DISTANCE: 9km (5.5 miles)
TIME: A half day
START: Swan Bells
END: The Landing
POINTS TO NOTE: The exciting precinct of Elizabeth Quay will continue to evolve. This route is possible in a morning or afternoon, but you can easily lose an entire day exploring Kings Park and the Botanic Gardens. This route can be combined with others including Route 2.
It can come as a surprise to first-time visitors that Perth isn’t perched right on the Indian Ocean, but is instead 14km (9 miles) upstream from the port of Fremantle. Some of Australia’s most sensational suburban beaches are nearby, but the city itself is synonymous with a serpentine stretch of fresh water, the Swan River.
Overlooking this, on a hill ambitiously called Mount Eliza, is the semi-wild suburban bushland of Kings Park, over 400 hectares (990 acres) of leafy seclusion.
Elizabeth Quay and Barrack Square
Opened in 2016, the Elizabeth Quay development has completely transformed the CBD side of the riverfront, with Esplanade Reserve flooded by an artificial inlet with jetties and an island, which is linked to Riverside Drive to the west by a stunning bridge for pedestrians and cyclists. The quay is surrounded by ultra-modern hotels, recreation and play areas, public art, and retail and living space.
Stunning Elizabeth Quay
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The bells
Start at the Swan Bells (Barrack Square, Riverside Drive; tel: 08-6210 0444; www.thebelltower.com.au; daily from 10am), where immense copper sails cup a green-glass belltower. The bells were installed to mark Australia’s bicentenary in 1988. Inside the tower you can see the bells, take part in an interactive bell-chiming demonstration and visit the outside observation level, with views across Perth and the river.
Barrack Street Jetty remains the departure point for various boat cruises to Fremantle and Rottnest Island, and up to the wineries in the Swan Valley (for more information, click here), although the ferry to South Perth now leaves from Elizabeth Quay.
Bridge over water
Head west, through shiny Elizabeth Quay 1 [map] (www.mra.wa.gov.au), perusing the walkways, retail outlets and restaurants such as The Reveley (see 1 [map]). Cross the Elizabeth Quay Bridge, a 20-metre (66ft) -high suspended cycle- and walkway that has quickly become iconic, to William Street Landing.
Pass the First Contact sculpture, a gleaming 5-metre (16ft) -tall aluminum artwork by indigenous artist Laurel Nannup, which depicts the arrival of European settlers.
Follow the curve of the Swan, along the shared path (bikes and pedestrians) that runs parallel to Riverside Drive. Pass through David Carr Memorial Park, go under the Mitchell Freeway and cross Mounts Bay Road to enter Kings Park by the Kennedy Fountain, ascending the steep Kokoda Memorial Track to meet Hacketts Path.
Kings Park and Botanic Gardens
This area of urban bushland is wrapped around the flanks of Mount Eliza (more hill than mountain), known as Kaarta Gar-up or Mooro Katta by the Noongar. The manicured lawns, terraces and water gardens are substantial, but most of this extraordinary park is dominated by native bush, which makes it unique.
Park Visitor Information (Fraser Avenue; www.bgpa.wa.gov.au; daily 9.30am–4pm) offers free bush and wildflower walks, leaving daily from Fraser Avenue, outside Aspects of Kings Park. Segway Tours are also available (www.segwaytourswa.com.au), and bikes can be hired from Spinway WA (Fraser Avenue; tel: 0413 343 305; www.spinwaywa.bike).
The Glass Arched Bridge runs from Kings Park into the Botanic Garden
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Skywalking
Go east on Hacketts Path for about 100 metres/yds before turning right to meet the Lotterywest Federation Walkway – a 620-metre/yd-long hovering path, suspended amid a canopy of tall eucalypts, with great vistas over the Swan – leading right into the Botanic Gardens 2 [map]. You will find yourself in a forest of exotic plants and trees here, including many hundreds of native species.
Just west of the Water Garden Pavilion, cross Forest Drive and head to the DNA Tower 3 [map], so called because of its twin-helix circular staircases, each with 101 steps leading to a platform with views across the park and out to Rottnest Island (for more information, click here).
Chasing dinosaurs
To see more of the park, follow the Honeyeater Path along the Broadwalk for just over 1.5km (1 mile) to reach a lake and Lycopod Island, complete with playground, model dinosaurs, timber-and-steel lycopods (the world’s first trees), and calamites (fern-like plants).
In a steel cage nearby is a growing ‘dinosaur tree’, a Wollemi Pine, thought to have been extinct until the 1990s, when a grove of them was discovered in a secret gorge in Wollemi National Park, New South Wales. You can also view the Vietnam Memorial or, after dusk, enjoy an alfresco film experience at Perth’s Moonlight Cinema (www.moonlight.com.au). Also here is Zamia Café (see 2 [map]).
Head southwest along Lovekin Drive to see more military memorials en route to the University of Western Australia (www.uwa.edu.au), where numerous impressive features include the Sunken Garden, the Reflection Pool, and the Five Lamps of Learning, a Venetian glass-tile mosaic by the Victorian artist Walter Napier.
War and peace
Our walk, however, returns east along Lovekin to the busiest part of the park, via the Pioneer Women’s Memorial. Both Lovekin and May drives are lined with gums commemorating the fallen of two world wars, and just beyond the roundabout where they converge, is the solemn State War Memorial 4 [map].
Approached along the Ceremonial Walk you will pass through the Court of Contemplation, past the Flame of Remembrance and Pool of Reflection, before reaching the Cenotaph itself, which is the best place in the city to get an eyeful of the Swan River delta and a panoramic vista of Perth’s metropolitan area.
Fraser Avenue
Nearby you’ll find a choice of eateries with river views.
Opposite, on the riverside of Fraser Avenue, is the Aboriginal Art Gallery (www.aboriginalgallery.com.au; Mon–Fri 10.30am–4.30pm, Sat–Sun 11am–4pm). This appropriately placed gallery sells fine indigenous arts and crafts. It usually has an indigenous artist in residence.
Follow Fraser Avenue north, passing beneath magnificent lemon-scented gums (locally known as widow-makers because of their habit of shedding large branches during times of drought), which were planted to mark Queen Victoria’s Jubilee in 1898, and then added to for WA’s 1929 centenary.
Back to barrack
Leave the park via the gate by the Edith Cowan Clocktower, and carefully cross Malcolm Street. Opposite is the Old Perth Observatory (www.nationaltrust.org.au), built in 1896–1900 and originally charged with watching out for bush fires in Kings Park.
Turn right, walk along Malcolm Street, crossing over the freeway, from where you can see the Parliament of Western Australia (tel: 08-9222 7222; www.parliament.wa.gov.au; tours Mon & Thu 10.30am, Fri 2pm) to your left.
Ahead is the Barracks Gateway 5 [map], the remains of the Pensioners’ Barracks, which once housed the Enrolled Pensioner Force, made up of British soldiers who arrived as convict guards. The barracks were demolished to make way for the Mitchell Freeway.
Landing zone
Continue into St George’s Terrace and the heart of Old Perth (for more information, click here). Follow this to Barrack Street, then go right and return to Elizabeth Quay.
After entering the quay from the north, veer right to explore The Landing, the precinct’s primary public event space.
Food and drink
1 The Reveley
Eastern Promenade, Elizabeth Quay; tel: 08-6314 1350; www.thereveleybar.com.au; daily 11am–late; $$$
The ground floor here is the perfect place to grab a coffee to start your day. Return for an evening meal in the dining room or on Henry’s rooftop – seafood is the go-to.
2 Zamia Café
50 May Drive, Kings Park; tel: 08-9388 6700; www.zamiacafe.com.au; daily 8am–4.30pm, later at weekends; $$$
Sensationally situated café serving breakfasts (smoked salmon, peace eggs), lunches (lemon pepper squid, slow roasts), coffees and cakes for eating in or out.