Talking Travel on 6PR with Burgo (audio at the end) spends a fair share of time overseas but came home this week to visit the things we’ve made that we can travel to.
Man-made attractions play a really important part in tourism, they represent heritage, engineering and sometimes are just there for fun. We had a caller who is about to visit Lake Argyle, the second biggest man-made lake in Australia. We mooooved our way down south to Cowarumup where they’re encouraging travellers to stop a while and enjoy the 42 life size cows that are in the streets and parks of this little town.
The Busselton Jetty, Lake Ballard sculptures, dams and lighthouses all got a mention and we even included the biggest periodic table in the world, right here in Perth!
Enjoy the pics and audio below:
Nearly 30 lighthouses are on the WA coast, many of which can be climbed and enjoyed.Busselton Jetty is nearly 2km’s long and you can walk or ride a train to the end. Heritage listed with an underwater observatory makes this an amazing jetty experience.The water cooler statue of CY O’Connor on Hannan Street in Kalgoorlie reminds us of the extraordinary water pipeline from Perth to the Goldfields. The Cunderdin Museum, located in an original pumping station, has a lot of pipeline history that’s worth a visit.
On 6PR with Fred we listed a few of our favourite travel firsts. First flights. First time overseas. First family holiday. Enjoy the discussion in the audio file below. Let me know what your favourite travel first is. I was in South Australia recently and my son Tom, who has travelled the world, was amazed by Stobie Poles.
With all the sites and sights of the world a power pole on his first trip to South Australia is what caught his attention!
My love of islands came before my love of travelling. Making tea stained treasure maps after reading Treasure Island, imagining tropical beaches as I listened to Harry Belafonte sing, Island in the Sun.
With Burgo on 6PR we spent the evening going ashore on Rottnest, the Abrolhos, Borneo, Hong Kong and others.
Islands have history and culture, some have pristine beaches and impenetrable jungle and others are full of shops.
Whatever your island, go ashore and have the adventure of a lifetime!
On 6PR Weekend Wrap Up, I found myself sharing the airwaves with John Burgess, an icon of Australian television and radio. A tv game show host legend and a radio dj when dj’s were gods of the airwaves. It was very cool to laugh our way through stories about sports tourism.
From callers with tales about naked West Indian cricketers to iconic events and venues around the world and close to home, with a lot of laughter we covered more ground than the MCG.
Enjoy listening to the first half of the show in the file below. Just like a Grand Prix driver, we go off track from time to time but we got to the finish line in style!
It was lots of fun to learn where our best bakeries are. Heats in Cockburn was a surprise that many callers say have the best donuts. Rottnest Bakery wasn’t a surprise nomination and it’s a great example of what we like about our favourite bakeries when we travel. They’re part of that rite of passage moment that defines your arrival. You haven’t really arrived on Rottnest until you’ve been to the bakery.
Williams Woolshed has a sausage roll that will get you through the day and Mount Barker with its range of gourmet pies was a popular choice.
A good bakery can be a reason to travel or it might just be the traditional break on your way to somewhere down the road.
The cream bun at Rottnest Bakery will give you the sugar rush you need to cycle around the islandWilliams Woolshed sausage rolls have become a reason to stop in Williams for my family (pic Williams Woolshed)Many bakeries are on the main streets of country towns. The Toodyay Bakery has a balcony veranda overlooking the Main Street, perfect for watching the world go by as you wait for your cottage pie to cool down.
With Prue on ABC Victoria Statewide we discussed the strategy required for that short interval break during a theatre show. Do you run for the bar or the bathroom? Do you try both?
We explored London’s West End, New York’s Broadway, The Loop in Chicago and even closer to home in Perth with opportunities to see Wicked at Crown Theatre and upcoming productions in Geelong.
Musicals can lift an old story to new heights, think of Matilda and Lord of the Rings. They can provoke an interest in history thanks to Les Miserables, Evita and, of course, Hamilton.
Musicals and tourism walk excitedly hand in hand, engaging you in temporary escape experiences and providing an opportunity when you’re in distant lands to immerse yourself in local culture or closer to home turning a night out into a night away.
Try and book early for your theatre experience but there’s nothing wrong with Prue’s approach to just rocking up to the ticket counter in your best back packer outfit and trying your luck!
Just a reminder if you’re booking online to please make sure it’s an official ticket purchasing site.
The curtain is about to come down on this description but it might come back for an encore if I can upload the audio file of the discussion a bit later on.
Do you sing the songs as you approach the theatre? “I’m young, scrappy and hungry and I’m not throwin’ away my shot!!!”A bit different to the excitement building at the Narrogin Town Hall on the opening night of Oliver in 1984. Only a bit different.Opened in 1911, the Victoria Palace Theatre, where Hamilton is playing, is a jaw dropping theatre with a spectacular marble foyer, a soaring ceiling dome and all sorts of velvet and brass trimmings.
On 6PR on a recent summers weekend on the airwaves, we took to the skies to discover how getting into the air can inspire your travel or be an exciting part of it. It was also an opportunity to reflect on my air moments.
I used to love accompanying dad out to the Narrogin airstrip when his patients needed to fly out with the Royal Flying Doctor. I’d walk around the gliders and light aircraft, imagining I was a fighter pilot waiting to hear the call to “Scramble! Scramble!”.
I love that my kids have enjoyed getting into the air. Tom has ziplined, parasailed and been in seaplanes and even done ifly indoor skydiving. Matilda has ziplined and been in helicopters and even flown up the coast in a Tiger Moth, one of the worlds most beautiful and gentle aircraft.
Astronaut Michael Collins’ wife wrote out the aviators poem High Flight for him to take into space. In his book, Carrying the Fire, Collins remarked that he wondered what Magee would have written if he’d experienced space and not just flying a Spitfire through the blue summer skies of wartime England.
Even the most non religious pilots enjoy putting their hand up to the sky and murmuring…
‘And, while with silent, lifting mind I’ve trod, the high untrespassed sanctity of space, put out my hand and touched the face of God”.
Magee posted a copy of the poem to his parents and not long after was killed in a flying accident.
Flying a glider and looking for thermals in the air to stay in the airFlying a Spifire above the green fields of KentHot air ballooning on a cold Avon Valley morning Falling with style onto Palm BeachZiplining with Tom off Matagarup BridgeZiplining with Matilda down a mountain in South AfricaTom takes to the sky … indoorsMatilda takes to the skies in a Tiger Moth, used to train Empire Training Scheme pilots in World War IITom and I parasailing off the Fremantle coast … some big fish down there!Even a big plane is an adventure in the air
From KL to Penang is easy to do. A quick flight and you’re there. But only a little bit longer and a lot more fun is the journey by train.
Enjoy reading my published story below. And remember that if you can’t get a newspaper in your hands, my published stories with Have a Go News are just a click away on their website.
One of our best ever Hidden Treasures stories of all time! With special guest star, global writing superstar Molly Schmidt, we explored local books and the use of local locations and how they inspire our travels.
Listen to our chat below and learn not just what our favourite Western Australian books are but how important those local locations can be:
Sharknado! Sunway in KL hosts this jawsome experience!
There are not many reasons better for a long day out, or a bucket list travel journey, than the fun to be had at a theme park. The rides, the costumed characters, even the overpriced food and merchandise is an experience most of us will indulge in.
On ABC Perth Saturday Breakfast we had a wonderful discussion about our theme park experiences which, it must be said, included some embarrassing moments. Enjoy the audio file below and then below that, just a few words to help with your own memories of theme parks:
My tv childhood in a four-word nutshell was: The Banana Splits Show
Even better than the cartoons and antics of The Banana Splits were the opening and closing credits, much of which showed them having fun at Six Flags Over Texas, a 1960’s era theme park still going strong today. Lots of log rides into water and stomach heaving roller coasters. It was the first place I ever wanted to visit.
Theme Parks From Perth’s Past:
Atlantis: King Neptune and his trident watching protectively over his leaping dolphins.
Dizzy Lamb Park: Bumper boats, creaking ferris wheels, a few worn out kangaroos and from the footage I’ve seen, plenty of piles of yellow sand to throw sand boondies.
El Caballo Blanco: White horses goose stepping, dancing and prancing to shouts of Ole!
Wanneroo Lion Park: Ex-circus lions with a warning sign, “Trespassers will be eaten”.
Armadale’s Pioneer Village: Every kid could get a wanted poster with their pic on it and tough old boiled lollies would last the journey between Armadale and Albany.
The Overseas Experience:
Legoland: Lego themed rides and even a driving school and Lego boats. The only Lego experience they haven’t perfected is the walking on a Lego brick experience.
Disneyland: If the Banana Splits opening credits didn’t inspire your first travel bucket list item then it was most likely Disneyland, particularly when once a week the Wonderful World of Disney would come on the telly (I said telly) and the opening credits would show clips of Disneyland, including the monorail that looked like Captain Nemo’s submarine (I had the lunchbox). Visiting Disneyland was completely wonderful, particularly rides like the Jungle Cruise. The classic Tea Cups continue to boggle my mind. How do they spin and circle around on a turntable at the same time?
Movie Inspired: Sharknado! Perhaps it’s age inappropriate that Tom’s favourite movies are the Sharknado series so an opportunity to visit Sunway in KL to experience Sharknado was too good to be true and unexpectantly scary and gory. Sunway is gloriously full of water slides and aquatic themed fun.
Waterbom Park is an institution for many people who visit Bali. I did a slide that I got stuck in and the pipe had to be opened to let me out.
Haw Par Villa: I’m looking forward to describing this in more detail at a later date. Let’s just say this is a theme park like no other. It’s been frightening Chinese children in Singapore since 1937. Be Good! Or else!
Theme Parks are Hidden Treasures because … just like the Banana Splits theme says; you can have a “mess of fun and there’s lots of fun for everyone” and no doubt you’ll come home with an overpriced fridge magnet or coffee cup with your photo on it, to always remember a great day out.
Mickey, Tom and Minnie at Disneyland. I can’t pick who has the biggest smile.
Chris Parry Writes For Us 