. They came and
on the next table I saw steamed spinach being delivered, I ordered some, this
did take while to arrive.
So I had
Prawn and Pork Dim-Sims
I picked
some crispy chilli squid legs as it was offered
The
spinach came with a bowl of oyster sauce
I was
thinking that I would call it a day when a tray crispy deep fried soft shelled
crabs was offered, how could I refuse.
Now well
and truly bloated, I went back to the YHA by way of the Packez pub, had a swift
pint and tootled up the dancers to get a bit of shut eye as I wanted to watch a
bit of the Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide start to the New Year. Up washed and
dressed, I watched the TV and then decided to go out to see what was going on
down town and I can tell you it was a great big zero, Nowt was happening, I
walked to the area that I thought would have a bit of action, the Town Hall but
I was mistaken, I walked the length of Barrack St. down to the Swan Bell Tower,
thinking there must be something happening here, well there was a bit. At The
Lucky Shag there was music and a few revellers, but that was for paying
customers and I wasn’t willing to become one of those this night.
I
retraced my footsteps back up Barrack St. giving Sterling Park a wide berth as
I had seen some of the original natives having a bit of a Coroberee , consuming
loads of alcohol, falling all over the
place and being a bit abusive to passing whites.
I
reached the George street, I looked along to were a pedestrian bridge crosses,
it was packed with pedestrians (I know that is the object of a pedestrian
bridge, but not full to bursting at 23:00). I thought they are all going in the
one direction, so a quick detour through the station and I joined the throng. I
was glad that I did, no sooner out of the Cultural Centre and you hit James
Street, it was packed, a stage with a good band on was in full swing, I joined
(had no option) the gyrating, bubbling mass of humanity (some of it very scantily
dressed), I was pushed along to the next venue, I managed to get myself into a
good position (jammed between a lamppost and a parking sign) and joined in with
the rest of the bopping public. It was all rather jolly and I had a very
enjoyable time. There was a large screen (so those farther back could see the
action on stage) and there in big bold figures was the count down time. At 10
seconds to midnight we were all invited to join in the count down (some things
never change, no matter where you are in the world). 10, 9………..3,2,1 HAPPY NEW
YEAR, you are then grabbed by all and sundry, young lasses and grandma’s and
given a smacker, (I as usually got the grandma). It was all very nice, with the
crowd in a festive mood and no trouble what so ever, mind you the police are
out in force, roaming in bands of 6, ready to pounce at the first sign of
abrasion.
At 01:00
I decided to call it a day, so I called it New Year’s Day and headed back,
unfortunately you have to pass Packerz and so I was pulled in by Ross (the off
duty barman from Kilkenny), we had a couple and then I went upstairs to bed, as
next morning I was off to Kings Park and the Botanical Gardens.
So A
HAPPY NEW YEAR to you all, health wealth and happiness throughout the year.
NB. To all of you (I
know it will not be a lot) who have been awaiting a message or an SMS from me,
well not this year, as I only have a German Phone with a German Pay as You Go
Sim Card, it has run out, I am trying to get it reloaded via the internet, but
that isn’t at all easy (why do they need my Address in Germany?). So until then
you will just have to use e-mails.
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