A Bit of Perth

Before arriving at Perth, I already have plans for most of the days that I will be in the city. And because of this, I had less chance to walk around the city to be able to see it more. I knew that the city has a lot to offer but the limited time only gave me a chance to see a bit of Perth. Even though that was the case, I still appreciated some of the places that I had seen in Perth.

The Perth Mint

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“The Perth Mint” was part of my city exploration.  I just separated the story of mint museum to emphasize the details of my visit to heritage building. To check the post, please see it here.

In this post, I will just show the other things that I saw during my walk in the city in limited time that I had in this capital city of Western Australia.

Swan River

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Swan River and Langley Park

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One of the first thing that I appreciated in the city was its famous Swan River. This huge river in the city starts from Avon River. It ends in Canning River and Fremantle Harbour. Swan River located in the middle of Perth city. And if you wanted to do things in the said river, the city offers a lot of activities that involve but not limited to fishing, sailing, and cruising within the river. Like myself, I enjoyed seeing the river by just walking on riverside and I amazed on the natural beauty it offers. For me, the river makes the city livable, it freshens up the day of the people who live around it. Because my hotel located at the central business district, I got lucky that I stayed in the room with Swan River scenery.

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Langley Park

The open space green park that I saw from my window just beside Swan River is called Langley Park. And I got a chance to see it up close and personal when I walked on it.

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Coming from “The Perth Mint”, I walked along Hill Street towards Terrace Rd. I passed the hotel that I was staying and continued walking to Langley Park. The park even its just plain grassy land, beautifies the surroundings of business district of Perth. And because it’s a huge open space, the park is also used for landing of small aircraft. How cool is that?

Barrack Street Jetty

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Walking towards Barrack Street Jetty along Victoria Avenue

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Walking towards the Barrack Street Jetty along riverside

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Perth Central CBD View

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Almost near in Barrack Street Jetty

From Langley Park, I turned right and walked towards the Barrack Street Jetty. When I reached the jetty itself, one thing that caught my interest is the glass tower which actually a bell tower. It is known as Swan Bells, The Bell Tower or Swan Bell Tower. It has a feature of 18 bells hanging, where 12 bells has historic significance. Swan Bells considered to be one of the largest changing bells in the world.

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Barrack Street Jetty

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Swan Bells

Beside the Swan Bells, I saw a piece of art and I looked for some information about it. And I was right, it was a public art display beside Barrack Square. The public art is huge ring which called as “The Signature Ring” created by Simon Gauntlett and Matthew Ngui as a gift to the city during the Millennium celebration.

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“The Signature Ring”

I continued exploring Barracks Street Jetty, since its almost evening, there were few people around the area. Beside the jetty station, is  Elizabeth Quay. At the time of my visit, developments and constructions were in progress. I left Barracks Street Jetty and walked along Barracks Street and there I saw Supreme Court of Western Australia. When I reached St George Terraces, I turned right and continued walking until I reached my hotel.

Until then.

Transportation : Perth – Scenic Cruising Boat

Transportation (Post#15) : Perth – Scenic Cruising Boat

Photos of the day are all about cruising boat found while exploring Barrack Street Jetty in Perth. The jetty itself has connecting cruises between Perth and Fremantle which made the travel easy coming between the two city. Aside from mode of transportation, it is another way to experience Swan River and to appreciate the beauty of nature that surrounds the river itself. These photos are part of Perth and Surround Tour October 2016.

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Notes :
Photo : Boat, Cruising Boat
Location : Perth, WA, Australia
Transportation : Perth CAT

Arts and Craft : “The Signature Ring” By Simon Gauntlett and Matthew Ngui

Arts and Craft (Post#23) : “The Signature Ring” By Simon Gauntlett and Matthew Ngui

Photos of the day are all about “The Signature Ring” which was a gift from Simon Gauntlett and Matthew Ngui. This piece of art was a representation of passage time from 2000 to present where it has fiber optics that illuminates interactive panels. These photos are part of Perth and Surround Tour October 2016.

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Notes :
Photo : Arts, Craft, “The Signature Ring”
Location : Perth, WA, Australia
Transportation : Perth CAT

Discovery : Swan Bells (The Bell Tower)

Discovery (Post#59) : Swan Bells (The Bell Tower)

Photos of the day are all about Swan Bells or famously known as “The Bell Tower” or “Swan Bell Tower”. When I reached Barrack Street Jetty, I was fascinated on glass tower located in Barrack Square. I did not know much about the tower aside from seeing it as outstanding structure from where I am. I was not able to get inside of the tower to see it up close, since its already closed for the day. Swan Bells is set of 18 bells hanging in specifically built campanile in Perth and is one of the largest sets of change ringing bells in the world. These photos are part of Perth and Surround Tour October 2016.

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Notes :
Photo : Bell Tower, Campanile, Swan Bells
Location : Perth, WA, Australia
Transportation : Perth CAT
Official Website : The Bell Tower

View At My Window : Swan River

View At My Window (Post#39) : Swan River

Photos of the day are all about Swan River. Unlike my previous post with the theme of “View At My Window”, the photos that I captured about Swan River were actually represents the view at my window in my hotel while staying in Pan Pacific Perth. I was thrilled that I have a great scenery to see by just looking outside of my window. Swan River flows through the city of Perth and I can say it’s in the middle of the city itself. Its natural beauty adds life to the surroundings of Perth. The upper part of the river starts and connected from Avon River and it ends which connected to Canning River and the other end is through the Fremantle Harbour to the sea. These photos are part of Perth and Surround Tour October 2016.

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Notes :
Photo : River, Swan River
Location : Perth, WA, Australia
Transportation : Perth CAT

 

The Perth Mint (Royal Mint of Australia)

After three months that I wasn’t publishing article here in my website because I had been focused on something else that interests me, now I am returning again in blogging. I missed writing my travel memories. Now I will continue from where I left off. I started my introductions through some photos on my travel in Perth, still part of my Western Australia adventure and the last travels that I had in Australia before my 4-years visa expired. I really enjoyed my time exploring the huge continent country down under.

After resting for half an hour in my hotel,  I decided to walk around the city and looked for a nearby place that I can explore in the afternoon. I decided to find the Perth Mint which few minutes walk from my accommodation. I went inside the museum and I inquired at the desk if there was still available guided walking tour at that time. The desk officer confirmed there still one before they close for the day. It was a relief for me and I never hesitated to join the tour. The tour at that time cost me $20 AUD.

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The Perth Mint

Since I still have enough time before the tour starts, I took a couple of photos outside the grand heritage building which gave me a time to appreciate the structure of the building and to notice the sculpture in front of it. I walked towards it and looked closely until I  able to read some of the text scripts engrave on its bottom and learned that it is called “The Strike” and made by Greg James, a Western Australian sculptor. The sculpture depicts the moment where two prospectors named William Ford and Arthur Bayley strike the gold in 1892, a discovery of the gold led to secure the future of colony in Western Australia.

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“The Strike”

After spending few minutes outside, I returned to the building and waited until the mint tour commenced. I knew it was a museum but I felt excited because I knew that I will discover something inside the historical mint.

Our tour guide gathered everyone that joins the tour and in few minutes, walking  guided tour started. The moment we entered the mint, we were greeted by the world’s largest gold bullion coin which called as the “Australian Kangaroo One Tonne Gold Coin” where one side of the coin is the Ian Rank-Broadley effigy of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. And by just looking at the largest bullion gold coin that looks so grand on the way they displayed it, I knew for myself that I saw the most important feature of the mint. I took a lot of photos because of my fascination with the gold bullion coin that is 99.99% pure gold, the biggest, the heaviest and the most valuable gold bullion coin in the world with estimated value of AUD 50 million.

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Australian Kangaroo One Tonne Gold Coin

Next, we walked inside the 1899 melting house we watched the live traditional way of pouring gold. The process was explained from the beginning where the gold was mined, then pure gold was heated and molten with extreme high temperatures. After the process, the result end was a gold bar and will be added to their gold bar collection with a price tag which can be available in public for sale of its worth value.

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Pouring Gold

The Perth Mint exhibits the history of gold in Western Australia and important facts that revolves around the gold. Below are some information that I learned while exploring the mint.

The first gold sovereign was minted in 1489 to honor Henry VII, the first Tudor king and universally accepted as “The Chief Coin in the World”. The Perth Mint itself produced gold sovereigns from 1899 to 1931 when the demand on it became so high within the British Empire.

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Gold Sovereigns – “Chief Coins of the World”

In the said gold sovereigns, the British Empire queens and kings has been portrayed on coinage such as Queen Victoria, Kind Edward II, King George V and Queen Elizabeth II.

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A vintage machine called Sovereign Sorting Machine was displayed in the mint where its main function is to determine if the sovereign blank has correct weight. If it checked that it’s too heavy or too light, it will be rejected to be melted again before it will mint as coin.

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Sovereign Sorting Machine

Another vintage display found inside The Perth Mint is Assay Scales made by L. Oertling of London, Great Britain’s largest manufacturer of precision balances.

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Assay Scales

The mint also exhibits the historical information of the Australian Currency. Before, Australia’s Federation, it used a mixed of British silver and copper coins until the law was passed which gave control over the issue of Australian currency.

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Australian Currency and its Coins History

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Bullion Coins and Bars

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Lunar Bullion Coins

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HME Minting Machine

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Gold Bars behind bars

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Gold Bars

While exploring the mint museum, I found some profound learning about gold, below are some of the captured information that I had about Gold.

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Gold is?

One of amazing thing to learn about gold is that it can found in different forms, such as dust or nuggets. People may discover gold through a single bit of piece or the other way around which is a much larger form of it. Either way, both still found as gold.

Nowadays, the gold are mined in microscopic gold dust, cannot be seen by naked eye until the gold-bearing ore has been processed. The one the I captured below is said to be mined from 70 tonnes of ore to have this phial display of gold dust. Wow!!!

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Gold Dust

Some gold are found in quartz and other minerals such as ironstone, slate, amethyst, limonite, serpentine, calcite and so on.

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Golds in different minerals

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The most obvious form that gold can be found is in nugget form such as free flakes, grains, or larger nuggets. These were formed by particles of gold were eroded from rocks. Because the gold is dense, these particles became naturally concentrated in ancient streams and riverbeds were collected and were “welded” by water action to form nuggets. – The Perth Mint

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Gold in Nuggets

Visiting The Perth Mint to visit is a worth one to try. The tour made me realized that Australia currently holds the biggest gold bullion in the world and it is also fascinating to see a real gold bars that worth million dollars.

Until then.

Notes:
1. Plan to visit The Perth Mint ? Please check latest information here :
2. Transportation – Perth CAT
3. Directions to The Perth Mint :
From Hotels at City Centre : Short walk to 310 Hay St
Free Bus (Red CAT) : Nearby Bus Station
– Along Hay Street
Hay St Perth Mint Red Cat 6
Hay St Before Hill St
– Along Goderich Street
Goderich St Mercedes College Red Cat 27
Goderich St Bennett Street Red Cat 28

 

 

 

 

Discovery : The Perth Mint’s Golds

Discovery (Post#58) : The Perth Mint’s Golds

Photos of the day are all about golds displayed inside the mint. Some gold are still in the form of dust and some are still nuggets. And the amazing thing to learn about gold is that it is a metal which are not naturally existed in earth but came from outer space as debris from a supernova. It means that the amount of gold we have in the world is limited and fixed. These photos are part of Perth and Surround Tour October 2016.

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Notes :
Photo : Gold
Location : 310 Hay St, East Perth WA 6004, Australia
Transportation : Perth CAT
Official Website : Perth Mint

Something To Look At : Gold is …

Something To Look At (Post#19) : Gold is …

Photos of the day are all about the “Gold is …”. During the visit at The Perth Mint, aside from seeing real gold, I captured some thoughts on how the world view or look at itself “Gold”. These photos are part of Perth and Surround Tour October 2016.

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Notes :
Photo : Ideas, Thoughts, About Gold
Location : 310 Hay St, East Perth WA 6004, Australia
Transportation : Perth CAT
Official Website : Perth Mint

Travel Diary 101 : Going to Perth

Two days adventure in Broome was over. Though I missed the adventures that I was eager to see and experience, I was still able to maximize my time in the said remote town in Australia. Because of short period of time, even I wanted to stay, I have to move on and go to my next destination which is Perth where I spent my last 4 days in the country.

My flight was in the morning of Oct 12, 2016, Wednesday and before that day, I was able to book my airport transport to Broome International Airport via Broome Taxi which also offers airport shuttle service and at that time of my travel cost me $7 AUD. I was one of the first passenger that was picked-up by the shuttle. Then, the shuttle picked-up few more passengers before we drove straight to airport which not really far from the town proper. In the shuttle, I met again some of the senior folks came from Brisbane that I had been with when I joined Willie Creek Pearl Farm Tour.  They were also flying to Perth, the same flight that I will take.

We arrived at the Broome International Airport, a small, simple but effectively working airport. When I entered the departure terminal, there were just handy people to be seen in the area since at that time, there were just two flights scheduled that morning. The assurance given to me by Broome Taxi that I booked seems to be right as the given picked-up time was really enough for my flight. Broome International Airport was not similar to other busy airports where you are required to allocate so much time before the flight to make sure it will not be missed. I felt relaxed after I checked-in my baggage and for just a couple of minutes of waiting time, we were on our way to the tarmac where our plane was parked and where we will board the plane.

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My flight from Broome to Perth was more than 2.5 hours through Qantas. And since my assigned seat was at the window side, I got a chance to view the desert of Western Australia from the top that looks like it was endless because of its enormity which made flight enjoyable with a great sight.

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Perth

I arrived before lunch time at Perth Domestic Terminal 4. And when I disembarked the terminal, I looked for the shuttle bus that goes straight to the city which serve by Transperth. I got off the bus at Adelaide Tce After Bennett St Station which just few minutes walk towards Pan Pacific Perth Hotel where I stayed while in the city.

At Pan Pacific Perth Hotel, one thing that I admired though I knew that hotels and most of the accommodations has check-in time, I arrived at the hotel just past noon, which a bit early for their check-in time, but their officer cheerfully assisted me in my check-in since there is room ready for me. They do not advised me to wait but instead allowed me to check-in at earlier time. When everything were set, I went to my assigned room. I was very happy because my room has great scenery, a partial city view and Swan River view.

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At Pan Pacific Hotel

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Swan River

On my first day in Perth, I immediately started my adventure exploring the city and its nearby tourist destinations that I can reach.

Until then.

 

 

 

Discovery : Australian Kangaroo One Tonne Gold Coin – The World’s Largest Gold Bullion Coin

Discovery (Post#57) : Australian Kangaroo One Tonne Gold Coin – The World’s Largest Gold Bullion Coin

Photos of the day are all about Australian Kangaroo One Tonne Gold Coin. The gold bullion coin is 99.99% pure gold, the biggest, heaviest and the most valuable gold bullion coin in the world. And currently estimated to be worth as AUD 50 million. The obverse of the coin also portrays the Ian Rank-Broadley effigy of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. These photos are part of Perth and Surround October 2016.

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Notes :
Photo : Gold Bullion Coin, Australian Kangaroo One Tonne Gold Coin
Location : 310 Hay St, East Perth WA 6004, Australia
Transportation : Perth CAT
Official Website : Perth Mint

Arts and Craft : The Strike by Greg James

Arts and Craft (Post#22) : The Strike by Greg James

Photos of the day are all about sculpture entitled “The Strike” made by Greg James. The sculpture depicts the moment where two prospectors named William Ford and Arthur Bayley strike the gold in 1892. Discovery of the gold led to secure the future of colony in Western Australia. These photos are part of Perth and Surround October 2016.

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The sculpture depicts the Gold Strike near Coolgardie by prospectors William Ford and Arthur Bayley in 1892 which unleashed the Gold Rushes that secured the future of the struggling colony of Western Australia. Established one of the states most successful and enduring industries and led to the foundation of the Perth Mint in 1899.

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Notes :
Photo : Sculpture, “The Strike”
Location : 310 Hay St, East Perth WA 6004, Australia
Transportation : Perth CAT
Official Website : Perth Mint

Structure : The Perth Mint

Structure (Post#17) : The Perth Mint

Photos of the day are all about Perth Mint. It is the oldest operating mint in Australia and the only remaining gold rush mint since Sydney Mint and Melbourne Mint were both closed. And to recognized the architectural work of this building, it is one of the first building entered on the State’s heritage register. These photos are part of Perth and Surround October 2016.

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Notes :
Photo : Heritage Building, Mint
Location : 310 Hay St, East Perth WA 6004, Australia
Transportation : Perth CAT
Official Website : Perth Mint

Name Of The Place : Perth Domestic Terminal

Name Of The Place (Post#54) : Perth Domestic Terminal

Photo of the day is about Perth Domestic Terminal. After spending more than 2 Days in Broome, the last destination that I had in Kimberley Region, I flew to Perth City to continue my last few days adventures in southern part of Western Australia. After disembarking the plane, I left the terminal with this souvenir shot while waiting for a taxi going to my hotel in the city. This photo is part of Perth and Surround October 2016.

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Notes :
Photo : Perth Domestic Terminal, Airport Terminal
Location : Perth Airport WA 6105, Australia
Transportation : Qantas, Virgin Australia
Official Website : Perth Airport