The Aussie game: "Footy"

We had the big luck that our friends are big footy-fans and were able to get extra tickets for two Australian football games last weekend. Since there are so many club members who have preference, this was not an easy task - "footy" is a very popular sport in Australia! 

On Saturday we watched the local Fremantle Dockers team playing Melbourne, on Sunday the beloved local West Coast Eagles against the North Melbourne Kangaroos. Both home teams won!

"Aussie footy" is uniquely Australian with rules first codified in 1858. No other sport is as popular, next probably come cricket, rugby, netball and women's soccer,,, and, horse racing! The AFL (Australian Football League) currently consists of 18 teams, about the half of them located in the Melbourne metro area.

 

The Opus Stadium in Perth (above) is a state-of-the-art sports facility, surrounded by the Stadium Park with Boardwalk and Amphitheater and views towards the Swan River and the Perth downtown skyline. It opened in 2022 and offers seats for 60,000 fans. It's hosting a variety of sports and events, including Australian Football League, cricket, soccer and rugby.

Below the show at the start of the game:

The games we attended, marked the start into the the new season, which lasts till end of September. A game is divided into 4 quarters of 20 minutes playing time. A football field or "ground" is an oval between 135-185 m in length and 110-155 m in width, much larger than an American Football or soccer field. The goal consists of two sets of posts at the far ends of the oval and an achieved goal counts six points. What makes the game so unpredictable and interesting is the ball, an oval bladder covered with leather, not designed to be thrown, but to be "hand-balled" or kicked. It didn't take us too long to understand the general rules, and, compared to soccer the game is rather "unruly", but the players are very athletic and tough and no wimps – other than in soccer, where players are constantly whining and waling. And, it's fun to watch and never boring because there is a constant flow and not many referee interruptions.

Below, a statue of Nicky Winmar, the first professional Aboriginal footy player who made a clear statement for his people and their skin color by lifting his t-shirt:

The Eagles' win - the first one for 308 days, and, therefore rather unexpected! - caused quite an euphoria and also the gnomes in front of our friends entrance door were happy! And, Peter, of course, had to get another cap for his collection on the next day,,,

 

 

Australia's modern city: Perth

Perth - the last of our city stops - is the capital of Western Australia (WA) and the fourth-most-populous city in Australia (2.4 mio). It is situated on the banks of the Swan River and was founded by Captain James Stirling in 1829 by the British, on the lands of the Whadjuk Noongar nation. The big boom in town happened in the late 19th century caused by gold rushes and, also, the city expanded after WWII due to a high migration rate. 

 

We were very fortunate and after quite some traveling around and changing places and hotels many times: we were invited by our friends to stay in their historic home in the beautiful neighborhood Wembley. We had our own guest- and bathroom and their garden (photo below) is just beautiful. We were spoiled with great home-cooked meals ,,, and wines,,, every evening and fresh baking goods in the morning (further below). 

 

After having returned the rental car on Saturday morning at the Europcar's city office, we had the pleasure to be driven and shown around most of the time. Also, for a change, we didn't have to plan the daily itinerary ourselves anymore, which was a big relief and gifted us with about ten very relaxing days at the end of our 5-week-trip!

 

Below: Pavlova, right photo: a leg of lamb - both typically "Australian" (British-inspired) dishes. Below our favorite breakfast item: Almond Croissants, on the right  combined with a Breze and fresh sourdough bread, below: a cross-bun. Bakeries in Australia are easy to find and all very good!

Perth is an underestimated city. It's different from Sydney - which "lives" mostly of the famous Opera House and the bridge and from Melbourne with its many diverse neighborhoods. Perth is very clean and modern on first view, fantastic skyscrapers, but, inbetween, also quite a few historic buildings in very good condition, and, streetscapes of late nineteenth and early twentieth century architecture. Plus, a lot of gardens and parks and public artwork as well as a nice harbourfront. 

 

Among the historic buildings is Perth Town Hall and Government house, St George’s Cathedral, St Mary’s Cathedral, The Perth Mint,  and many more. The latter pays homage to the significant contribution of Perth to the gold industry since 1899.

 

Sterling Gardens below.

Perth' oldest building, the old courthouse below:

Downtown Perth is easily walkable, but also offers a convenient and cheap public transportation system. The city's economy is primarily driven by mining, oil, and gas operations. Mining (left photo) is big in WA and Perth is the "hub" of it: gold, copper, iron ore are found in  the center of the state,  around Kalgoorie, and many of the highrises in Perth are owned by mining companies as Ri Tinto or BHP. Thanks to that Perth is Australia's fastest-growing capital and one of the wealthiest as well. Alone the streets are much better than in the other states we've been, broader, too!

 

Elizabeth Quai (below) is on Perth's waterfront, a modern entertainment district with fountains, artwork, a ferry harbour (to Rottnest Island) and an Island with a restaurant:

This fantastic belltower is said to host the largest bell in Australia:

 ,,, and, again, many "corner hotels" or pubs:

Public art - part of an ongoing art program - at every street corner and on every square, further below in front of the railroad station, Central Station. Also, there are convenient not too-hectic malls and arcades for shoppers. 

Sunday morning, we visited the fantastic WA Museum Boola Bardip, a complex consisting of several buildings. It focuses on the stories and culture of local Aboriginal peoples, on whose homeland "Nyoongar" the Museum sits. Highlights of the museum include Otto the 24 m long blue whale skeleton, a full-size replica of the Parthenon frieze in Athens (further below), but especially  interesting and instructive and interesting in our opinion were the exhibitions dealing with the Aboriginal culture and history in WA in all its aspects.

 

 

Perth is also home of the University of WA, a "World top 100 University" with about 28.000 students, almost 8.000 of them international.  The Berndt Art Museum (below, right) is part of it and it's one highlight besides the gorgeous gardens and school buildings on the campus.

 

 

More coming up, hang on, please. Sitting at Heathrow Airport in the meantime and publishing what I've written and sorted during the long flight from Perth to Singapur (4.5 hours) and from there to London (13:10 hours).

Coastal Life south of Perth

To stay in Bunbury as our last stop on the way back to Perth, was actually a good choice. Approximately 175 km south of the state capital, Perth, it's a port city with a natural harbour established in 1836. It became the main port for the SW region, especially after 1893, when the railway connected it to Perth. 

Old corner hotels-pubs to be found again (typical for Australia!), a great brewery (photo), where we had dinner (fish & chips and prawns), a lighthouse and a beach (where we enjoyed a beautiful sunset).

 

Next morning after breakfast we went for a walk, looking at the murals and getting to know about the importance of the fish tinning industry in town. After a visit to Bunbury's enormous farmers' market (a huge supermarket with local produce) we drove on towards Perth along the coast. 

Mandurah (photos above and below) was our first stop, a wealthy "florida-like" harbour town and favorite retirement location. Rockingham next, already in the metro area of Perth, with Cape Peron, a rocky beach where rock lobsters or crayfish were caught by divers (further below) and messured. Wouldn't there have been all the industrial installations in the background - part of the port of Freemantle - it would have been even nicer!

 

Drove through the industrial port area of Perth-Freemantle with huge grain silos and refineries around Freemantle and on to Perth. In the busy city traffic on a Friday afternoon, we were glad to get back to our "temporary home" - our friends' house - in the late afternoon. We had a wonderful evening with them, sitting in their garden for cheese and wine and later enjoying a wonderful leg of lamb with all the fixings cooked from scratch. Life can be good!

On Saturday early morning, before heading to the beach, we returned our rental car. We had driven almost 4,000 km with three different cars in three different states of Australia in not quite three weeks. Now, the city of Perth is waiting for us and I'll probably only continue with the blog at the airport and on the plane.