Swan River - Perth Information

Swan River - Perth

LATE July. Cloudless and still. I'm standing on the South Perth foreshore just after sunset. Off to the right, the river is a wash of mingling pink and blue, reflecting the darkening eastern sky. To the left, an expanse of shimmering gold. Straight ahead, the city skyscrapers are duplicated in subtly textured water. The office lights brighten as the night advances and the building outlines blur into darkness.
Perth from the Swan/Ron Crittal. Perth sits on the edge of the Indian Ocean, anda gentle surf rolls up beaches that are long, clean sweeps of white sand – but the soul of Perth is the Swan River. It curls lazily through the city to which it provides setting, playground and inspiration.
Come summer and the water sparkles and glitters as the sea breeze ruffles the surface. Triangles of canvas and nylon in all colours and sizes speckle the broad, sheltered waters.
Grassy shores are full of families picnicking under tall gum trees. Fishermen idle away hours on the edges of jetties as they feed bait to hidden, hoped-for meals. Cyclists, roller-bladers, joggers and dog owners make their way along the adjacent cycle paths and kites fly high as the breeze strengthens. Pelicans and black swans idly paddle back and forth in secluded, reed-fringed bays, while, ever present in the background, tall office towers glint in the afternoon sunlight.
One of Perth's great attributes is that, with the exception of the harbours and yacht clubs, the sea and river frontages are public land and accessible by everyone.
I've lived in Perth for more than 30 years and there are favourite spots I go back to time and again. Most of them seem to be on or close to the Swan. Overseas visitors are given one or more of the standard riverside tours, and my irregular bicycle trips inevitably go either along the river or to somewhere like Kings Park, with its sweeping views.
My favourite ride is the loop around Perth Water. This is the broad protected stretch of river immediately in front of the city, betweenthe two crossing points that define and limit the city proper – the Causeway and the Narrows Bridge.
The circuit follows a series of walking/cycling tracks on the Perth and South Perth foreshores, an easy 8km jaunt.
Upstream of the city the Swan is just an ordinary waterway and downstream it narrows again before passing through Fremantle Harbour and into the Indian Ocean. Opposite and below the CBD it broadens out to form a wide expanse – a lake in all but name.
The Swan is neither a great nor a long river. Mostly it is an estuary, and thus salty, rising and falling with the (admittedly very small) tides. It only becomes the Swan in the foothills of the Darling Range, taking over from the Avon, which flows down from the wheat belt. Here, in Walyunga National Park, is a series of rapids best known for thrills and spills during the annual Avon Descent, which has become one of the world's whitewater classics.
A few kilometres downstream is Western Australia's oldest wine-producing area, the Swan Valley. Whereas the valley used to be little more than a sleepy hollow, it now has roadside stalls offering fresh produce and preserves, micro-breweries and chocolate factories, boutique accommodation and stylish restaurants with views over trellised vineyards down to the tree-lined river and beyond to the low scarp of the DarlingRange.
Close to the city the Swan passes between two areas that used to be real eyesores. Claisebrook, a small tributary, had been badly polluted, while across the river, the Rivervale dump was a mass of garbage, cinders, car bodies, bitumen and rubble. A large urban renewal project has revamped Claisebrook and its surrounds to create a new residential area. Public artworks, water features, pedestrian pathways and a recognition of Aboriginal heritage add to theambience.
The tip has been transformed to create the Burswood Casino, Hotel and Convention Centre, and the splendid gardens of Burswood Park. A significant feature is the Heritage Trail, with bronze statues reflecting various aspects of state history.
My favourite is that of Willem de Vlamingh, the Dutch navigator who was the first European to sail up the river that he named Swartte Swaane Drift. The sculpture, on the river's edge, shows Vlamingh and a black swan looking at each other with utter amazement.
Perth Water is where the river first broadens out. It's remarkably shallow and, in its natural state, could be waded across. The depth (or lack of it) makes for safe and simple sailing, and there's a Surfcat hire facility on the South Perthside.
One feature juts out into the river – Barrack Square is the river face of Perth. It was the old Perth port and now functions as the terminus for cruises upstream and downstream, and for ferries across to South Perth and over to Rottnest. Barrack Square is totally artificial; the original shoreline was 200m back towards the city, the banks were shallow and lined with reeds, but these areas were progressively filled in.
The Swan Bell Tower, a tall steepled structure with copper sail-like wings, was built here to house the bells of St Martin-in-the-Fields, which were given to Perth forthe Australian bicentenary.
Kings Park and Mt Eliza loom high above Perth Water and the Narrows Bridge. Beyond the bridge, the river really opens out to create a sailing heaven. Several yacht clubs line the shores, including Royal Perth, once home to the America's Cup.
The redbrick pile of the old Swan Brewery, now given over to glitzy apartments, sits beneath the steep slopes of Kings Park. This area was of great significance to local Aborigines, having permanent springs and good seasonal feed. Their myths tell of the Waugyl, the creator serpent, forming the river known as Derbal Yaragan, or "runningwater".
Come January and evenings are standard Perth summer weather – blue skies, water rippling in the sea breeze, and temperatures in the low 30s. You'll find me in a deckchair in the Somerville auditorium, a wonderful open-air theatre on the University of Western Australia campus, 50m from the river. Towering Norfolk Island pines create a cathedral space through which kookaburras flit and cackle. All around, people spread picnics, waiting for dark and the evening's film, part of the Perth International Arts Festival.
Flying, as well as sailing, has been a tradition on these waters. A small riverside plaque commemorates the wartime Qantas Catalina Indian Ocean Service to Sri Lanka. The crew who manned these flying boats belonged to the Order of the Double Sunrise, because the trips were 30 hours long, nonstop and without radio contact.
The bottom stretch of the Swan cuts through a ridge of coastal limestone and the river narrows, with one section called Blackwall Reach, named after the River Thames version, though the resemblance is hard to see.
Both sides of the final kilometre are lined with wharves and cranes for visiting container ships, sheep carriers, occasional warships (Fremantle is a favourite rest-and-recreation port for the US Navy) and cruise liners. The best-looking ship is the Sail Training Ship Leeuwin, a three-masted barquentine offering "adventure voyages" around Western Australia.
Just beyond the Leeuwin's mooring point is the last structure along the river. With an imaginative angular design based on a boat stranded on a sandy promontory, the new Maritime Museum stands where the Swan River becomes the Indian Ocean.
Fast-forward to April and the year's first storm blasts in from the west. Inside the museum, between Australia II and Parry Endeavour (in which Jon Sanders thrice circumnavigated the world), I look out through full-length picture windows at scurrying clouds and a watery sun reflected off whipping waves. The museum celebrates not just the ships and people who have sailed off WA's shores, from Vlamingh onwards, but the use of the river highway.
A quote from former governor-general Paul Hasluck refers to the river as "a lovely and simple treasure".
In this 175th year since the founding of the Swan River Colony, the river has been declared one of the state's icons. And so it should.
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ALL THE RIVER'S FUN
Spring in the Valley celebration for Swan Valley vineyards, held early October; www.swanvalley.com.au.
Burswood Heritage Trail, with people-friendly sculptures; www.burswoodpark.wa.gov.au.
Bike hire for easy riding along the banks (at the Causeway); www.aboutbikehire.com.au.
Cruises from Barrack Square; www.captaincookcruises.com.au.
PIAF film festival held at the University of Western Australia's Somerville auditorium December to March; www.perthfestival.com.au.
Maritime Museum at Fremantle Harbour; www.mm.wa.gov.au.
Australia Day fireworks held on Perth Water, January 26.
Good restaurants with riverside views; Matilda Bay (www.matbay.com.au), Jojo's (www.jojosrestaurant.com), Meads (www.meads.com.au) and Red Herring (www.redherring.com.au).

The Australian

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