My Amazing Cousin

Kelly is amazing. But she doesn't seem to see it that way. But she has been all over the world. She has travelled all over the world. She has climbed along precarious cutout paths along the sides of mountains in Pakistan. She has dealt with malaria in Nigeria. She has gone white-water rafting on raging rivers in the Himilayas. She's fully capable of making her way across mountains, camping and trekking and carrying everything she needs. She can track bears, and bats, and all sorts of other animals. She skis, and climbs mountains, and rides helicopters, and surfs, and kite-surfs, and snow-surfs, and will take on all manner of other sports simply because she can. She will probably be the first in our family ever to earn a Ph.D. She races around the world working to save endangered species and make the world a better, sustainable place. And she doesn't seem to understand how awe-inspiring she is in so many ways.

I wish she would.

This is what kite-surfing looks like, although this is not her.  It looks like fun.  Maybe I will give it a go sometime.

And here she is climbing up a cliff. And the reason she took it up (a mere 5 years ago)? She wanted to get over her vertigo. Amazing!

Fremantle

West of Perth, at the mouth of the Swan River, is the small town of Fremantle. The first time I visited Perth I also paid a visit to Fremantle, but it was merely passing through on the way to Rottnest Island with its quokkas and gentle bike lanes. (The island was named Rottnest Island because the Dutch ship that first sighted it also saw these little animals that looked like rats. So it was called Rat's Nest Island, only in Dutch. The animals were not rats, but the little quokkas. Quokkas are marsupials that are quite cute and are currently only to be found on Rottnest Island.) I checked on the prices for a return to the island, but it was quite expensive nowadays and there seemed to be a great deal of development on the island as well, development that I don't recall from my last visit.

In any case, I decided to have a better visit to Fremantle this time around. I got a ferry ticket that would take me there in the morning and bring me back in later in the afternoon. And off I went down the river on the Captain Cook cruise. The first part of the cruise turned out to be a gangplank photo by one of the staff. Is there any end to the stupid souvenir photos to be posed for on these tourist jaunts? It was a photo of me on a gangplank leading into the boat. You couldn't even see the whole boat or anything remotely interesting as part of the photo. I don't know why anyone would want that, whatever the cost. And yet, most of the people who were around me on the upper deck seemed to want the photo when they were brought around. And they could have their photo taken up on deck by anyone, with a far more attractive background, for free (beyond the price of the cruise, of course). I must be missing something.

After the photo, we set off down the river. We passed King's Park with it's war memorial...

...the old-made-new-again and posh, and very expensive I'm sure beer factory...

...and numerous yacht clubs.

I was actually most impressed by this yacht club. Some time ago, the government decided to clear the river banks of most buildings and owners. They came to the men who owned this boathouse and told them they would have to leave. The men consulted someone who told them that they could keep it if they registered it as a yacht club with some kind of membership. They did so, and this particular yacht club has a membership of two. The government quickly moved to close that particular loophole. I just love underdog stories.

We also passed an area with these two houses. I imagine that all of the river front properties must cost a pretty penny, but these two mansions would seem to be exceptionally expensive. It did make me wonder just how many billionaires own homes on the slope where these houses were located. My cousin told me that she had once owned a property on the Swan River (but upriver from Perth, in the other direction), and that it had been quite affordable when she and her husband had bought it. And when they had sold it, too, although she really hadn't wanted to sell it at the time, knowing that it was such a bargain. She also told me that it has since quadrupled in price and it makes her somewhat sick to know that. I'd be sick, too, I think.

Arriving in the Fremantle harbour, the mouth of the Swan River opens out to the Indian Ocean.

Fremantle has loads of history. It was one of the first settlements along the west coast of Australia. The first place I went was the Roundhouse, an old prison structure from the first days of the settlement of Fremantle.

It even had what appeared to be an original stockade, although these people wouldn't vacate the area to allow anyone to take an unfettered photo. Grrr! If only they had tested it out, that would have made a better photo.

The area just to the front of the Roundhouse has an old cannon, that was used to announce the time for ships approaching the harbour (it was fired at precisely one o'clock so that approaching ships could synchronize their timepieces, vitally important for navigation a couple of hundred years ago).

The spot also allowed a nice view out to some of the neighbouring islands, including this one, which apparently holds a bunch of tiger snakes, the deadliest in the world. A husband and wife circus act had some of the snakes as part of their act. They worked with the snakes and allowed the snakes to bite them. The husband thought that the more they got bitten by the snakes, the more immunity to the snakes' venom they would develop. It worked for him. But she died. The government then shut the act down, took the snakes, and shipped the snakes to the island. The snakes flourished there and rapidly multiplied. Now, it's a great place to take a cruise tour around, but one wouldn't want to land and spend any time on the island.

After the Roundhouse, it was on to one of the two maritime museums. The one I visited was the shipwreck museum. Many of the colonial countries of Europe had interests in what is now Southeast Asia and the South Pacific. At first, ships from those countries (England, Portugal, the Netherlands, etc.) traced their way around Africa, along the coast. They wound their way past India and into the archipelagos. Then someone discovered a faster route. It seems that somewhere down south, between the latitudes of 35 and 40 degrees, there is a current that moves from west to east. Ships heading south from Africa encounter the current and can use it to move east quickly. I guess the Dutch in particular used this current to send their ships to their Asian colonies. Now, it is important to get out of the current at the right place, which is somewhere just to the west of Australia. If they didn't come out early enough, there were numerous hazards in the waters off the coast of Australia that could wreck ships and sink them. And this happened a fair number of times to Dutch ships. Thus the shipwreck museum.

Inside there were lots of information about various wrecks off the coast near Perth and Fremantle. There was also a large chunk of one wreck, the Batavia. The story of the Batavia is one of mutiny and murder, rescue and fairly brutal punishment. It would make a good movie.

There were also numerous pieces salvaged from various shipwrecks in the region, from ship parts...

...to bits and pieces of treasure. It's quite an interesting museum.

Across town is the Fremantle Prison. This prison was used right up to about thirty years ago before being shut down. It had lots of problems and was shut down over human rights concerns in the end. It's possible to take a tour of the prison, but the best one sounded like the night tour, and I wasn't going to be able to stay for that. I went into one of the exhibitions at the prison and read about the Fenians who had been sent there for their seditionist activities in Ireland.

All around the walls of the exhibition room there were panels telling the story of their incarceration and eventual escape. It seemed an exciting story, and worthy of another movie.

Following the prison visit, I wandered through the center of town and found myself watching an attack. It was not an attack on a person, but an attack on the discipline of psychiatry and psychology. I think there must be a group of people somewhere who have known people who have been hurt by psychiatrists and psychologists. And they put this exhibition together. I was intrigued by the poster and so I went in to have a look. I didn't read the whole exhibition very carefully, so I don't really recall the whole of its presentation, but it started with a “documentary” expose showing that psychiatrists are out for money, that they are frauds, and that they have never, ever cured anyone. The panels in the rest of exhibition showed all the facets of psychiatry and psychology and how they damage people using inhumane and abusive practices. And all of it is in the quest for money. As I left the exhibition, feeling just a little bit stunned, I was hit up by people at the exit to sign a petition. I declined, so I didn't actually see what it was against (and I am certain it was against psychiatry and psychology somehow). And then I wandered back into the street. I understand their point. I, too, agree that there are psychiatrists out there who only seek to make money and don't care who they hurt. There are pharmaceutical companies that want to make money and encourage psychiatrists to prescribe the medications for people who are probably quite normal. I believe that there is too much diagnosing of abnormalcy, there are too many normal people who are classified as mentally ill and given treatment they don't need. But I don't believe that psychiatry is completely useless. It has helped lots of people. There are practitioners who want to help people and who do so. To paint the whole discipline as evil and wrong is misguided, to say the least. But I don't think they were going to listen to me.

I had thought I would go to the other maritime museum. I assume that one would have been about current maritime standards and practices. But I don't know for sure. I was running short on time, though, and so I just went back to the ferry terminal area and had some lunch and waited for my return journey to Perth. It had been a good day and the ride back up the Swan River was a fitting end to the pleasant trip.

Perth and the Museum of Western Australia

My second day in Perth, I still wanted to go see the museum. I had been told the museum is quite good. So I once again headed to town. The previous day I had walked in on the north side of the river. This day I decided to head into town on the south side and take the ferry across to town. Along the way I saw this old condemned jetty. It had been separated from the shore and was now sitting out without people access to it. Of course, this did not in any way prevent non-people from taking refuge on the jetty. I hope they don't even take it down. It seems to be a good place to see some interesting birds. Like pelicans.

At length I arrived at the ferry jetty across from the center of Perth. It is quite a view from there across the river.

Then I crossed and headed to the museum. And it was indeed very interesting. I was disappointed that one exhibit was closed for reorganization. This section was on the Aborigines of Western Australia. And although the natural history section was quite extensive and interesting, the same section in the Melbourne Museum was so much cooler with the computer assisted viewing consoles. Nevertheless there were some great stuffed animals and lots of skeletons as well. They also had this huge collection of butterflies, thousands of them in one gallery. Unfortunately, they didn't photograph well.

Up on the top floor there was a comprehensive look at the formation of the earth and how it came to be in its current configuration. There was also a whole floor of Aboriginal history and how the Europeans came and decimated them and basically enslaved them. There was a conscious attempt to eradicate the culture by taking the children away to educate them “properly.” That was sobering.

But possibly the most surprising exhibit was the AC/DC exhibit. AC/DC is a famous band, and is also an Australian band. The exhibit traced the history and development of the band from its beginnings, following them through personnel changes and to their current resurgence as one of the most successful bands of all time. It was quite enlightening, even if I was never a fan of them myself. Shhhhhh!!!! Don't tell the Australians.

After I finished with the museum, I headed back to where Kelly was staying. She was going to meet a friend for dinner. I was invited along. I began to see how many interesting people Kelly knows. This friend was a veterinarian who was working with a group reintroducing endangered species into the Australian bush. Many of these animals are, as Kelly explained to me, between the ankle and the knee in size. They are the perfect size for foxes and feral cats to prey upon. As a result they are all but extinct on the mainland. Kelly's friend goes out and raises them on outlying islands where they are safe from the predators. Then she captures them and releases them into protected areas on the mainland. These areas are usually protected by fencing of various sorts. Kelly has assisted her in the past and it has meant going out for three or four days into the bush or to outlying islands and tracking animals. They were telling me some of the stories of their exploits and it sounds like a really interesting job. If I could handle living in the bush for a few days, avoiding dangerous snakes and spiders and many of the plants as well, I would probably find it a lot of fun.

Escaping the Black Hole

Okay, so Melbourne isn't a black hole. I actually quite liked the city. It was interesting and there were a number of interesting things to see and do there. But it felt like a major coup to get out of there after the troubles with Tiger Air.

So it was on to Perth at long last. I was met at the airport by my cousin, Kelly. I haven't seen her in a few years and we have always gotten on well together. She is currently working on her Ph.D. and has returned to complete her field research here in Australia. As I have been more or less in the area for a while, I thought it would be a shame if I didn't stick around long enough to see her and catch up.

We spent the first evening chatting and then it was time for bed. The next day, she headed to her office at the university to get some work done and I headed out to check out the center of town. I visited Perth as well on my trip all those years ago, but I was just starting out doing some travelling and I didn't actually see much of Perth itself. I certainly didn't see much of the river through town and my knowledge of the downtown area was somewhat sketchy. I wanted to find the museum on this day, but I took so long in getting to town from where Kelly was staying that I didn't have enough time to make a good go of the museum.

Instead I spent some time along the river, the Swan River, which runs through the middle of Perth. There are parks all along the shore of the river and it must be a very nice place to spend a lunch hour or take an evening stroll. Of course, it was winter during my visit and so not many people were out enjoying the riverside, since it was so cold. Chortle, chortle. I mean, chortle, chuckle it was only, ha ha, ahem, around 15 or so degrees outside. So I can see how they wouldn't want to enjoy that kind of freezing temperature. They ought to visit Canada sometime.

So I had the shore mostly to myself. Except for these guys.

Also along the shore, is a tourist jetty where some of the scenic cruises from Perth start out from. Included in the jetty area is a recent addition, Perth's answer to the Sydney Opera House. It is a bell tower. It is fantastic and offers wonderful views of the river and surrounding area. Well, actually that's what they say on their sign as they try to entice people to pay the sum of 13 dollars for the privilege to ascend about halfway up the tower for the view. And I'm sure it is fantastic. At least in their own minds. I passed on the opportunity.