Boom-and-Bust: self-guided historical walking tour of Perth

About this tour

Trace Perth's transformation from struggling colonial outpost to modern metropolis on this self-guided audio walk. Over 1–4 hours, you'll move through the city centre discovering how booms and busts shaped its architecture, culture and character. Each stop layers another chapter: from indigenous land management and heritage balconies to Alan Bond's rise and fall, modernist scandal, and the arrival of air conditioning. Use your phone to navigate, listen to vivid storytelling, and pause wherever curiosity takes you.

Highlights

• Heritage balconies—Perth's peculiar architectural obsession
• Indigenous farming techniques still visible in the landscape
• Modernist art movement that shocked conservative Western Australia
• London Court's first-in-Perth air-conditioning system
• Alan Bond's spectacular ascent and descent
• Historical footage compared to present-day streetscapes
• Self-paced exploration on your own schedule

What to expect

You'll navigate a series of stops through central Perth using your phone or tablet, with turn-by-turn directions and audio narration guiding you between locations. At each point, immersive storytelling reveals how economic cycles and cultural shifts reshaped the city's built environment and social fabric. Historical photos and video clips are woven in to show before-and-after transformations. The beauty of self-guiding is flexibility—linger at spots that grip you, skip ahead if something doesn't land, or complete the full route over multiple visits. No rushing, no group pace.

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