Welcome to my blog about the real Perth. In this blog I'll record my thoughts about this pretty, still booming city.

As I mentioned on the home page, I've spent a lot of time away from Perth. I returned to live some months back after a couple of years in Sydney. Even in that time Perth had changed quite a bit.

The most obvious effect of the resources boom is the huge amount of construction going on, particularly in the CBD. It's not quite Beijing, but there are a lot of cranes in the increasingly impressive skyline.

One particularly prominent building site is the Perth Arena. It's situated between Wellington St and the railway line, and just near the freeway. There are photos of this site below, seen from different locations. (Please note: I shot these on a windy day, and it was hard to hold the camera perfectly still. So, what seems like warping of the structure is not due to bad engineering, but my poor photography skills!)

 

Perth Arena is right across from the Perth Entertainment Centre. It's kind of apt that it's so close to this other landmark, because it's symbolic of a former era. I remember when it was built back in 1974 (when I was 10) and there was an awful lot of excitement about it. It looked so huge and impressive. I went and saw movies in the cinema there when I was a teenager on many occasions. But I only went into the actual main concert area once, and that was to see David Bowie perform on his Serious Moonlight Tour back in November 1983. It was actually the only full on rock concert I've ever been to, so I remember it well.

Many of the world's biggest names in rock music performed at the "Perth Ent Cent" over the years. Sadly, it's now a ghost venue and has been for some time. It's sure to be demolished before too long. The sign, pictured below, is testament to its decay.