Around Perth

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Perth Hills are very close to the city and worth exploring. Kalamunda is a pleasant small town to visit and there is a pleasant drive along the Mundaring Weir Road next to Kalamuda National Park. There are scenic viewpoints from the dam along Lake O'Connor. The amazing feat to collect and supply water to Kalgoorlie 650km away is highlighted with a statue of C Y O' Connor one of the great civil engineers in Australian history.

Scarborough is also close to Perth city and has a nice beach but not as grand as Scarborough in the UK!

New Norcia is an old monastic settlement around 2 hours North of Perth. We enjoyed lunch at the hotel then visited the museum and art gallery. We viewed the monastery memorabilia . European art and an exhibition of botanic drawings by Charles Gardner. The history of the aboriginal orphanage is fascinating. it was also nice to walk around the site and to see the abbey church and monastery.

Cottesloe is easy to reach by car or public transport from Perth. There was an interesting outdoor art exhibition when we visited that was very popular.

York does not have the magnificent York Minster or the medieval buildings of York in the UK. It is by contrast just a very small town with some colonial buildings. we visited the old jail and courtrooms. It was very quiet and sleepy when we visited on a Sunday afternoon.

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