My trip to Western Australia

On the night of 1st June this year, my family and I set off to the airport to catch a flight to Perth, Western Australia. We boarded the flight and I felt happy and excited that we were going to Perth, as I had never been to Australia before. I had so much fun playing games and watching great movies such as “Bridge to Terabithia” on board the flight. The trip lasted 5 hours and when we got to Perth, it was early in the morning. The time zone in Perth is the same as Singapore’s, so I knew that it was the same time back home. The weather was different though. In Perth, the weather was cold and I started shivering once I stepped out of the airport.

After a short wait, my mother’s friend Patricia came to fetch us from the airport. Her car was too small to hold all of our luggage, so my father stayed at the airport while Patricia brought the rest of us to a car rental shop so we could rent a car for our trip around Western Australia. Then we went back to the airport to get my father and the luggage. Patricia then took us to her house where she helped us plan the first few days of our holiday. Patricia collects clowns and her small, cozy house is filled with clown dolls, figurines and other clown collectibles. I liked Patricia’s house very much. She then took us to her sister Shirley’s house. Shirley had just moved out of her house and was about to sell this house, but she kindly let us stay there while we were in Australia.



Later that day, we drove to a place called Caversham Wildlife Park, where we played and interacted with many Australian animals such as kangaroos, koala bears and wombats. There were also several types of reptiles and nocturnal animals such as the Spectacled Flying Fox, which is actually a bat. My favourite animals there were the kangaroos and the wombats. The kangaroos were soft and cuddly and were tame enough to eat out of our hands. Some of them were afraid of us and hopped away whenever anybody approached them. I had an enjoyable time there.


The next day, we set off to a town about eighteen kilometres from Perth, called Fremantle. The Fremantle Markets are open only on certain days of the week, but it is a great place to go shopping or just to look around. Since my mum, siblings and I are very interested in crystals and their properties, we visited a shop in Fremantle Markets called Moon Rhythm. We bought many crystals there such as Rose Quartz, Amethyst, Unakite and Obsidian. We love our crystals very much and take good care of them. For lunch, we went to another shop in the Fremantle Markets that sold traditional Lebanese food. We had falafel for lunch. Falafel is a delicious combination of vegetable cutlets, lettuce, tomatoes, onions and a selection of sauces, all wrapped up in crisp, toasted Lebanese flatbread. I loved it! I wish we could have stayed at the Fremantle Markets longer, but the sun sets very early in Western Australia during winter and most of the stores close at 5pm.




The day after that, we left some of our luggage at Shirley’s house and left on a long road trip. Our first stop was a town called Busselton, 228 kilometres from Perth. We stayed in a lovely little cabin with a great view of the stars at night. From there, we went to Cape Leeuwin, which is the most south-westerly point of Australia. It is where the Southern Ocean and the Indian Ocean meet. How interesting. The shore is surrounded by over 5km of rocks under the water, which makes it a very dangerous place for ships and boats. This is why there is a large lighthouse overlooking the Cape. This historic landmark is a popular tourist attraction, with guided tours of the lighthouse and a great view of the ocean from the top. This majestic six storey building was built from local stone in 1896 and stands 56 metres above mean tide level. The Cape Leeuwin Lighthouse is ideal for whale-watching in the winter, although we didn’t manage to see any whales when we were there. My favourite part about the Cape Leeuwin Lighthouse tour was being able to see the lenses of the light at the very top of the lighthouse. The four gigantic rotating lenses are made completely of crystal and gun metal and can no longer be manufactured, as they cost close to $1million each.



On the way back from Cape Leeuwin, we stopped by at a town called Margaret River, which is well-known for a store called Margaret River Beads. This shop is stocked with millions of various beads and is really a sight to behold. I wish we could have spent more time at the shop, but it was already past closing time and we did not want to delay the saleswoman at the shop.


We then went back to Busselton, where we stayed for another day before setting off to Walpole. Walpole is famed for its forest of gigantic Tingle trees, called the Valley of the Giants. This amazing place has a structure known as the Tree-Top Walk, which is a large metal walkway which leads us 40 metres up to the treetops. What a climb! It was exciting and rather scary to be up so high in the air, but the view from up there was brilliant. I really enjoyed the Tree-Top Walk. We also went to another path that led us through the lower part of the forest. The Tingle trees have very interesting tree trunks, which have large holes in them at the bottom. A person can very easily walk right through the tree trunks! What a fun experience. Imagine being inside a tree!








Our next stop was the beautiful sea-side town called Albany, renowned for King George Sound, which is a part of the ocean inhabited by many whales in winter. There, we stayed for 3 days in a nice cabin overlooking King George Sound. We managed to see the whales splashing about in the distance from our back door! I had never seen whales before and this was quite a thrilling experience. We also visited places such as The Sandalwood Factory, which harvests and processes half of the sandalwood in Western Australia, and we also stopped by at retail outlet of a honey factory, where we bought many types of honey. I love honey! The only problem with staying in Albany was the fact that the heater in our cabin wasn’t doing a very good job of warming up the cabin and we ended up shivering all the time! The best part of our stay at Albany though, was the Gap and the Natural Bridge. This beautiful granite formation overlooks the rocky sea and is very dangerous as well, as there are no fences to keep people away from the edge of the granite cliffs. A strong gust of wind is enough to knock someone over the edge and down to the foam-covered rocks jutting out of the ocean. There have been many fatalities at this spot and you really have to watch your step there. It is definitely the most beautiful place I have ever seen in Australia though.


After our long stay at Albany, we drove up to our final stop before heading back to Perth. This place is called Hayden, home of the famous granite formation called Wave Rock. This formation is in the shape of a huge curling wave just about to break and if you use your imagination, it is easy to believe that you are really under a large wave about to crash down on your head. That was really exciting. One thing to watch out for, however, is the thousands of annoying flies that buzz around and sit all over you. Wave Rock is the not the place for you if you are afraid of insects! Hayden boasts the clearest night sky in Western Australia and the view of the stars is breathtaking. You can see millions of stars and nebulas without a telescope and it was worth the long journey to Hayden just to catch a glimpse of that.






So after our long road trip, we went back to Perth where we met Patricia and Shirley and spent some quality time with them. We then visited Fremantle yet again and took a tour of the fascinating Fremantle Prison, which shut down in 1990. This prison was built from scratch by the 10,000 prisoners themselves. Imagine having to build a prison for yourself. They must have been miserable. The hilarious tour guide explained to us about the different divisions for convicts who had committed different types of crimes and it was a very interesting and educational experience. I wish to go back to Fremantle again and take another tour of the Fremantle Prison. There is also a night tour which is supposed to be very scary, but unfortunately, it was closed on the day of our visit to the Prison. We even visited the Fremantle Motor Museum, which had an amazing collection of vintage, rare and even famous cars. This collection consisted of cars such as the beautiful Cadillac Eldorado and Mustang Convertible, racing cars used in major Formula 1 races and even the orginal ute used by Paul Hogan in Crocodile Dundee! I wish I could own all those cars!

I was very sad when it was time to go home, because I wished that our holiday in Western Australia could have lasted longer. Australia is a very nice place to live in. I hope that someday, I can move to Australia. It is a land of great natural beauty and anyone who wishes to travel must definitely visit Australia.

Labels: albany, busselton, caversham wildlife park, fremantle, fremantle markets, fremantle prison, king george sound, margaret river, motor museum, perth, wave rock, western australia

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