Off the beaten track is the port of Fremantle or ‘Freo’ to the locals. It has a strong local identity, but has nonetheless been absorbed into Perth’s urban sprawl. In 1987, the port was the site of the unsuccessful defense of what was, for a brief period, one of Australia’s most prized possessions – the America’s Cup yachting trophy. Fremantle has been substantially revamped and is now filled with outdoor cafés, old buildings lively markets and is imbued with a laidback artsy ambience. Perth’s city center is fairly compact, situated on a sweep of the Swan River, which borders the city center to the south and east, linking Perth to Fremantle. The western end of Perth rises to the pleasant King’s Park, which overlooks the city, then extends to cosmopolitan Subiaco. Further west, suburbs extend as far as Scarborough and Cottesloe beaches on the Indian Ocean. The railway line bounds the city center on the northern side, with Northbridge immediately north of the line. Perth was founded in 1829 as the Swan River Settlement, but it grew very slowly until 1850, when convicts were brought in to alleviate the labor shortage. Many of Perth’s fine buildings, such as Government House and its Town Hall, were built using convict labor. Even then, Perth’s development lagged behind that of the eastern cities, until the discovery of gold in the 1890s increased the population four-fold in a decade and initiated a building boom.
discovering Australia
The Australian continent may have been discovered by the Portuguese before 1542, and the Arabs even earlier, but no evidence is available to support this theory, and for practical purposes the exploration of the coast may be taken to have begun by the Spaniards and Dutch. In 1606 the Spanish explorer De Torres passed through the strait that now bears his name (on the north side of the Australian continent), but no mention is made in his records of sighting the Australian continent. In the same year, Captain Jansz in the Dutch vessel Duyfken passed along the west coast of Cape York in the Gulf of Carpentaria. Some of the landed crew were attacked by the Aborigines and made no attempt to investigate the country. It may therefore be said that Captain Jansz discovered Australia.
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posted by Hills @ 2:24 PM
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