Lap of Oz: Days 102-103 Perth

Days 102-103

Day 102

Today we headed back to Kings Park but this time to the Synergy Parklands.

There were quite a few animal statues that the boys enjoyed learning about and climbing on.

There was a Vietnam memorial as well.

And then there was the playground!

Then it was off to another playground in Kings Park: Rio Tinto Naturescape. In this area, children are encouraged to explore, climb rocks and ropes, wade through creeks and build cubby houses. It is a great place for them to connect with nature!

There was this giant creature in which they could practice their climbing skills.

 

A creek with two little cubbies set up, each with their own little fireplace (no fire of course).

 

Some bush cubby houses,

And a tunnel.

There was lots more as well, but as there was a school group there at the same time as us, it was hard to get photos of just our kids.

Then it was off to Fremantle. This was not at all what we expected and I have to say the parking is horrendous. Not enough parking and you had to pay to park everywhere, at the museum, at the prison and down every street that we went through.

Anyways, as we were here, we decided to see some places. The first place we stopped at was the Shipwreck Galleries.

The boys loved being able to handle a real cannonball, though they did struggle to lift it. At 4.5kg it was only a small one, apparently.

This was a great low-cost museum (donation) about a lot of the ship wrecks that have happened on the west coast of Australia.

Then it was off to the Fremantle Prison. This place was amazingly huge! It was decommissioned in 1991 after 140 years of being a maximum security goal.

There were a few rooms you could walk about it for free, but to actually walk through the main goal rooms, there was an entry fee. Again, we couldn’t afford this fee, so we did what we could.

Walking through the rooms that we did, gave you a really eerie feeling and the boys were really surprised to see how the prisoners were treated, what they wore and how they interacted with their visitors. This was a real eye-opening experience for the boys.

Next it was off to find hubby a good coffee. There is a cappuccino strip in Fremantle that hubby was going to try, but after reading some reviews, he found a tiny little coffee shop called Blink and purchased a cappuccino from here. He thought it was a great coffee, so purchased another one for the way home.

While waiting for his to purchase his second coffee, the boys and I were sitting in the car talking about the round building in front of us. I thought I would google it and found out it was The Round House and a cannon would go off at 1pm. It was 12:50pm. As soon as hubby came back with his coffee, we took off to the Round House, hoping to see the canon fire.

These days they use gun powder to set off the cannon and there is a countdown to 1pm when they set it off.

Then you can walk through the Round House and read about the history of the place.

The volunteer has keys to these stocks if you are game to give it a try!

This was had a donation as an entry fee which was great. It was quite a small place but very interesting for the boys.

Then it was time to start heading back to Perth. There was one place left that I really wanted to take the boys too. The DFES Education and Heritage Centre.

At first we thought it was closed, but alas, we were trying to enter through the wrong door. The entry is further to the left.

This centre is located in the old Fire Station with the bottom floor dedicated to the Fire Service.

Here you were able to dress up as a fireman,

and sit in a real fire truck. The boys absolutely loved this!!

After having a go in the front seats, they had to try the back seats.

There were able to see all the equipment that the fireman use as well. These tools above were really quite heavy.

Then it was off to a room next to the trucks to read and learn all about how a fireman does his job and the tools he uses.

The firemens’ poles were still there, though they were covered in plastic so you couldn’t go down them.

Upstairs was dedicated to all the other emergency services.

There was a room with books to read, colouring pages to colour and lots of puzzles all relating to these services.

They learnt all about earthquakes,

cyclones

and how people are rescued from the side of a cliff.

There was also information on bushfires, floods and tsunamis. This place really is a homeschoolers dream! There are even lots of free resources that you can use on their website, so check them out: DFES Education and Heritage Centre!

Anyways after this fun adventure, we headed off to Cottesloe Beach to watch another sunset before heading back to the van for the night.

Day 103

Today hubby played at the Royal Perth Golf Course, but as he was playing in a competition, he was unable to take any photos. While he was doing this, the boys and I stayed in the van completing schoolwork and then I did some cooking.

When hubby got home, we did some grocery shopping, filled up the empty gas bottle and fuel cans as we were off to another adventure the next day.