The Big State

Now I can say I've been to WA.

Spent four days in Perth last week, which yes .. is in Western Australia .. but given the size of Western Australia, spending four days in Perth means you've seen, well, bugger all of the state really. It's like saying you've been to New Zealand after spending two hours in the transit lounge at Auckland airport.

You can buy a tea towel that has a map of WA on it, with the countries of Japan, Germany and the UK all sitting within its borders, with room to spare. You know Australia is big, right ? Well, WA takes up a third of the Australian continent - with less than a 10th of the population. The population of the state is about two million, and just over half of those people live in Perth.

It feels big. Everything is big. Perth has a big river running through it, called the Swan ... looks like the ocean, or at least Lake Taupo. It's a wide, wide river, miles from one side to the other in some places. It takes an hour to get down the Swan from Perth to the ocean at Fremantle ('Freo'). But only 25 minutes to drive there. The river winds in and out on itself, and is flanked on all sides by marinas and wharves and jetties, with some very tidy real estate sitting up on the banks.

Australia's most expensive home is here ... owned by the family who have the most shares in mining company Rio Tinto. The home is valued at A$60 million. It has a bowling alley and a movie theatre soundproofed with water.

I loved it. It's not like Sydney at all. Perth spreads far and wide because there's plenty of room for everyone ... a little like the way Auckland just spreads in all directions, except Perth has tended to stick to the coast. It goes for miles and miles, along beach after beach.

There's plenty of money here, but it's not flashy like Sydney. A long time ago someone told me "In Australia, when they need more money, they just dig another hole." Western Australia is where they dig the holes.

Businesses do well because the money flows round and round. Everybody earns, buys, earns, buys ... round and round the money goes. But every second car is not a convertible (like Sydney), people travel and have holiday homes, but they drink beer and eat pies.

I've checked and the state's GDP is about US$30 billion. Probably quite a bit more now since the "commodities boom" they all talk about over here. That's the kind of figure that would bring tears to the eyes of Treasury officials in NZ. People in Perth supposedly also earn about the same on average as people in NSW. This makes sense to me, as I see people in NSW struggling on average money to pay enormous mortgages. In Perth they get the same average money, without the enormous mortgage. Sounds like a good deal.

The Perth CBD is surprisingly restrained, the corporate blocks are simple and efficient. The old and historic buildings scattered around are delightful, the old 1830s courthouse still sits in its original gardens.

There are trendy shops, but they are new-looking and confined to small streets and malls. Some of the trendier food places looked really good and the handful of coffees I had were .. actually not too bad.

Perth is often criticised by those from the three larger Australian cities for its lack of nightlife and its tendency to close up shop early. The reason this happens is because everyone is off doing stuff. These people surf, and cycle, and run, and drive, and fish, and garden and build holiday homes and ... when you do all that there's only so much time left for standing around in bars.

It does have a bit of that 'small town' thing going on, which you would just have to do your best to ignore if you lived there. I noticed the "West Australian Club" having a gathering one night - no one got in without a bow tie. No blokes anyway. It's not often you see women wearing what can only be described as "a gown". Not a frock. Not a dress. Not an outfit. A gown.

I have a friend in South Africa who has been talking about moving to Australia for years. Up until last week I'd been recommending Brisbane as the spot she should settle in first. I told her Sydney was too expensive, and just too hard to live in, Melbourne too cold - and that Brisbane would remind her more of Cape Town, her home town. Of course that's all changed now. Now I think Perth is the place to be - although it gets stinking hot in the summer and I think most Kiwis would struggle with that. There are plenty of South Africans and Kiwis already there, so if you are looking for a new home, it would be a place to seriously consider, as long as you don't mind aircon.

You'll see a lot of references to its "Mediterranean climate" and although I haven't actually been to the Mediterranean, somehow it just doesn't feel like the right description. Does the Mediterranean have strong coastal sea breezes? Perth gets a good strong sea breeze blowing in off the Indian ocean, and Fremantle is well and truly exposed to some very blustery conditions - the day I was there reminded me of Wellington. That ain't Mediterranean.

The really interesting thing about Perth, and WA, is its distance from everywhere else. Perth is closer to Singapore and Jakarta than it is to Canberra - the nation's capital. That's weird.

This reminded me of home too. That feeling that you should just get on and do what needs doing, and not worry about the rest of the world too much, because they are miles and miles away. We have that in NZ, and they have it in WA too. I think they always have. I'm reading Henry Lawson's short stories, and he spent a lot of time wandering about NSW and NZ, and he often refers to blokes "heading for Maoriland or Western Australia", as if it was the last resort. Your last chance to find somewhere to make your way in the world. Also the last place anyone would ever look for you.

When a nation, or a state, is built by people with such direction, it must always retain some of that feeling. The tyranny of distance is no tyranny at all. It's the reason we are here. We came for the distance. We love it.

In Perth they start looking at their watches at about 3.30, 4pmish, look around and say "Hey, they've all gone home in Sydney" .. and they head for the bar.

Great people. Smart people. People just getting on with it. Show ponies need not visit.