Explore Perth

Elizabeth Quay is a waterfront precinct on the north shore of Perth Water, built around an artificial inlet on the former Esplanade Reserve and opened in January 2016. A pedestrian bridge crosses the mouth of the inlet to a small island, and the promenades lead past the Spanda sculpture, a water play area and the jetty for Transperth ferries to South Perth.

The Art Gallery of Western Australia is the state art gallery in the Perth Cultural Centre. Its main building, a brutalist design by Charles Sierakowski, opened in 1979 and is linked to the former court house, now the Centenary Galleries. The collection includes Aboriginal art from Western Australia and the Northern Territory and Western Australian art from the 1820s onwards.

St Mary's Cathedral is the Roman Catholic cathedral of Perth, at the head of Victoria Square. It joins three stages: the Gothic church opened in 1865, the transept and sanctuary of 1930, and a nave with curved glass walls and a second spire completed in 2009. Inside are sanctuary mosaics based on the Book of Kells and stained glass by Hardman of Birmingham.

Kings Park is a 400-hectare park on Mount Eliza, overlooking Perth Water and the city centre, opened in 1895. Two-thirds of it is native bushland; it also holds the Western Australian Botanic Garden, opened in 1965, and the State War Memorial. The hill, called Kaarta Gar-up by the Whadjuk Noongar, has long been a ceremonial and camping place for them.

Cottesloe Beach is a 1.5-kilometre sandy beach on the Indian Ocean in Cottesloe, west of central Perth, known in the Noongar language as Mudurup. Offshore reefs shelter its swimming area, and the Indiana Tea House, completed in 1996, stands on the beachfront. The beach is the start of the Rottnest Channel Swim and hosts Sculpture by the Sea each year.