Perth: What Most Visitors Miss
Most first-time guides to Perth stop at Kings Park’s lookout and Cottesloe’s sunset, both genuinely worth doing, and then miss the stranger stuff a few minutes further: a free spiral staircase built to look like DNA, a bell tower where you’re handed the actual rope, and a blue whale skeleton hanging over a museum stairwell that most visitors walk straight underneath without looking up.
| Key facts | Perth |
|---|---|
| Getting in | Perth Airport (PER), Airport Line train ~18 min to the CBD |
| Getting around | Free CAT buses (CBD/Northbridge) or Transperth’s flat A$3.50 Go Anywhere Fare |
| Kings Park | 400 hectares, free, open 24 hours |
| WA Museum Boola Bardip | A$15 adult / A$10 concession / free under-15 |
| Currency | Australian Dollar (AUD), roughly US$0.70 per A$1 in 2026 |
The DNA Tower most visitors never notice
Kings Park’s main lookout draws the crowd, but the park also hides a 15-metre double-helix staircase, built in 1966 by the Gradisen family and modeled on the twin spiral staircase at the Château de Blois in France. It has 101 steps split across two intertwined flights, so people climbing never cross people descending, and it’s the highest viewpoint in the entire 400-hectare park, free like everything else here. Kings Park’s own DNA Tower page has current access notes.
A bell tower where you actually ring the bells
The Bell Tower at Barrack St Jetty houses 18 bells, 12 of them genuinely historic pieces cast for St Martin-in-the-Fields in London, gifted to Western Australia for the 1988 Bicentenary. Instead of just letting visitors look, its guided bell-chiming sessions hand people the ropes. Admission is about A$18 for adults (concessions and family tickets are cheaper, and the guided bell-chiming experience costs more than basic entry - check thebelltower.com.au), open 10am-4pm daily.
Is the Bell Tower worth the admission?
For the standard viewing deck alone, it’s a fair but ordinary city view. For the bell-chiming session, where you actually help ring genuinely centuries-old bells, it’s one of the few interactive experiences of its kind anywhere, and worth about A$18 on that basis alone.
The blue whale skeleton hiding in plain sight
WA Museum Boola Bardip reopened in 2020 after a A$400 million rebuild across five heritage buildings in the Perth Cultural Centre, including the 1855 Old Perth Gaol. A full blue whale skeleton is suspended through the atrium stairwell, the single most photographed thing inside and the one detail most visitors say nobody mentioned beforehand. Admission is A$15 adult, A$10 concession, free under-15s and carers; a free-entry promotion that ran December 2024 to March 2025 has ended, so don’t expect the museum to be free on arrival. Check current hours at the WA Museum .
Northbridge’s small bars, and the accident that created them
WA’s 2006-07 small-bar liquor licensing reform triggered a genuine laneway bar boom across Northbridge, sitting right beside the WA Museum and the Art Gallery of Western Australia. By day it’s a cultural quarter; after dark it’s Perth’s main nightlife strip along William and James Streets, with the normal late-night caution any city nightlife hub needs.
The ferry that beats the cruise
The standard Transperth ferry from Elizabeth Quay to South Perth runs on the same fare as any bus trip, and its skyline view rivals anything sold as a paid river cruise. Compare CBD hotel rates on Booking.com if you’re basing yourself near the jetty for easy access.
Practical notes
Drop bears are not a real animal, just a decades-old joke told to tourists near places like Kings Park. Tipping isn’t expected in Australia, and most visitors need an ETA or eVisitor visa arranged before departure. Perth is also one of the world’s most isolated major cities, with Adelaide, the nearest city over 100,000 people, roughly 2,100 kilometres away, which is part of why the odd, overlooked details here reward a slower look. Read the fuller Perth guide for all 7, or jump into the 2-day itinerary to see them in order.