Perth

I hit Perth last night. What can I say but it hit me back. After checking in to my accommodation and doing a quick walk around the city to reacquaint myself with it's charms I went to the bar. It was all a bit of blur from there. I met up with Josh, a Boeing engineer, who is out here with the US Navy to help with their submarine tracking aircraft (I know who cares right?). He then introduced me to representatives of the US Navy and what can I say? Their ships may be bigger than ours but that doesn't mean they can handle our schooners. In summing up the US Navy had a great time and Australia can hold its head up proud (even if I no longer can). After staggering out of some nightclub in Northbridge at about 5.00am and having savoured the delights of a number of Perth's new small bars it was time for me to rest my weary head. 

Perth Hilton

I'd got in from the Margaret River at about 5.30pm and checked into the Hilton. I know it sounds expensive but they had a weekend deal that made it by far the cheapest option. Keeping the car in Perth was not however the cheapest option, at $45.00 a day they should give it a full detail or at least let me sleep in it to save some money on accommodation. 

Perth has also changed a lot since my last time here. My last visit saw Perth still on the crest of an Alan Bond induced artificial wave, It was pretending to be a city. Now on the back of the mining boom it is the real deal. It is covered in great bars, good coffee shops and interesting restaurants. Well worth the visit. 

The only down side seems to be the ego it has developed. Western Australia, and Perth in particular, thinks it is underwriting the rest of the country and that we are all just sponging off them. An article in today's paper talked about what the dollar would be worth if Western Australia was its own country (their conclusion about $1.50US). It also assured readers that interest rates would be far higher without the slacker eastern states slowing the economy down (an official cash rate of 7% was mentioned). Good God they're like a bunch of cocky teenagers. We carried them until they grew up enough to survive on their own. Now they think they know it all and want to ignore us and leave home at their earliest convenience. It will be interesting to see their behaviour after the boom is over. My guess is they will skulk home quietly, start sucking up to us, ask to move into their old room and hope that all will be forgiven. 

Another interesting thing about being in "the west", if you ask a local I am very much from "the east", is that jobs in the natural resource sector (mining and gas essentially) are not that easy to come by. The local media has stories about how to get a job in a mine, it interviewed a couple of easterners who had quit their jobs and moved west to cash in on the boom only to not be able to find work despite both of them having a trade. The advice is quite simple you need to have experience preferably in a mine or allied trade. The number of green employees who have no experience hired is tiny. 


Anyway after a 3.5 hour power nap I skulked out of the hotel myself to get some breakfast and face to the day. After making sure I had some dark sunnies on I headed to King's Park including Perth's botanical gardens and sweated off some of last nights excesses while checking out the sensational views and doing the Kokoda Track memorial walk. While I wouldn't have passed a breathaliser test it felt much better to have done some serious exercise and to have got rid of some of last night's refreshments. 

I don't think the navy are in town tonight (fortunately) and I pray the marines, army and air force aren't here either. So I'm hoping for an early one before I head off to spend the day in Freemantle tomorrow. Then I'm off to Darwin, that should only take a couple of weeks.