Explore Australia Publishing - Hide & Seek Perth: Discover the Citys Hidden and Intriguing Places

Photo by Erika Budiman & Jeff Atkinson

VEGGIES ARE OUR FRIENDS

When someone smiles at you and says, Of course your dog is welcome would he like a bowl of water?, you know youre in the right place for a relaxed Saturday breakfast. Perth City Farm, a garden oasis in the middle of the concrete jungle, exudes the chilled and cheerful exuberance of people who know theyre doing the right thing and are happy doing it.

With the dogs safely tied up, water bowls at the ready, their owners can happily browse the organic menu on the blackboard no waste of paper or ink here which promises free-range eggs and freshly picked herbs and veggies from the farms own garden beds and chook pens. Breakfast delivers eggs scrambled with just-picked silverbeet, richly coloured with freshness, muesli with organic yoghurt and biodynamic boysenberries, homemade baked beans and still-warm muffins with organic coffee.

The small Saturday farmers market sells ethical products and organic and biodynamic produce which might cost a bit more than regular food, but hey, wed rather pay for love and care than pesticides. A comprehensive permaculture nursery sells fruit trees, veggie seedlings, herbs and other plants.

Across the railway line from the CBD, City Farm originally started as a youth project so kids could learn that vegetables dont actually come wrapped in plastic. Community garden plots have taken off from there and theres also an experimental aqua farm.

Ride a bike, take public transport, walk (with Fido), or drive if you must, for a wholesome day down at the farm. What better way to start your day than with a little peace, love and brown rice?

> HIT THE STREETS

1 City Farm Pl, East Perth
(08) 9325 7230
www.perthcityfarm.org.au
Cafe open MonFri 7am2pm,
Sat 8am12.30pm; Farmers market
open Sat 8am1pm

Photo by Erika Budiman

GRACE AND GRANDEUR ON A PLATE

It was never going to be easy to live out Pride and Prejudice fantasies on one of the driest, least-fertile continents on the planet. But Charles Harper tried his darndest to recreate the grandeur of Hertfordshire, and got pretty close. A 19th-century maverick, explorer, inventor, pastoralist, publisher, politician and gregarious chap, Harper was an entrepreneur who envisaged grand cities where there was little but swampy marshes and blood-thirsty mosquitoes.

In 1885 he built ye grand olde Woodbridge House, originally a Victorian-era manor, then a school for naughty children and later a nursing home (dozens of ghosts are said to roam its creaky hallways). One of Perths few remaining manor houses rescued from breakneck development in the 1960s, this gracious relic has withstood Western Australias rise, fall and rise again, all the time keeping watch over the meandering waters of the Swan River.

While its a living museum of a very different Perth the house is open for tours it also boasts one of the citys finest country kitchens in the most spectacular of settings. Your grannys kitchen with million-dollar views, Riverside at Woodbridge is all about comfort food homemade winter pies, Devonshire teas, Cornish pasties, Sunday roasts and old-fashioned cakes aplenty, along with loads of gluten-free options.

It also sits at the gateway to the Swan Valley, where some of the states finest wineries, breweries and gastronomic artisans reside. Wine, beer and cheer await.

So slip into your finest threads and rekindle some old-world charm at this splendid spot, of which Mr Darcy would surely approve.

> HIT THE STREETS

8254 Ford St, Woodbridge
(08) 9274 1469
Open MonTues & ThursSun 9am5pm

Photo by Erika Budiman

AN AUSSIE BITE OUT OF THE BIG APPLE

The word innovative is decidedly overused these days, but sometimes its so fitting that to use another word would be resorting to your thesaurus just for the sake of it. is innovative with a capital I. The first of its kind in Perth, this gallery/shop/bar/cafe/studio has injected more than a little life into the century-old flour mill in which its housed.

VENN started out as a gallery with a retail component; this attracted such big crowds that the bar and cafe evolved to meet the demand. The gallery where high-end design meets rustic studio exhibits contemporary art and design, with artists showcasing their photographs, printmaking, paintings, drawings, sculptures and installation pieces.

Downstairs in the shop, sustainable products with refined design are the go, but theres also a playful element to them, like the ties woven from old cassette tapes, guaranteed to spice up the most staid business suit, or the crumpled city maps that save you from doing the crumpling yourself. Other items include beautiful books, gifts, jewellery and stationery.

The cafe serves breakfast through to dinner from fluffy coconut pancakes to Fremantle sardines to seasonal tasting plates, coffee and cakes. Its standing room only on Friday nights, but theres plenty of breathing space upstairs on the roof terrace.

In the basement is where the serious stuff happens; here studios are available for artists to rent, to practise and cultivate their craft in a dynamic environment. The aim is to keep Perth artists local.

Its all very New York in both appearance and ideas, a concept as exciting and innovative as the city that never sleeps.

HIT THE STREETS

16 Queen St, Perth
(08) 9321 8366
www.venn.net
Gallery open TuesThurs & Sat
10am5pm, Fri 10am7pm;
Shop open MonThurs 9am5pm,
Fri 9am8pm, Sat 10am5pm;
Cafe/Bar open MonTues 7am5pm,
WedFri 7am12am, Sat 9am12am

ENCYCLO TRIVIA

is named after the Venn diagram, which, if you can remember back to Year 10 maths, is when circles overlap and their intersecting areas have something in common.

Photo by Melissa Krafchek

A FREE-SPIRITED FRINGE DWELLER

Like a grand utopian hippie commune plucked straight out of 1967 and transported to Fremantle aboard the acid mother ship, Macc Coffee Bar & Events is nothing if not unique yet at the same time somehow manages to be typically Freo.

Located on the fringes of central Fremantle in itself a statement Macc is where art, food, coffee and the psychedelic meet. The converted warehouse space will have you constantly turning your head to check out music posters on the deck, clothing and art for sale next to the cafe, and crazy cactuses and a mishmash of second-hand furniture all around the place. Its a bit of a microcosm for Freos contradictory essence, that heady mix of old-world charm versus cutting-edge artistic expression.

The kitchen is one of the most inspired in town (free-range Moroccan scrambled eggs anyone?) while also doubling as an artists studio, home to many of Fremantles finest established and emerging visual artists. Grab a house-blended coffee, which, incidentally is unbeatable (and that says a lot in a suburb prized for its reverence for the bean), and wander around watching art being made before your very eyes.