DISTANCE: 5.5km (3.5 miles)
TIME: A half day
START: Claisebrook
END: Perth Stadium Station
POINTS TO NOTE: This area is home to the city’s biggest sports arenas, most notably the Perth Stadium, and when big games are on it will be very busy, as will surrounding cafés, bars and public transport. This route can also be cycled.
East Perth has long pulled in sports fans – being home to the WACA cricket ground, Gloucester Park, Belmont Park and the State Tennis Centre – but the area now has a jewel in its stadia tiara: the impressive shape of the Perth (Optus) Stadium. It’s not all about arenas, though. The East End has come alive with numerous residential, retail and recreation-focussed projects taking shape along both banks of the river, connected by a stunning bridge that now spans the Swan.
Such developments have reinvigorated investment in East Perth, with Claisebrook Cove a particularly popular spot. It’s a far cry from the scene that would have greeted Captain Stirling when he stopped and discovered a freshwater stream here during his 1827 exploration of the Swan. He called it Clause Creek, after the ship’s surgeon, but as the city expanded the area became Perth’s ‘East Ward’, and Clause Creek morphed into Claisebrook.
Claisebrook Cove skyline
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Claisebrook Cove
Approaching the area from Claisebrook Station, along Kensington Street and East Parade, the first thing you’re going to encounter is an enigma: the Impossible Triangle sculpture by Brian McKay and Ahmad Abas, situated on a roundabout at the junction with Brook Street. This 13.5-metre (44ft) landmark is based on a puzzle devised by mathematician Sir Roger Penrose in the 1950s, and there are only two positions from which the triangle appears complete.
Continue south along Plain Street and duck down the steps into Victoria Gardens 1 [map]. Situated in the pretty surrounds of Claisebrook Cove, this popular spot features free barbecues, picnic tables under the trees, a pavilion and grassy slopes leading down to the river and inlet. There are also eateries and places to grab coffee and cakes, such as the Kinky Lizard Espresso Bar (see 1 [map]).
Like a lot of Perth, Claisebrook is an ancient area with powerful indigenous links. This riverbank area is known as Nganga Batta’s Mooditcher (Sunshine’s Living Strength) and is a place of hope and friendship. The standing stones on the foreshore form a winding trail – the Illa Kurri Sacred Dreaming Path – a physical narrative that describes the chain of lakes and wetlands that spanned the land prior to Perth being built; each of the granite stones is named after a lake.
Also on the foreshore is the Charnock Woman ceramic pavement mosaic, which tells the story of an evil woman who stole children in the Dreamtime, and the Yoondoorup Boorn, an old river gum that was removed, treated and returned to the site at the request of the Noongar people. Their ancestors, who camped here, used its burnt and split trunk as a hiding place for messages and goods.
Victoria Gardens
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These icons are part of the East Perth Public Art Walk, which hugs Claisebrook Cove and features 27 diverse works by as many artists, ranging from Greg James’ bronze thongs (flip flops) to a 14-metre/yd-long wall mural by Joanna Lefroy Capelle depicting an allegorical account of East Perth’s history from its origins in the Bibbulmun nation, via a humorous spoof on Nelson’s Column (Diver and Guard Dogs by Russell Sheridan).
Parks and gardens
Leave the gardens by the exit that takes you out onto Royal Street, then follow Trafalgar Road south into Waterloo Crescent. On your right is East Perth Cemetery, better known as the Pioneer Cemetery 2 [map], which was opened in the colony’s embryonic days and contains the remains of around 10,000 people of all faiths, buried before it was closed in 1899.
On your left is Gloucester Park 3 [map] (www.gloucesterpark.com.au) where harness racing (which Australians call ‘the trots’) takes place. Turn left along Hale Street to reach the cricket world’s famous WACA 4 [map] (www.waca.com.au; tours Mon–Fri 10am & 1pm), named after the Western Australian Cricket Association, which looks destined to host smaller games and training facilities now that big cricket and AFL matches are being staged in the Perth Stadium. The WACA Museum (on-site; Mon–Fri 10am–3pm; donation) features exhibits about the ground’s history.
WACA sports stadium
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On the right is Queen’s Gardens 5 [map], Perth’s first public park, created in 1899 out of clay-pits that for 50 years supplied bricks for buildings such as Perth Town Hall. Lily ponds and English trees show the garden’s British influences, as does the 1927 replica of Sir George Frampton’s statue of Peter Pan.
Verdant Queen’s Gardens
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New views
Turn left on Hay Street and continue until you’re almost beneath the Causeway leading to Heirisson Island. Here the multi-stage Waterbank 6 [map] project is gradually taking shape, which will bring more retail and residential space to the shores of the Swan.
Follow the riverside path north, passing the opposite side of Gloucester Park, until you reach the foot of the amazing $91.5 million, 65-metre (213ft)-high Matagarup Bridge, which connects the rest of East Perth to Burswood, a suburb bounded by the Swan River on three sides. Cross the bridge, which opened to pedestrians and cyclists in July 2018. It is festooned with over 900 metres/yds of LED lighting, making it a spectacular sight day and night.
Optus Stadium in Burswood
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Game changer
Recent developments have transformed Burswood into a hub of recreation and entertainment, most obviously with the construction of the Perth Stadium 7 [map] (www.optusstadium.com.au; tours daily, outside of events, 10am, 11am, 1pm, 3pm), name-sponsored by Optus at the time of writing, which opened its doors in January 2018.
The stadium can seat over 60,000 people, making it Australia’s third biggest sporting arena (after the Melbourne Cricket Ground and Stadium Australia in Sydney). It stages games of Aussie rules football and cricket, mostly, plus some soccer and rugby matches. Both local AFL (Australian Football League) teams, Fremantle and the West Coast Eagles, play home games here, as do the Perth Scorchers, the city’s 20/20 cricket team.
The Camfield
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Burswood
Right by the stadium, The Camfield (see 2 [map]) is a good spot to stop for restorative beers and bites before exploring Burswood Park 8 [map] (www.burswoodpark.wa.gov.au). This was once a rubbish tip and then a golf course, but it’s now a grassy expanse with wildflower displays and a heritage trail lined by statues, including one of Henry Camfield, the pioneer who settled Burswood and named it after his family home in Kent, England.
Various showy restaurants, pubs and clubs can be found south of here, but the very glitziest are clustered in the Crown Perth 9 [map] (www.crownperth.com.au) complex, where hotels, eateries and night haunts hover around a casino that never sleeps.
On the east side of the park is the State Tennis Centre ) [map] (www.statetenniscentre.com.au), where you can hire a hardcourt for a hit around. Finish up at the Perth Stadium Station, or continue to Belmont Park Racecourse, which is just north of here, on the other side of the Graham Farmer Freeway.
Food and drink
1 Kinky Lizard Espresso Bar
78a 20 Royal Street; tel: 08-9221 9133; www.kinkylizard.com.au; daily 6am–3pm; $$
An award-winning coffee and/or a super-food smoothie (Green Monster/Beet me Up) is the perfect way to revive your legs and open your mind before exploring the art trail that curls around Claisebrook Cove. Breakfast and lunch options are good.
2 The Camfield
Burswood Park; tel: 08-6314 1360; www.thecamfieldbar.com.au; daily 11am–late; $$
Australia’s largest pub needs all of its five bars and 175 taps when there’s a big game at the massive Perth (Optus) Stadium next door. But during the week, and on non-game weekend days, this bar and restaurant, with an on-site micro-brewery, is a great spot to enjoy a pint and a pizza (other pub grub available), while gazing out across the 180-degree view of the Swan River.