Posted by Matt Hayden on Wednesday, August 13, 2014,
I just read a report about how the markets in Subiaco are slated for destruction and will be replaced by huge new
shopping outlets. My first thought: That's not surprising! They've been lying fallow for ages ...
But I then realized that this update referred to plans for the extant Station Street Markets, and not the old Pavillion Markets down the road (pictured below).
Just goes to show how quickly things continue to change in this area.
I used to live nearby in a unit on Subiaco Rd, close to...
Posted by Matt Hayden on Friday, March 21, 2014,
I live in Mosman Park, and often head down to the Subway not far from the train station there. Along that stretch of the Stirling Highway the road is too narrow. So is the footpath, especially right
near the station itself. Walking along it always feels a bit fraught, particularly at rush hour. There's a hell of a lot of traffic thundering through there on the way to Fremantle and back.
About a hundred metres form the station there's a busy petrol station where people enter at speed from the h...
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Posted by Matt Hayden on Tuesday, May 21, 2013,
One thing I really like about Perth is how spread out it is. Even though it's much more densely populated than in years gone by, there's still a lot of empty space. And pretty much every suburb contains a nice big park or three. There are quite a few
lakes and swamps around the place, too. You can even find patches of land that are reminiscent of the country between suburbs that are quite close to the CBD and Fremantle.
The area near Dixon Park in Hamilton Hill is an example of this. It's just...
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Posted by Matt Hayden on Wednesday, March 13, 2013,
I recently found this page about how Scarborough Beach has been seen as our own version of Bondi Beach since
as far back as 1939. Of course in those days the comparison mainly related to how popular these two surf beaches were with families during summer.
Nowadays, they have more in common, such as the population density of both suburbs. Needless to say Bondi is the more crowded suburb of the two by far. There are countless units right near the water. Most have been there for decades, and man...
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Posted by Matt Hayden on Monday, March 11, 2013,
Had to go out to Innaloo several times recently. While out there one sunny afternoon last week I spotted a flock of white birds foraging for food. Wasn't sure what species they were at the time but have subsequently learned that they were corellas of some sort. They look most likely to be long-billed corellas -- although that seems a bit odd because they seem confined to
the eastern states. Maybe they were on holiday?
Anyway I returned to that area a day or two later and saw another flock of b... Continue reading ...
Posted by Matt Hayden on Wednesday, January 16, 2013,
Perth has several entertainment districts. The main one is Northbridge. Then there's Subiaco. There are also quite a few cafes, restaurans and pubs on Albany Highway in Victoria Park, although they're quite spread out.
Aside from Northbridge, the closest to the CBD is Oxford St Leederville. The shot below (taken from the overpass leading from Oxford St to the Leederville train station) gives an idea of its proximity to the CBD.
The actual cafe strip in question is quite short. But it's a pleas...
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Posted by Matt Hayden on Tuesday, December 4, 2012,
There are numerous locations in Perth where you can see a strong contrast between the old and the new. The corner of Rokeby Road and Hay St in Subiaco is one of these.
There are two lovely old buildings at that intersection, the Subiaco Hotel and the Regal Theatre. The former was built around 1904, in the
Art Nouveau style. The latter is an Art Deco building constructed in the mid to late 1930s. Just opposite both of them is the garish home of radio station Nova 93.7. Not sure when that was bu...
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Posted by Matt Hayden on Sunday, September 2, 2012,
There are always new infrastructure projects going on in this city. But I hadn't heard of the Metropolitan Area Express until now. This is a light rail project that has just received
the go ahead.
The first stage will start at Polytechnic West (Balga Campus) and extend east-west through the city to the QEII Medical Centre, in Nedlands, and the Causeway.One of the main reasons for such a project is to relieve
traffic congestion, and reduce carbon emissions. That's an illustration of just how cr...
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Posted by Matt Hayden on Thursday, August 16, 2012,
A thought on the ATM explosions that have been
occurring of late: Such events are happening with increasing frequency. They often occur in twos, sometimes within hours.
This is reminiscent of the ram raiding of pharmacies. In these smash and grab robberies, thieves steal as much cold and flu medication as possible for use in making meth, a drug that's having a really bad effect on many people in this city. (When I was living in Yokine, there was an occasion in which three of them were hit. The...
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Posted by Matt Hayden on Sunday, July 22, 2012,
It's well known that Perth has a lot of Poms! As
Wikipedia states:
Perth's population is notable for the high proportion of British-born
residents. At the 2006 Census, 142,424 British-born Perth residents
were counted,[51] narrowly behind Sydney (145,261),[52] despite having
just 35% of the overall population of Sydney.
And like other ethnic and cultural groups, those hailing from the
British Isles tend to gravitate to the same suburbs. I'd long known that
the southern centre of Rockin...
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Posted by Matt Hayden on Tuesday, June 12, 2012,
I do quite a bit of walking through the suburbs of Perth. There are very few streets that are the same as what I remember from when I was growing up. That's not to say that there are new buildings on
every street -- although there are a hell of a lot of them. But even in long established suburbs, there always seems to be evidence of fairly recent refurbishment and extensions having been added, etc.
So I tend to have the sense that the "old Perth" has pretty much gone entirely. However, every n...
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Posted by Matt Hayden on Thursday, June 7, 2012,
As I've mentioned in previous posts, there's a lot of construction going on in this city. Obviously you tend to see it more in the CBD, where there are some big commercial projects going on. And there are quite a few apartment blocks and the like going up in newer and outlying areas.
But some of the older, more established suburbs have some big projects underway, too. There's the odd "facelift" occurring as well.
Take Bayview Terrace in Claremont. This is a pleasant
retail and cafe strip in one...
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Posted by Matt Hayden on Monday, June 4, 2012,
Having recently moved to Mosman Park from Yokine, I've been having the occasional stroll through the streets to get a feel for the suburb. It's a unique place and a bit of a mishmash demographically.
It's just on the eastern side of the busy Stirling Highway, which runs right alongside the railway line. On the other side of that is the very upmarket Cottesloe. But right near the train station there's a basin containing a whole plethora of apartment blocks, a couple of which are very tall inde...
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Posted by Matt Hayden on Sunday, September 25, 2011,
Lake Gwelup is in Perth's north. It's technically not really a lake; more of a swamp. But it is quite a pretty location. It's a nice place to go for a walk or a jog. There's even a regular "fun run" held
there.
On the northern side, just near Karrinyup Road, is a pretty boardwalk that juts out into the water and gives you a very nice view.
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Posted by Matt Hayden on Wednesday, May 4, 2011,
As I mentioned in a previous post, the poorer suburb of Balga has
changed substantially, with lots of new construction. Of course it's not unusual that such a thing would occur, least of all in economic boom times. Still, it's something you really notice, and certainly gives the whole suburb a very different atmosphere.
Here's another example of the transformation. Below is a shot of an old, pretty run down block of flats near the Reid Highway. I suspect that there were quite a few more like ...
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