How I learned to stop wandering and love the city of Perth

In my estimation, there are two types of Perthonites. The first is the staunchly loyal – “Perth is the best place in the world and you can’t change my mind” – usually thought by folks who haven’t actually been anywhere outside of WA, other than Indonesia.

The second one, and this is certainly the minority, feels there’s got to be more to the world than just sunny days and beautiful beaches. This person might have gone to Melbourne for a weekend and fell in love with a vibrant European-style city, or maybe they once went on a family trip to New Zealand and were blown away by its breathtaking beauty.

Whatever the case maybe, this special type of Perthonian has an itching to go and discover other parts of the world, in the hope of finding things that Perth can’t provide. Whether it be historic city architecture or a bustling urban metropolis, the thinking is that there must be better places out there than this, at times, boring town – the grass must be greener.

To be fair, in recent times Perth has tried hard to rid itself of the dreaded title of Dullsville. There is now a plethora of trendy cafés and world-class restaurants for those looking for a great culinary experience. And the starting of construction of the Elizabeth Quay City Foreshore project, gives the city of Perth hope for a much needed and long overdue “hotspot” of hotels, bars and restaurants.

But still, this is a city that refuses to utilise fully the beautiful coastline to bring out its true potential. Scarborough beach aside, where are the beachside bars and restaurants? It’s a little sad that a hotel originally built for a boat race in the 1980’s is still the greatest beachside development Perth has to offer. Good onya Bondy.

I fell into the latter category. Don’t be mistaken I am a fiercely proud West Australian, in fact I was for most of my life that staunch one-eyed defender of Perth. Whenever an out of towner would say “You guys don’t know how to merge” or “Why aren’t your shops open on Sundays” I’d be in full combat mode. It took a very short visit to Europe in my early 20’s, to change my perspective completely. For a brief moment in my life, I experienced a world where you could walk down any street and find a bar to sit in. A place where you could catch public transport to any part of the city, where owning a car was not required.

I spent the better part of 10 years waiting for the right time to return to Europe. As a 30-year-old married man, the right time occurred. My wife and I did the usual popular tourist spots and also some of the not so usual ones. From Amsterdam, Paris, Bordeaux, Brussels and Bruges. To London, Monaco, Budapest and Venice. We had a fantastic time. Although I have to admit, around the time we visited our 10th major city, Paul Kelly’s ‘Every fucking city looks the same’ had a very special meaning for me. But all in all, it was a great trip, one I’m very glad we undertook.

However, something funny started to happen to me on our travels – the longer we were away, the more I appreciated Perth. At first it was the real struggle to find good coffee. It wasn’t until we visited the 5th country (Italy) on our travels before I tasted good quality coffee – which I can find with ease in most Perth cafe’s. Then it was the food. I was shocked at how hard it was to find a decent bistro in Paris. Obviously we went there expecting good quality French cuisine, and we did eventually find it, but it certainly wasn’t easy.

The final straw was the beaches. Of course, everyone knows Australia has some of the best beaches in the world, but I foolishly expected the French Riviera to at least match what we produced. Sadly I was mistaken. If you enjoy lying on pebbles and stones while sun-baking, then the Riviera is for you. Not for me though, how am I suppose to build sand castles with that?

For those still in their early 20’s, cities like Paris, Amsterdam and London might still be appealing to live in, and if I were taken back to that age I’d probably agree with them. But as 30-year-old my priorities are different. Now married and with kids on the horizon, I’m swapping raising hell with raising a family. And there isn’t a better place to do that than Australia. Sure, big city life is fun but the suburbs offer a far more family friendly atmosphere.

So maybe there is a third type of Perth person after all. One who has travelled, and has fallen in love with things Perth can’t provide but still couldn’t imagine living anywhere else.

Perth might not be perfect, but it’s perfect for me.