This guide covers the side of central Perth that faces the Swan River, plus two colonial-era places a few streets inland: the Bell Tower, Elizabeth Quay, Barrack Street Jetty, Government House with Stirling Gardens, and the Royal Perth Hospital Museum. The riverside trio shows how Perth has rebuilt its waterfront since 2000, while the other two take you back to the 1850s and 1860s, when the colony was still small and its first public buildings were going up.
The Bell Tower
The Bell Tower, home of the Swan Bells, stands on Barrack Square at the edge of the river. It was built to mark the new millennium, to a design by the Perth firm Hames Sharley, and it rises 82.5 metres above the water's edge. Inside hang 18 bells. Twelve of them came from the church of St Martin-in-the-Fields on Trafalgar Square in London; the history of these bells can be traced back to before the 14th century, and they were recast in the 16th century and again between 1725 and 1770. They were given to Western Australia for the 1988 bicentenary of European settlement in Australia, and six more bells were cast for the tower at the Whitechapel Bell Foundry.
Together they form one of the largest sets of change-ringing bells in the world: change ringing is the English tradition of ringing a set of bells in constantly changing orders rather than playing tunes. Since 2018 the tower has also held the Great ANZAC Bell, which weighs about 6.5 tonnes and is swung by machine. The Bell Tower is one of the stops of our scavenger hunt.
- The whole height of the tower, best seen from the river path or from the end of the jetty.
- The reflection pools and paved square around the base.
Elizabeth Quay
Elizabeth Quay is the inlet and promenade cut into the old Esplanade lawns, between the city centre and the river. It was named after Queen Elizabeth II for her Diamond Jubilee and officially opened on 29 January 2016. The Spanda sculpture, the first stop of our scavenger hunt, stands at the centre of its north shore, but the quay has plenty more to look at.
- The small island at the mouth of the inlet, reached by a short bridge on one side and the curving Elizabeth Quay Bridge for walkers and cyclists on the other.
- The Florence Hummerston Kiosk on the island: the 1927 Esplanade kiosk, taken down and rebuilt here brick by brick. Nearby is a statue of Bessie Rischbieth, the feminist campaigner who in 1959, aged 85, stepped into the river to protest against filling in Mounts Bay.
- First Contact, a sculpture about 5 metres tall of a bird in a boat, on the south-west shore near the end of the Elizabeth Quay Bridge.
Barrack Street Jetty
Right next to the Bell Tower, Barrack Street Jetty is where river cruises and ferries to Rottnest Island leave from. The first pier here was known as King Cole's Jetty, after Henry Laroche Cole, the first chairman of the Perth City Council. The jetty was reshaped during the Elizabeth Quay project, and the state government announced in 2024 that one of its piers would be demolished and rebuilt, so expect some works along the water. The piers are lined with cafés and bars and make a good place to sit and watch the boats.
Government House and Stirling Gardens
Government House, the official residence of the Governor of Western Australia, stands on St Georges Terrace, set back behind its gardens. It was built between 1859 and 1864 to a design by Edmund Henderson, in a Jacobean Revival style that looks more like an English country house than a colonial office. Governor John Hampton moved in in 1863, before it was even finished. The house and grounds are not open every day, but they are regularly opened to the public, so check for open days if you want to go inside the gates.
Next door, on the corner of St Georges Terrace and Barrack Street, Stirling Gardens are a public park you can simply walk into. They were laid out in 1845 by the Perth Vineyard Society, close to where Perth's first governor, James Stirling, lived in tents after the colony was founded. Look for the statue of the explorer and politician Alexander Forrest by Pietro Porcelli, unveiled in 1903.
Royal Perth Hospital Museum
Royal Perth Hospital traces its roots to 1829, when the colony's first hospital was set up in a tent on Garden Island. Its building in Perth, the Colonial Hospital, opened in July 1855 with about 30 beds, after slow work and foundations that failed in 1854 and had to be redesigned. The hospital has grown around this core ever since, spreading north from Murray Street to Wellington Street.
The hospital's museum is in the heritage precinct on Murray Street, in the 1894 Administration Building beside the original 1855 Colonial Hospital. It tells the story of Western Australia's longest-serving hospital, and the two old buildings are worth a look from outside even when the museum is closed. The museum is one of the stops of our scavenger hunt; check when it is open before you plan a visit inside.
How to see them in one walk
Start on the river at the Bell Tower and Barrack Street Jetty, then walk round Elizabeth Quay, across the Elizabeth Quay Bridge to the island and back past Spanda. Head up Barrack Street to Stirling Gardens and Government House on St Georges Terrace. From there continue north past Perth Town Hall to Murray Street and turn east for the Royal Perth Hospital Museum, a natural place to finish before you carry on to St Mary's Cathedral or the Perth Mint.
See Perth with World City Trail
Our Perth scavenger hunt turns the city centre into a game you play on your phone. The route links 10 stops, from the Spanda sculpture to the Notting Hill bench in Queen's Gardens, and the Bell Tower and the Royal Perth Hospital Museum from this guide are both stops, along with St George's Cathedral, Perth Town Hall and the Perth Mint. At each stop you solve a puzzle and learn a story, at your own pace.
There is also a self-guided walking tour and an outdoor escape game in Perth, for people who prefer a different format.
Play the Perth scavenger hunt →
Take the self-guided walking tour of Perth →
Play the outdoor escape game in Perth →
Facts checked in October 2026.