On The Trails

June 12, 2025

“Hi Guys, how are we today?” “Cheers guys, have a great day.” Those were the friendly words from the young woman skippering our ferry this morning, greeting embarking passengers and wishing well those disembarking. So continued that cheerful, friendly vibe of Perth. I’d started the day with a quick run and another magnificent sunrise and then we headed across the river for some more exploring. 

A magic sunrise as a backdrop for a morning run

Today we decided to walk and walk and walk. So we set off towards East Perth, walking through parks and gardens and beside the river, through Point Fraser and beside wetlands. Then we walked across the river, along one of the many fantastic walking paths and looped back around before picking up one of the trails from the Perth Trails app. This is a really handy little app, with suggested walks and things to see, so we followed the Claisebrook Cove route, before looping back into the city and picking up the Art City trail, to see some more of the public art that’s placed all around the city. We ended up doing a 7km walk, so here’s some of the sights and scenes of our loops around the city of Perth…

Through the gardens towards Point Fraser

Through the wetlands

A monument “In Memory of Migrants to Australia”

Some of the terrific paths around the city for walking and cycling – even separated and colour coded red for cycling and black for walking. Brilliant!
The shared paths reminded us of places in Europe, with them set up like mini roads for bikes and pedestrians. I wish we had this at home.

Murals and artwork can be found everywhere, even on walls beneath bridges
A shelter in the shape of a frill neck lizard

I loved that so much design had gone into the aesthetics for this bridge…
…not for traffic but for pedestrians only. Top work!

Strolling through Claisebrook Cove

Memories of life on the river are represented by “Standing Figure holding a sailboat”. Her head pivots in the direction of the wind.

The creeping lines of a Moreton Bay Fig are an artwork in themself

“Memory Markers” giant pen nibs recognise the original designers of Stirling Gardens and those who recorded its history

This installation recognises the Stolen Generations

“Boonji Spaceman” is a gift to the city from US artist Brendan Murphy

“The Mob”

A mural based on the closing scene of Shakespeare’s ‘The Tempest’ is on the ceiling of the city’s library

Even temporary walls to block off construction work are given the artistic treatment

“Ascalon” is named after St George’s lance of the legend and represents the triumph of good over evil, depicting St George’s cloak billowing around his lance after he has slain the dragon.

“First Contact” is by Nyoongar artist Laurel Nannup and represents the arrival of European ships to Perth who the local Nyoongar people believed to be their ancestors returning from the sea

After all that walking we stopped for a sit and a snack with some locals

This was our last full day of exploring the city together before I start my conference tomorrow and Steve roams solo. It was another great day, part freestyling and part following a trail to help us explore new places around about. Perth is a great city. Lots to see. Lots of green spaces. Brilliant infrastructure for walking and cycling. Lovely quiet areas. Terrific public transport to leap frog to different areas in a flash. Everywhere is clean and well kept and nice to spend time in. It’s a long way to travel to get here from Tassie, all the way to the other end of the country, but so worth the effort to get here. It’s been a fabulous place to visit. We’ve also been able to get the trifecta in with this little bit of domestic travel, with some time to run, ride and roam. Magic. It doesn’t get much better than that!

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