Freemantle and Perth
January 7, 2019
We arrived at the port of Fremantle in the morning. At the mouth of the Swan River, Freemantle is a major cargo terminal for exports of coal, iron ore, nickel and agricultural products. The state of Western Australia, known to locals as WA, occupies about 1/3 of the country’s area with less than 3 million people. The state capital is Perth, about 20 miles up river from Fremantle. It is known as the world’s most isolated capitol city, being over 4 hours from Sydney by air. We took a tour from Fremantle, stopping at a beautiful beach and driving through some nice suburbs. Beaches were busy here because we are south of where the stingers are in the ocean. In Perth, we went to the Perth Mint where we saw a demonstration of melting gold to create 2kg solid gold bars. The mint has displays of Australian gold mining that started with their gold rush in 1890. Some of the gold nuggets on display weighed as much as 25kg. The biggest ever found was over 100kg but has been melted down. The second biggest was bought by the Gold Nugget Casino and resides in Las Vegas. One of the mint staff members was weighing people in the current value of gold. At yesterday’s price, David was worth $5,764,850.00. Jan considered who would pay that much for him but quickly abandoned that idea.
We also stopped at Kings Park which overlooks Perth and the Swan River. It is the world’s largest urban park and contains war memorials, botanical gardens and native areas. Downtown Perth was clean and everything was well cared for. Free buses operate in the city, and it is the headquarters of the large mining industry in Australia.
We drove to a downtown jetty and boarded a ferry for the trip downriver back to Fremantle. We passed many yacht clubs, including the one that served as host for the 1987 America’s Cup regatta. We heard some interesting stories about the origins of some of the large homes along the river.
The weather was perfect today! Carolina blue skies and the Freemantle Doctor was blowing to keep Perth comfortable on a warm summer’s day. The Doctor is what the wind is called that blows from the Indian Ocean, through Freemantle to cool Perth on summer afternoons; makes everything feel better!
Arriving back at the ship we wished there had been more time to explore both cities and to sample one of the many seafood restaurants in the harbor area. Regent should have planned an overnight here, and Jan has expressed that opinion politely to Regent management!
We arrived at the port of Fremantle in the morning. At the mouth of the Swan River, Freemantle is a major cargo terminal for exports of coal, iron ore, nickel and agricultural products. The state of Western Australia, known to locals as WA, occupies about 1/3 of the country’s area with less than 3 million people. The state capital is Perth, about 20 miles up river from Fremantle. It is known as the world’s most isolated capitol city, being over 4 hours from Sydney by air. We took a tour from Fremantle, stopping at a beautiful beach and driving through some nice suburbs. Beaches were busy here because we are south of where the stingers are in the ocean. In Perth, we went to the Perth Mint where we saw a demonstration of melting gold to create 2kg solid gold bars. The mint has displays of Australian gold mining that started with their gold rush in 1890. Some of the gold nuggets on display weighed as much as 25kg. The biggest ever found was over 100kg but has been melted down. The second biggest was bought by the Gold Nugget Casino and resides in Las Vegas. One of the mint staff members was weighing people in the current value of gold. At yesterday’s price, David was worth $5,764,850.00. Jan considered who would pay that much for him but quickly abandoned that idea.
We also stopped at Kings Park which overlooks Perth and the Swan River. It is the world’s largest urban park and contains war memorials, botanical gardens and native areas. Downtown Perth was clean and everything was well cared for. Free buses operate in the city, and it is the headquarters of the large mining industry in Australia.
We drove to a downtown jetty and boarded a ferry for the trip downriver back to Fremantle. We passed many yacht clubs, including the one that served as host for the 1987 America’s Cup regatta. We heard some interesting stories about the origins of some of the large homes along the river.
The weather was perfect today! Carolina blue skies and the Freemantle Doctor was blowing to keep Perth comfortable on a warm summer’s day. The Doctor is what the wind is called that blows from the Indian Ocean, through Freemantle to cool Perth on summer afternoons; makes everything feel better!
Arriving back at the ship we wished there had been more time to explore both cities and to sample one of the many seafood restaurants in the harbor area. Regent should have planned an overnight here, and Jan has expressed that opinion politely to Regent management!
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