What is the Perth self-guided walking tour?
The Perth self-guided walking tour is a walk along the Swan River and through the city streets that you time yourself, with audio narration on your phone where a guide would otherwise be. Allow about 3 hours: 42 minutes of that is walking, the route measures 3.3 km, and at 10 stops you stand still and listen. There is no departure time and no group to keep up with.
Under Spanda the narration explains the Sanskrit word behind the sculpture, the pulse of the universe, and why Elizabeth Quay was opened in 2016. At the Bell Tower you hear how twelve bells from St Martin-in-the-Fields in London came to Western Australia for the bicentenary of 1988, at Perth Town Hall the local story that convicts shaped its clock-tower windows like the broad arrow on their uniforms, and at the Perth Mint how goldfields gold became sovereigns from 1899 on.
- Durationabout 3 hours
- Walkingabout 42 min · 3.3 km
- Stops10
- LanguagesEnglish, German, Chinese
What you do on the walking tour
Listen
At every stop the audio gives you the history of the place, the stories attached to it and the details you would otherwise walk past. The same text sits on screen if you would rather read.
Stroll
The centre is flat and the distances are short: 42 minutes on foot in all, 3.3 km from the river to East Perth, with Google Maps pointing the way.
Break off
Stop for coffee or an hour somewhere out of the sun, then pick the walk up again, the same day or another one.
Eat and browse
Tips for food and shops near the route come with the walk. The opening stop and the order of the stops are yours to change in the app.
See the route and attractions →
How it works
- Book online Choose the number of people. Your booking reference arrives by email straight away.
- Get the app Download the World City Trail app from the App Store or Google Play and enter your booking reference.
- Walk when you like Start whenever you are ready, walk at your own pace and pause any time. No guide, no fixed schedule.
Who the walking tour is for
A first visit
One walk ties the waterfront, the colonial stone of the centre and the parks of East Perth together and explains what you are standing in front of.
Walkers who dislike groups
No umbrella to follow and no meeting point: you stay where something holds you and move on when you feel like it.
A morning or a long stopover
3 hours covers the centre on foot, which leaves the afternoon for Kings Park, the river or a train down to Fremantle.
Good to know
- Bring a charged smartphone with mobile data; a power bank helps.
- No entry tickets needed: everything happens outside the buildings. Going inside is optional and paid separately.
- Family friendly; children must be accompanied by an adult.
- Not suitable for wheelchair users and difficult with strollers.
- Groups of up to 5 work best; larger groups split up, one ticket per person.
- Every purchase helps support stray cats and dogs in Greece.
The walk stop by stop: Spanda, the Bell Tower, the Perth Mint, Queen's Gardens
10 stops · about 42 min walking · start: Spanda · finish: Notting Hill Bench
The first stop stands beneath Spanda at Elizabeth Quay, where the city centre reaches the Swan River. The riverside path carries you past the Talbot Hobbs Memorial to the Bell Tower on Barrack Square, after which the route turns inland for St George's Cathedral and Perth Town Hall. Hay Street and Victoria Square follow, with the Royal Perth Hospital Museum, St Mary's Cathedral and the Perth Mint, and the walk ends in East Perth among the ponds of Queen's Gardens and at the bench known as the Notting Hill Bench. Another opening stop or another order is a tap away in the app, and no stop asks for an entry ticket.
Open the route map ↗
1SpandaStart
Spanda, a 29-metre sculpture by Christian de Vietri, rises over Elizabeth Quay, the waterfront precinct opened in 2016 where the city centre meets the Swan River. Its white arches grow out of one another like ripples, and its name is a Sanskrit word for the pulse or vibration of the universe.
2Talbot Hobbs Memorial
This memorial honours Lieutenant General Sir Talbot Hobbs, a Perth architect who commanded Australian troops on the Western Front in the First World War. He died in 1938 on his way to France for the unveiling of the Australian war memorial at Villers-Bretonneux, and the city raised this memorial by the river in his honour.
3The Bell Tower
The Bell Tower, opened in 2000, houses the Swan Bells, among them twelve historic bells from St Martin-in-the-Fields in London that were given to Western Australia for the Australian bicentenary in 1988. Its glass-and-copper spire rises about 82 metres above Barrack Square on the riverfront.
4St George's Cathedral
St George's Cathedral, the Anglican cathedral of Perth, was designed by the Sydney architect Edmund Blacket and consecrated in 1888. Look at its red-brick Gothic Revival walls with pale stone details; the bell tower beside it was added in 1902 as a memorial to Queen Victoria.
5Perth Town Hall
Perth Town Hall, completed in 1870 at the corner of Hay and Barrack Streets, was built with the help of convict labour. Look up at the windows of its clock tower: a popular local story says the convicts shaped them like the broad arrow printed on their uniforms.
6Royal Perth Hospital Museum
Royal Perth Hospital grew from the Colonial Hospital that opened on this site in 1855, which makes it one of the oldest hospitals in Western Australia. Its small museum, in a heritage building of the hospital, tells the story of medicine and nursing in the colony and later the state.
7St Mary's Cathedral
St Mary's Cathedral on Victoria Square is the seat of Perth's Catholic archbishop. The first church opened here in 1865, a Gothic sanctuary was added around 1930, and a major rebuilding completed in 2009 finally joined the old and the new parts under one roof.
8The Perth Mint
The Perth Mint opened in 1899 as a branch of the Royal Mint, to turn gold from the Western Australian goldfields into sovereigns. Its original limestone building on Hay Street makes it one of the oldest mints still working, and gold coins and bars are still made here today.
9Queen's Gardens
Queen's Gardens in East Perth were laid out at the end of the 19th century on old clay pits once used by brickmakers, which became the park's ponds. Look for the statue of Peter Pan among the trees, a copy of the famous one in London's Kensington Gardens.
10Notting Hill BenchFinish
The last stop is a park bench in East Perth, close to Queen's Gardens, that goes by the name of the Notting Hill Bench. Sit down for a moment and look back over the green and quiet streets you have just crossed.
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