Australia Travel: Perth's best walking tours and museums

There's more to Perth and nearby island Rottnest than ants and quokkas, writes Stephanie Holmes

Having travelled to Perth on four previous occasions, I wasn't sure there was anything new to learn about Western Australia's capital city. But earlier this year, on my fifth visit, I found I had only really scratched the surface. With the help of some local knowledge and guided tours, I learned much more than I had before. Here's how you can get under the city's skin on your next visit.

The museum tour

When people used to ask Robin Stephan, an expat German who relocated to Perth, what he thought about Western Australia, he would say: "There's a lot of sand and a lot of ants." He didn't think the state had much else to offer but now, just four years later, he's one of its biggest advocates.

Stephan is a Visitor Service Officer at Perth's impressive WA Museum Boola Bardip and I meet him one rainy Saturday morning for a highlights tour.

Perth's WA Museum Boola Bardip reopened in November 2020 after a four-year, $400 million redevelopment. Photo / Peter Bennetts

Boola Bardip means "many stories" in the language of Whadjuk Nyoongar, the indigenous Country on which the museum sits. Reopened in November 2020 after a four-year $400 million redevelopment, it's a fully accessible museum and an all-inclusive space, with eight permanent galleries and a regularly changing programme of international travelling exhibits.

It's also the best place to start your exploration of Perth and wider WA, to help you get a better understanding of the sprawling state's geology, history and culture, and how it has changed over time.

"WA has so much natural history and diversity and so many stories to tell," Stephan tells me.

I find many treasures that intrigue and captivate me, not only in the exhibits but also in the building itself. It's beautifully designed and thoughtfully put together with every element representing the state itself. There are recurring themes in the colours used – blue to represent the Indian Ocean, copper and gold to represent the state's natural resources, including a showstopping gold spiral staircase that connects the museum's three levels.

There are meteorites you can touch, an interactive wall that educates about sustainability and how we can use technology to shape the planet's future, and outside in the courtyard, there's a living grapevine – Australia's oldest - planted by the first European settlers. In the Treasures gallery in the old state library building, Otto, a complete blue whale skeleton hangs suspended from the ceiling.

But perhaps the most impressive thing about the museum is how indigenous culture and history is incorporated at every step. Writing in The Guardian on the museum's opening, Rosamund Brennan noted that perspectives from more than 70 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander language groups are featured throughout the museum, with museum CEO Alec Coles telling her "We made a commitment from the very beginning to represent many diverse voices, many of whom had never been heard, let alone in this kind of institution."

Every Saturday morning, Nyumbi – an indigenous celebration dance – takes place in the courtyard, a free 45-minute event that immerses visitors in Nyoongar culture through song, dance and language.

You could easily spend the best part of the day here - and many locals did just that during the pandemic when the state was closed to both international and out-of-state visitors.
Stephan says he's loved meeting Western Australian visitors over the past few years. "I always say, 'Tell me your stories too.' That way I get to learn more about WA from the people who know it best."

visit.museum.wa.gov.au/boolabardip

The walking tours

The measure of a good walking tour lies mostly in the hands of your guide. I remember being almost bored to tears on a tour around Berlin because our guide was so dry; I looked on longingly at the group next to us who were laughing, smiling and having a jolly old time thanks to their engaging, vivacious leader. All guides are not created equal.

Adie Chapman, founder of Oh Hey WA, a walking tour company in Perth. Photo / Supplied

So it's refreshing to meet two young business owner-operators in Perth who are taking a fresh approach to walking tours and providing engaging experiences across two different parts of the city.

Adie Chapman meets me in the lobby of the QT hotel and I instantly warm to her – she's got a beaming smile and a booming voice, and her vibrant blue T-shirt brightens up the gloomy day.

Chapman, a self-described Perth enthusiast, founded Oh Hey WA in 2014 with the aim of helping locals and visitors discover the city's hidden gems. Her career path could have been much different – she studied mechanical engineering at university and could have earned big money with a career in the mining industry. But she says she knew she wanted to do something fun and, after experiencing a few walking tours on her own travels, decided to take the risk and start a business herself. The company has grown and grown, and Chapman last year won a "young achiever" medal at the 2021 WA Tourism Awards.

She takes me on a "street art and small bars" tour and we cover a lot of ground in our three hours together, past grand heritage buildings, new developments and hidden laneways I probably would never have walked down by myself. Her knowledge for her home city is impressive and her passion for Perth is infectious, which she shares with me over cocktails at established bar Alfred's Pizzeria, and brand new opening Terrarium.

The street art is varied, from huge colourful murals to tiny installations easily missed if you don't know what you're looking for. I've not heard of any of the artists before – Stormie Mills, Mister Men, Tweet, Hyuro - but Chapman's easy education means I start to notice their other works across the city when I'm continuing my explorations by myself.

Across town the next day, Michael Deller and I go on a fact-filled exploration of trendy suburb Fremantle, which this year was voted by Time Magazine as one of the world's greatest places of 2022.

Fremantle is an eclectic, independent part of Perth, which was named in Time magazine's top 100 places to visit in 2022. Photo / Tourism Western Australia

Much like Wellington is known for its artistic, independent, inclusive community, "Freo" prides itself on being its own city, having its own way of life, distinct from the rest of Perth.

It has a rich history as an industrial, working port town - and the port still ticks along like the heartbeat of the city.

But since the 80s, it's developed a thriving hospitality and retail scene, with many locally owned and operated businesses. Families have run the same business on the same street corner for generations. Chain businesses have started but failed - no one comes to Freo to eat at McDonald's when they could choose from one of nine authentic independently owned Italian restaurants (seven of which sit shoulder-to-shoulder on South Terrace, otherwise known as the "cappuccino strip").

Deller shows me vintage boutiques and record stores, independent coffee shops and hotels, tenderly restored heritage buildings and copious craft breweries and distilleries, all of which I make a mental note to return to later in the day. We wander past the famous Fremantle prison and markets, Little Creatures brewery and the harbour where ferries and working fishing boats sit side by side.

Michael Deller, owner-operator of Fremantle Tours, takes guests on a fact-filled walking exploration of his hometown. Photo / Tourism Western Australia

Lunch is at local Asian fusion restaurant Emily Taylor, named after a ship that travelled from England to WA, via Southeast Asia, bringing spices to the state. The restaurant is at the back of the Warder's Hotel, an 11-room boutique hotel in a painstakingly renovated heritage-listed limestone building, formerly used as accommodation for the warders of the nearby prison.

Everywhere you look, Fremantle is getting a whole new life thanks to young creatives, hospitality stars and passionate locals.

Locals like Deller, who has turned his love for his hometown into a family business of his own – he runs Fremantle Tours with his wife Lucy.

ohheywa.com.au; fremantletours.com.au

The island tour

You can get a ferry to Rottnest Island from central Perth or Fremantle but, for a special treat and unbeatable bird's eye view, there's nothing better than making the trip by helicopter.

My personal pilot (words I don't get to say every day) picks me up from the rooftop of the Crown Casino complex's carpark building, just a five-minute walk from my ultra-luxurious hotel room in the Crown Towers. Corsaire Aviation offers scenic flights, wine tours, heli-golf and skydive experiences but today they're flying me across the Indian Ocean to the 19sq km island that has become famous for its unbelievably cute marsupial residents, the quokka.

I'm ashamed to say that's about as much as I know about Rottnest before I arrive - but after touring it with Pip Sabien from the Rottnest Island Authority, I find out there is far more to its history.

The island's traditional owners are the Whadjuk Noongar people and its indigenous name is Wadjemup, which means "place across the water where the spirits are".

Much like New Zealand's Cape Reinga is to Māori, Wadjemup is considered to be a place of transition between the physical and spiritual world. Whadjuk people believe it's where spirits travel as part of their journey to the afterlife – the west end of the island is the jumping-off point, where a whale takes the spirit to its final resting place.

Wadjemup Museum exterior in Thomson Bay on Rottnest Island, Perth. Photo / Rottnest Island Authority

Colonisation saw a much darker history envelop Rottnest, with the island used as a penal colony for Aboriginal men and boys from 1839 until 1904 and as a forced labour camp for prisoners until 1931. Around 4000 Aboriginal men and boys were incarcerated, with about 370 of them dying on the island. Their "crimes" were fighting for their land, taken from them by European colonists. Their bodies have never been returned to their country.

When the prison closed, Rottnest began its transition to a recreation destination but the significance of the island to Aboriginal communities across the state was ignored. Prison buildings were converted to holiday accommodation and the burial ground became a campsite, used until 2007.

Things are very different now. In November 2021 the State Government issued a formal apology for what went on here and there is now a process of reconciliation underway, with a three-year action plan to improve connections and relationships with indigenous stakeholders and organisations.

All this is not to say that you can't come to Rottnest and enjoy its natural beauty, its cute quokkas and have a relaxing time exploring. There are some stunning beaches, fantastic snorkelling, wonderful walking and cycling trails, lovely accommodation and decent restaurants to enjoy.

But make sure your first stop on the island is the museum, where the complicated history is told sensitively and respectfully, so you can honour its past and understand its future.

There's always much more to every destination than first meets the eye. Sometimes you just need a little help to uncover it.

CHECKLIST PERTH

GETTING THERE
Air New Zealand flies a daily direct service from Auckland to Perth. airnz.co.nz
DETAILS
For more things to see and do in the region, go to westernaustralia.com