Jazz musician and lifelong "Perthian", Emily Gelineau, introduces her city; the capital of Western Australia. With plenty of insights into the food and music scene as well as some incredible daytrip ideas, this conversation sets you up for the best trip to Perth and Australia's lesser visited West Coast.

Connect with this episode's guest, award-winning jazz musician Emily Gelineau:

https://www.instagram.com/emilygelineau

https://www.emilygelineau.com/

Enjoy more episodes of the Destination Unlocked podcast:

https://www.destinationunlocked.com

Connect with our host, Daniel Edward:

https://www.danieledwarduk.com

https://www.instagram.com/danieledwarduk

https://www.linkedin.com/in/danieledwarduk

Welcome back to Destination Unlocked with me, Daniel Edward.

Well today we are going Down Under, and we're going to one of the less

visited places in Australia... just because it is so far away.

But there is every reason to visit it.

As our guest today knows all too well.

We are joined today by an extremely talented jazz musician

from Perth, Australia, who I met on a Seaborne cruise ship.

And she was one of the guest entertainers, performing her show.

As well, she performs in the jazz clubs in Perth, so if you're in town,

check out where she's performing, which you'll be able to find easily

on her Instagram at Emily Gelineau.

Enjoy.

So Emily, where are you unlocking for us today?

Today I'm unlocking Perth in Western Australia.

I like Perth, but it's so far away from everything.

Yeah, it really, really is.

And not a lot of people get there because they always go to the east

coast and they just think, oh, you know, next time I'll do Perth.

And then they seem to kind of forget about it.

But hopefully I can tell people today that it's the destination

that you absolutely should not miss.

Is that the same for Australians as well?

Yeah, absolutely.

I've got a bunch of really great friends who have never ever been

to Perth and never visited me.

I'm always going over there, because it is quite a long flight.

It's about four or five hours from Sydney or Melbourne.

So if you are going to go to Perth, you do definitely need to one, have

a reason or spend a little bit of time there, but once you get there

it's just, it's so amazing that I don't think you're gonna wanna leave.

I agree.

Yeah.

And it is funny that it is closer to Bali than it is to Sydney.

Oh.

And it's also much cheaper to go to Bali from Perth than it is to

go to say Sydney or Melbourne.

So a lot of us end up going up that way for holiday.

Even Singapore, it's only a five or six hour flight from Perth, which

is a lot closer than the East Coast.

And if you're going from somewhere like the UK, you

might hop through Singapore anyway.

Yeah.

So you might then want to go to Perth instead of

going across to the East Coast.

Absolutely.

Or if I can promote Qantas.

I'm not affiliated in any way here, but they actually now have a

direct flight from London to Perth.

It is 16 hours, but it's a direct flight.

Wow.

We also also have direct flights from Perth to Paris and Perth

to Rome every now and then.

Wow.

So you can actually fly direct, which is great.

And it was

only 16 hours.

That's closer than I thought.

Yeah, it is

actually, it takes longer to get to Sydney.

Oh, it absolutely does.

And if you did go through Singapore, you would be spending longer

anyway because you would have about a three or four hour stopover.

So, I think it's worth it to just take the one flight to Perth and then

maybe you go to Sydney afterwards and then backtrack back to the UK.

You are the close part of Australia.

Yeah.

I never realized that.

If you think about it like that, we absolutely are.

You are, you are Australia the local.

Yep.

So Perth is the capital of Western Australia.

That's correct.

Which is the largest state

Yes.

of Australia.

So to put Western Australia into context, you can

fit about seven or eight UKs in the state, but the population of

the state is around 2.8 million.

And the population of Perth, the capital city, is 2.2 million, so there's pretty

much nobody living outside of the state.

It's just this massive, vast expanse of nothing, which is very, very beautiful.

And we have a lot of mining.

We have a lot of that, but it's just a lot of nature everywhere.

It's not heavily populated, it's just full of nature.

Hmm.

So that's what Western Australia is about?

Yep.

It's about the outback, the nature.

And that's the thing about Western Australia is that it's very different

from the north to the south.

The south is quite cool and it's quite bushy and foresty.

It's great for doing hikes, also, some of the best surfing spots.

Whereas you'll go further up north and that is a complete desert.

Desert.

And then you also start to get the wet and the dry seasons as it

becomes a little bit more tropical.

So really you could do all of the four seasons in one kind of exploration

of WA if you plan it out pretty well.

If you did want to do that, how long would it

take you to do it properly?

Oh, okay.

Well, there's a few ways you can do it.

Some people are definitely into van life and they wanna be

driving up and down the coast.

Now that's pretty amazing.

But I would say you'd need about six weeks to do it properly because

not only are things far away from each other, it's very remote.

So you can't just jump in a car and go.

You do need to plan out where am I getting my petrol?

Where am I gonna stay?

It's not like uh, the UK or Europe where there's little towns everywhere.

So you do have to think about that.

If you were going to fly, I think you could probably select the places that

you'd wanna go maybe in, around two or three weeks and do a little bit of it.

And then the other option of course is cruising.

There are a lot of cruises that actually take you to ports

all around Western Australia.

And I think that's about a seven day journey depending

on how many ports you stop at.

And I think that's a really good option as well.

'cause everything is on the coast anyway.

And I think that's probably the way that a lot of people find Perth.

Yes.

Because of Fremantle, that cruise port area.

Yeah.

Do a lot of ships start and end from Perth?

Back in the day they did not so much anymore.

That could be to do with costs, not entirely sure.

What usually happens is that when a cruise does its circumnavigation of the world,

or like a world cruise, for example, they will then pass through Perth and

they'll go all the way to the bottom, to Fremantle all the way up to the top, then

continue to Darwin and go up to Indonesia.

There are a few every now and then maybe, Celebrity or Carnival ships that may go

Fremantle up to the top of Broome and back, but it's not so common anymore.

But yeah, to do those short legs on a World Cruise is probably the best bet.

And so let's get into Perth itself, and then maybe we'll talk a

bit about Fremantle in a minute as well.

Give us a whistle stop tour of Perth.

Okay.

Perth is, uh, Perth is small.

Let me start off by saying this.

It is a city and we do have around 2 million people, but it is a small

city and a lot of Perthians, as I'm gonna call them, don't tend to spend

a lot of time in the city itself.

If you have visited an Australian city, you will know that the CBD,

as we call it the Central Business District, it's not like a city area

that you would find in Europe or the US.

It's pretty much just for business.

Perthians tend to go towards the coast and in my opinion, we have some of the

best beaches in Australia because we're on the west and the sunsets over the ocean.

It is the most perfect place to see the sunset over the ocean.

It's just absolutely beautiful.

And it's just a really long stretch of coast so you can discover as many

different beaches as you like in a 40 to 50 kilometer radius, 'cause it's just all

up and down the coast, which is beautiful.

Along with that, some of our nature is really lovely, so if you are into

hiking and that sort of stuff, there is some beautiful walks around and Perth

is a quiet city, so you're not gonna find that many people on the road.

It's not that busy wherever you go.

I find it's a lot less stressful than Sydney and Melbourne, you

know, where you've got so much traffic and people to contend with.

It's a lot more relaxed and the vibe is also much more relaxed.

Having said that, some people definitely can find Perth to be too quiet for

their taste, but it just depends what you're looking for really.

Personally, I love the quietness.

I love the isolation.

I love that you can go out if you like, but you can also spend a really

lovely evening indoors or just at the beach having a little picnic.

There's just so much to do.

So in the beaches then, because yeah, it's got some of the

absolute best beaches in Australia and some beaches where you're less

likely to be killed by a shark than certain other places in the country.

Sure, yep.

And so where would you recommend?

If you are visiting Perth, you're gonna stay, maybe you

are gonna stay in the CBD area.

Yeah.

So where would you say to go out to the beach?

The two most popular beaches are called Scarborough

Beach and Cottesloe Beach

. Now Scarborough Beach is a little bit more of your bondi sort of area.

If you know about Bondi Beach.

There's a little bit more to do there.

So there's shops, there's even clubs.

If you wanna go out at night, there's a lot of food, there's a lot of restaurants.

There's a lot of people doing skateboarding and running and

surfing and all that sort of thing.

And there's also lots of events.

So on a Thursday night, there's something called the Sunset Markets where it's

just a long strip of food markets and people selling homemade things.

So you can walk the entirety of the beach and shop and eat as much as you like.

And also, I play a lot of music on a Sunday at Scarborough

Beach for people to dance to.

So we have salsa, we have Brazilian dancing, so if you're into that

sort of social dancing, that also happens on the beach front because

there's a lovely big amphitheater.

As a beach, however, I will be honest that it's not my favorite

beach ever because it's very windy.

Perth is a super windy city, and this particular beach can get really

windy, especially in the afternoon.

And so the swell can be a little bit treacherous if you're

not the strongest swimmer.

So it's a beautiful area to sit and explore, but probably after around

two, 3:00 PM I wouldn't advise swimming unless you're super strong swimmer.

The other beach I mentioned is Cottesloe and It's actually near to

where I live, so I like it a lot.

Cottesloe Beach is very relaxed and we actually have a shark net around it, so

if you wanna feel really protected, you can go and swim inside the shark net.

There's not a lot of waves there.

It feels like a little bay, which is beautiful.

There are not as many shops and things around, but there is

beautiful nature area, so you can walk all up and down the coast.

Go grab yourself an ice cream.

Every now and then they'll have a little pop-up coffee shop in the summertime,

so grab yourself a coffee or a drink.

It's a much more relaxed vibe than Scarborough, and it's probably a

little bit better for swimming.

So those are my two picks.

So shark nets are a thing in popular Australian beaches.

Yes.

That the sharks never get through a shark

Emily Gelineau: Unfortunately it can happen.

Nothing is completely foolproof and I think, no matter where you're

coming, if you're coming to Australia, you do need to be aware of that.

Whether you're on the east coast or the west coast, we have this problem.

It's all around.

We're in the sharks' areas.

One of my best tips is that if you do come to Australia, is to download a few apps.

It's called Shark Smart.

They have one for the East coast and one for the West Coast.

And some of the sharks are tagged and they have names, so it's pretty funny;

it'll pop up on your phone and be like, Doris is swimming 1.5 meters away.

Oh, hello Doris.

So that's a really good way to just feel like, okay, nothing's been cited today.

I'm, I'm pretty comfortable to swim, but for the most part, I personally

have never had any problems with sharks.

Swimming first thing in the morning is probably your best bet.

So around 9, 10 AM is the best time to swim.

It's also

when, so sharks like have lie ins.

Yeah, they like to go late to night and through the dawn, so

maybe not 6:00 AM, that's surfer time and also a lot of sharks around there.

But 9, 10 AM is also the best for the winds because we do have a lot of

wind being right on the Indian ocean.

And so that's the calmest point of the day.

So if you can get up that early and you feel like it, it's a nice little morning

beach swim to go around that time.

And if we're talking about sharks, let's talk about

some other Australian animals, because Western Australia also has

quite a sizable emu population?

We do.

Do you get to see them much if you were to visit?

In Perth itself, not so much.

So the cities, unless you go to find them in a, in an animal

sanctuary, you're probably not gonna see them from day to day.

However, you will see a lot of kangaroos in Perth, which is cool, and there's

actually a lot of public and free parks that just house a gazillion kangaroos

because that's where they live.

There's a beautiful park up to the north called Yanchep National

Park, and it's free to enter.

It's a very beautiful park and you will absolutely see kangaroos

absolutely everywhere, and they're quite large as well, and they'll just

be hopping and doing their own thing.

They don't really get in the way.

They're not dangerous at all.

So that's really nice that you can see them.

As for emus, a little bit further down south, you tend to see them.

So if you go down south, that's where the natural wildlife seems

to be a little bit more in their natural habitat rather than the city.

Down south, when I talk about that, I'm talking about places like

Dunsborough, Bustleton, Margaret River.

Now Margaret River is really popular for surfing.

That's one of the larger surfing spots, and I think they even go

there on the WSL Surfing Tour.

So that's a pretty big spot.

And even further down from that, like Hamlin Bay have a beach full of stingrays.

They don't harm you as well, but they're very beautiful stingrays.

Are you sure they don't harm

I've heard nothing bad so far about the stingray, just

don't step on them and you'll be fine.

That's quite beautiful as well.

And even further down south like Albany and Esperance, those are getting

around six hours drive away from Perth.

So while getting quite far.

Do also remember that the water gets colder the further south that you get.

So it's very beautiful, but the water can get very, very cold down there.

So it's probably best to go in our summertime, which is of course January

through till about March or April is the hottest months of the year.

And you get some very hot months

. Emily Gelineau: We do.

Now, the climate look, the climate of WA changes a lot, but if we're talking about

Perth itself, we're a very dry place.

We will get up to temperatures of 45 degrees quite easily.

However, it is dry, so you're not going to have that sweaty, horrible

feeling that you would get in Sydney or Melbourne or even further up north.

However, we also have a giant hole in the ozone layer, so don't buy any of

your sunscreen outside of Australia.

Just buy it when you get there.

50 plus slather on and make sure you've got it.

But it's not all the time.

It's not a persistent 45.

It will go down to around 25, 30 and that's really when it's at its sweet spot.

I think.

I think 30 degrees in Perth is just absolutely perfect.

But also, even when it is a nice, middle of the road day.

Yeah,

it's a little bit cloudy even.

The UV is still killer.

It's still very killer.

So my rule of thumb is that whenever I go outside in Perth, Western Australia,

or Australia in general, I always put sunscreen on no matter what.

you know, Protect yourself and have a nice time as well.

It's not fun being burnt and then you spend the rest of your holiday inside.

Ah, my skin.

Owww.

Totally.

It's very, very painful.

I personally really do like the heat and if you do choose to come

in winter, it's also not very cold.

It probably gets down to around 17 during the day and maybe

12 to 10 during the night.

There is a little bit of rain, but it's still quite nice.

So it definitely doesn't get cold by any means in Perth itself.

If you're going in the winter, what are some indoor

things to do in, say, the CBD?

Obviously you've got the shops.

Yeah, there's lots of shopping.

Perth is not a super historical place, so I wouldn't come there for, you know,

to, to find out a lot about history.

Of course, Australia's a pretty young country as it is.

But we do have some really beautiful museums and art installments, so

we have an amazing art gallery area called Boola Bardip, where you can

find out a lot about the Aboriginal heritage in history, which is great.

You can view a lot of art, whether that be sculptures or

painted art or things like that.

They also have a lot of winter installments as well around the

city, so we'll, sometimes we'll have like a fake snow situation for the

kids, you know, make them feel like they're in a bit of a colder climate.

And of course, go and see some live music.

We have beautiful venues, really good food.

At night, I think there's plenty to do, whether it's you wanna go and see

a show, or you wanna head to a club or have a really nice beverage at a bar.

I think we have some of the best food and indoor venues that you can really enjoy.

Let's talk about those two things.

Yeah, let's do,

let's do food first.

What sort of food do you find in Perth and Western Australia?

Look, the greatest thing about Perth is that you can find

pretty much anything that you want.

We have a really large Asian influence when it comes to our food because

of the proximity to Asia, of course.

So I'd say that our Asian food is really, really good.

If you want Chinese, Vietnamese, Thai, we have a lot of Thai food,

very good quality and Japanese food.

You're gonna find a lot of things there, especially in the city.

I personally really enjoy Italian food, so I'm always out to find

the best pizzeria or pasta place.

And there's definitely a few worth mentioning.

There is one near the beach that I named.

It's called Sal's Pasta.

And it's a little deli actually, so you can sit there and you can have

lunch, but they make everything fresh in the morning, every single day.

Fresh pasta, fresh paninis.

Everything right in front of you.

It's an open kitchen concept, so you just go inside, you're seeing

everyone making everything right there.

It feels like you've been transported to a tiny little Italian shop in a tiny

village, and everyone is so friendly.

So that's definitely one of my favorite places to go.

And another type of food I also enjoy is Brazilian food.

And we have a really large Brazilian community and over in Scarborough, they

have a lot of places where you can go and have a Brazilian barbecue, aha school.

You can have the caipirinha, which is the national cocktail made out of cachaca.

And you often find a lot of live music in these venues as well.

So I really like those type of spots.

Those are my favorite.

But if you're into more typical Aussie cuisine, which you know is probably

like a pub meal where you have some very good pub meals and always there's

gonna be live music as well, in the corner, there'll be a guitarist,

a band, always something to see.

Do you see much kangaroo on menus?

you can if you look hard enough, and actually if you go to the

shops, you can buy kangaroo meat in the grocery stores, that's quite normal.

You can have a kangaroo burger.

And I don't eat it very much, but it is considered to be a

really healthy and lean meat.

So apparently it's quite good for you.

I have eaten a few other things.

I've eaten imu, I've eaten crocodile.

None of those things really stuck out to me that much, but they were.

Okay.

You can find them if you wanna give it a go.

And the other thing that obviously you

mentioned is the music scene.

Yeah.

And you are a musician, so

I am.

Yes.

There's no one better to tell us about the music scene than you.

So, where are these venues and what would you recommend?

Look, they're absolutely everywhere.

I would say that the city is the first place to start off with the

CBD, and right next to the city is an area called North Bridge.

And that's where all of the main clubs and the main restaurants and pretty

much everything you can find from Irish bars, so many Irish bars of Irish music

to Latin style dancing, to jazz music.

And because I play mostly jazz, I tend to inhibit the jazz areas and the jazz clubs.

We have a few really great ones.

One of them is called the Ellington Jazz Club, named after Duke Ellington.

That's in the city, and that runs seven days a week with two

shows on Saturday and Sunday.

So if you go there any night of the week, you'll find something.

There's another venue opposite end of the city now called the Duke of George,

and that also has music every single night, and that's in the Fremantle area.

So, if you are on a ship, that's a great place to go, but maybe I'll talk about

Fremantle in a slightly different way because there's so much there as well.

There's also, of course, a lot of theater shows, so if you're really into that,

you can head down to Crown Casino, which is our large casino complex.

They've got three different hotels there.

Of course, they've got a casino.

And they've got live music in the lobby, in the bars.

And then we have the big theater where all of the big stage shows come.

So if you're interested in musical theater, that's definitely

the place to head to as well.

So you are on the Australian tour.

Yep.

We have the Australian tours come to us.

Sometimes we also have our own that are created inside Perth and they'll perform

at the stage there at Crown Casino.

And it's really cool.

It's always evolving.

I would say there's about four to five shows a year that come through

and they're always such high quality.

So where's your favorite place to perform in the Perth area.

I have a few different places that I like to perform and it

also depends on the music that we play.

I sometimes play American country music in a country band, and there is one venue

in Fremantle called the Honky Tonk Blues.

And the minute that you step in there, you really feel like you've landed in Texas.

And it is really, really cool.

They have line dancing every night of the week, so if you wanna go to a free

line dancing class, you just rock up.

And there is music every single night until around midnight or 1:00

AM and it is such a great vibe.

It's on the main street, so you just walk down, hear the music free entry.

They have some great drinks.

It's always a really fun time to perform there.

Other than that, I really love playing at the jazz places that I

mentioned, especially in the city.

And I also really love playing outside.

So when the weather is great, we do get to do a lot of performances

by the beach or in Kings Park.

Kings Park is sort of like our central park, um, but it's on a hill, so

you've got beautiful view of Perth.

It's amazing.

It's

a huge park.

It's a massive park.

And you can do all this walking and then you can discover all the

native plants and things like that.

It's absolutely stunning.

And so they have a lot of live outdoor concerts in their amphitheater

there over the summertime, and that's really, really cool as well.

It's nothing better than playing music under the stars in the sky.

And you can see the stars very clearly in Perth, which is very cool 'cause we

don't have a lot of light pollution.

And I just think it's a really cool vibe.

And it's the Southern Hemisphere sky.

Absolutely.

Very different.

It's exciting for a lot of people.

Yeah.

Let's talk more about Fremantle in just a moment, but I wanna

find out more about your music as well.

Sure.

So where can People find you maybe online and have a listen in?

Sure.

So I usually post my gig list every month on my Instagram page.

And if you just look up my name, it'll come up instantly.

I tend to spend, let's say about 75% of my time in Perth and then about five to 10%

on a cruise ship and the rest over east.

So a lot of what I do is at these jazz clubs, you'll find me there at

the Ellington or the Duke of George.

Once a month I play in a Brazilian dancing event at a place called the

Ambassador Bar, which I've created in Northbridge in the city area.

So if you don't know how to dance or you do know how to

dance, you can come give it a go.

It's really fun.

We have a little free class beforehand as well.

And there are various little bars on a Sunday that i'll just pop

down with my partner who also plays music and will sit there and play

music for about three or four hours.

So the best bet I feel like would be to find me on Instagram, follow me there.

I usually post exactly where I'm gonna be and yeah, sometimes I'm on a ship.

Sometimes I'm over east, but also sometimes I'm home, which is great.

And how did the Brazilian stuff come to be?

Because even today you are giving Brazilian vibes.

Well, I'm very lucky that my partner is from Brazil

and so I met him in Australia.

But the connection started a little earlier whilst I was living in the

States and I lived in Boston for four years and there were so many Latin

Americans there and it was really cool for me to get to know them because

in Australia, we're so far away from South and Latin America that we don't

really get to know a lot about it.

And I discovered Brazilian music and I really enjoyed it.

So when I did come back to Perth during the pandemic and I stayed there, I tried

to find as much Brazilian music as I could in Australia to try to keep it going.

And that's when I luckily ran into my partner and we've been

playing Brazilian music ever since.

And the community is really fantastic.

I think that they create such a beautiful vibe and their culture is very

similar to how Australians are as well.

We're very free, we're very relaxed.

We just like to hang out at the beach and be outdoors, which is

very similar to the Brazilians.

So I feel as though it works really well when they come to Australia and

they bring what they love and everyone gets involved and the Australians like

to dance and to listen to the music.

So it's a nice little melting pot of the two cultures.

So it was the music that brought you together?

It is.

Exactly.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Wow.

He was playing.

I was playing.

He thought I was cool.

I thought he was cool.

Nice.

and you write your own as well.

You create your own music.

I do.

I arrange more than I compose these days.

So I write a lot of music for other people and arrange for orchestras like the Perth

Symphony Orchestra, WA Symphony, and a few different ensembles here and there, which

are also some really amazing ensembles.

If you're into classical music or classical crossover, definitely go

and check out those ensembles in Perth, they're really, really good

. Daniel Edward: Alright, let's get into Fremantle.

So this is where I first arrived when I first went to Perth.

I pulled into Fremantle on a cruise ship and actually the first time

I stayed in Fremantle, 'cause there's plenty to enjoy there.

It is interesting.

I would say it's got a lot of history.

You said it hasn't got that much history, but for the short amount of time it's

got, yeah, it's got a lot packed in.

Absolutely.

No, you are right.

Fremantle does have a lot of history because that is the main port town and

so that's obviously how Perth was sort of discovered and people came there

and there is a longstanding history of maritime and all that sort of thing, and

Fremantle, which is really, really great.

I personally love Fremantle because I live 10 minutes away,

so it's very close for me.

And you're absolutely right.

There's so much to do there when you're walking around.

It's so nice to see the old architecture.

It feels very old English, you know?

And you can see how the influence really took over there.

There's so much to eat, which is great.

If you're into fish and chips, you know, which I absolutely am.

You're gonna find great fish and chips, super fresh off the boat every single day.

And there's also a really cool thing called the Fremantle Markets, and that

happens on a Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.

And it is the most vibrant area where you can just find the most random things

to buy, to purchase, to try, to eat.

And I think it's a really cool thing to do if you're traveling.

If you wanna buy something unique from Perth or Fremantle, definitely

head there because there'll be some really beautiful, handmade things

with local WA wood and produce.

And I, I like going there even and buying stuff just for myself

because it's really unique.

I feel as though it's very walkable.

It's probably the only place in Perth that feels truly walkable, so you

don't really need a car to get around.

You can walk around the streets quite easily, head to the beach if

you like, sit yourself down near the Ferris wheel on the, um, on the grass

and have your fish and chips there.

So it's very easy to get around.

What was your experience?

The market for sure.

Yeah.

And it's one of the oldest covered markets, if not the oldest covered

market, certainly in Western Australia, maybe in all of Australia.

I can't remember.

It could be.

I do need to look that up, but it is very old.

1896, I think so.

It is quite old.

Before Australia

was,

yeah, absolutely.

So just before Australia was declared a country, really.

Mm-hmm.

Our constitution was finalized in 1902.

I think so, yeah.

It is very, very old and you feel that as well, a lot of the buildings haven't

been touched, which is really nice.

Then of course there's the prison.

Then of course there's the prison.

Now the prison is so interesting, and actually it's turned into

a live music venue as well.

So you'll find some really cool artists like John Butler, some traditional

Australian artists, Tame Impala, some really big bands come there, Cold Chisel.

And it's kind of turned into an outdoor night venue, which is both spooky and

really cool because you can also do a few tours of the Fremantle Prison

and you can do it during the day or you can do the night tour where they

take you underground, in the tunnels,

the dungeons,

and you have, then you have to crawl around and that's really spooky.

But they've got some really great stories from inside there.

And I won't go into it too much, but you can do your own research.

There are some really incredible success stories and also stories of people that

changed Perth and WA for the better, that had something to do with Fremantle

or unfortunately got it end up locked in the prison or something like that.

But actually were really influential.

One of those people were CY O'Connor.

He developed a drainage system that was able to get water all the way out

to a place called Kalgoorlie, which is a nine hour drive inland, and that

is now one of the main mining towns

. And he was finally able to devise way to get water from Fremantle all the

way there, which basically changed the way that we were able to run our

state and that we were able to have a connection with places that were much

more inland and people could live there.

Unfortunately, he went a little bit crazy at the end of his life

and uh, rode his horse out into the ocean, never to be seen again.

And that's the story.

And I believe that he also spent a bit of time in the Fremantle prison.

So there's a really interesting story about him and he did some

great things, but you know, with great things comes great pressure.

Just pushed him over the edge.

Yeah, I think so.

Maybe.

Wow.

Poor horse didn't have much say

in that poor horse.

Yeah.

I don't know.

Poor thing.

I don't know where he went.

Maybe he's swimming out there in the Indian ocean.

Horses can swim.

Yeah, they can.

Yeah.

I dunno for how long, but they can

No, especially not with some of those tides.

Yeah.

It's also really easy to get from Fremantle into Perth CBD.

Yeah.

Especially if you are arriving by cruise ship.

If you're arriving into Fremantle or if you're staying in Fremantle, chances are

you're staying because of a cruise ship.

Yeah.

There's a train that's right there by the waterfront, but

how else would you get around Perth a, a sort of greater Perth area.

Look, I'll be honest, Perth can be a little bit of a tricky

city to get around because we are so spread out . Usually car is the best way.

However, the public transport is getting a lot better.

And as you said, there's a train that goes right into the city from

Fremantle and it only takes about half an hour and it's also relatively cheap.

The fares are maybe like $2, so it's definitely not gonna

break the bank or anything.

And from the city, you can pretty much go anywhere you want, whether that's taking

a bus or whether that's taking a train.

You can head wherever you want.

We have a few free buses within the city, which are really cool called the Cat Bus.

And so you can just hop and hop off them whenever you want.

Go wherever you like.

And they've just introduced a new one called the Surf Cat.

And that one takes you all the way out to Scarborough Beach from the city.

So if you wanna go for a little bit of a surf, you grab on the free surf cat

bus and it'll take you out to the beach.

So there are a few options of what you can do that is not very expensive.

It means that you don't have to get a car and maybe drive on the other side of

the road or something like that can be a little bit daunting for the first time.

Yeah, that's something I love so much about being in Australia.

I'm naturally looking the correct way.

Yep.

When I'm crossing the road or doing anything walking on

the left, yes,

it's much safer.

There is one other thing I'd like to mention out of

Fremantle and um, it's actually off the coast, but it's Rottnest Island.

I dunno if you've been there before, but Rottnest Island is our own little hidden

gem and it's only accessible by a ferry.

And most commonly you can take it from Fremantle.

That's the quickest and the easiest way.

Only takes half an hour.

Once you get on board the island though, it's only bikes.

So you bike throughout the entire island, and there's just a plethora of the most

beautiful beaches, very safe beaches as well that are just glass blue, white sand.

And of course, there's a lot to do as well in the town.

They've got a few little shops and places to eat.

You can even stay overnight.

They have some really wonderful camping grounds as well as boutique hotels.

So if you want a little bit of a fancy getaway.

You can absolutely stay over there as well, but it's one of my favorite

places to go even just for a day.

You take the ferry over, hire a bike, or bring your own, bike around

the island and then come back home.

It's such a good way to spend a weekend.

I love that.

Yeah.

I've not made it to Rockness Island yet.

And I didn't know there was a little village or town there.

It's very, very small.

Okay.

But there is, and some people live on the island

because they, they work there.

So there's even a tiny little school, a little school bus.

And the other thing that probably draws people to the island is the Quokkas.

And so the quokkas are the very smiley animals.

They've actually gotten a lot fatter lately because people seem to be feeding

them a lot on the island, so they're very cute and fat, and they really are smiley.

You look at them and they've just got this beautiful big expression

on their face, and they're harmless and they're very, very cute.

So I would definitely recommend going over there and patting a quokka.

It was originally called Rats Nest Island, actually, because when the first

settlers is discovered there was an island there, they saw all these little

things scurrying around and they just thought they were giant rodents, so

they used to call it Rats Nest Island.

As time went on and they were starting to research the animals, they realized

that they were marsupials, that they were more like a wallaby and

a kangaroo than they were a rodent.

And so they said, well, we can't call them rats anymore.

We'll change it to Rottnest Island.

So that's how Rottnest Island got its name.

I assumed it was named after a person.

No.

Now I know they just got the animal wrong.

I always ask this because I think it's one of the

helpful things to understand before you go somewhere: tipping.

Is this something which you do in Perth or indeed in wider Australia, or is this

something that you can forget about?

It's something that you can forget about.

Tipping is not in the culture in Australia and definitely not in Western Australia.

Having said that, you know, if you've gone out to a very fancy venue and

you've really enjoyed your meal, you're absolutely welcome to tip.

But the system of how people work in Australia is very different

to say countries like the US And so they are not working on tips,

so they are not expecting it.

Usually it's all included in the price and you can rest easy that your taxes

and your tips, everything's included in the price and they're working because

they're receiving that specific wage.

However, if you do really enjoy a service or at the end of your trip you

really like the barista that made your coffee every morning, you're super

welcome to, to give him something extra if you feel like you wanna do that.

All right.

One last question before our quickfire round.

Okay.

And that is if you wanted to get out of Perth, let's say you're

spending a bit more time a week, maybe two weeks, so you might wanna do some

day trips or maybe overnight stays.

Mm-hmm.

Where would you recommend heading?

The first place has to be down south.

So it's very easily accessible by car.

I would recommend renting a car because it's the nicest way to see it.

And heading down to places like Dunsborough or Margaret River.

That's about three to four hours away from Perth.

Along the way, you have Bustleton, you have Bunbury, and these are just

beautiful, stunning little beach towns.

So I would really recommend heading to one of those places, either

Dunsborough or Margaret River, depending on what you're liking, renting a

tiny little cottage or an Airbnb, or even just a room for the night.

And then driving onwards to the next place.

If you have a lot of time, you can try to venture a little bit further and get

all the way to Albany, but that is about a six hour direct drive from Perth.

So if you are stopping, it ends up getting quite long, but that would be my first

pick because it is such a different terrain down there; it's so foresty.

The nature is absolutely incredible.

And if you like to do a hike or a walk or maybe even go

biking, it's the perfect place.

If that's not really your vibe and you wanna see something a little bit

different, there is something called the Pinnacles, which is just above Perth and

it's about an hour and 45 minutes away.

So again, not too far.

You can get there by car or there's a lot of buses that take

you there if you book a tour.

And these are really interesting structures that kind of look like

massive ant molds and they go all the way up and it's very, very dry.

And you don't really see much else like this in the country apart from WA

because it's a very dry and desert place.

So that's really cool to see and I quite like that.

And if you're looking to go even further north, I would really highly recommend

going to places like, oh, it depends how far you wanna go, but Broome is lovely.

Now Broome is about a three hour flight away, so that is getting

quite far, but it is unreal.

The beaches there have this massive long stretch of sand that

you could just walk for hours.

It's very warm.

It's very, very tropical.

And there's a really massive Japanese influence, so the food is very

Japanese and it's very beautiful.

Getting even further up from there.

There's Kununurra and there's a wonderful place called El Questro Resort, and this

is like nothing I've ever seen before.

You can take beautiful hikes to gorges and waterfalls and just spend all day

there in the waterfall or just look at the sun setting over the desert.

You know, it's really wonderful.

So... there's so much you can do.

It really depends how much time you've got.

You don't have to drive everywhere.

There are trains and there are buses that will take you if you don't

feel like you wanna drive or hire a car, so there's lots of options.

And Western Australia is the only state in

Australia that runs top to bottom.

Yes.

And so you have the full spectrum of color palettes

when you are flying.

Flying so different.

When you are flying over wa it's unreal.

Especially if you fly from Perth to up north.

You just see the colors change to red and then these little pink

lakes that happen, there's also so, oh, I could talk for hours.

You know that we have pink lakes, which are beautiful salt lakes and beautiful

gorges and dams of, you know, light blue water and just seeing those colors change

every now and then is just amazing.

What would you say is the top thing to see or do in Perth

? Emily Gelineau: The beaches.

And one in particular,

Cottesloe Beach

What would you say is the main tourist trap to avoid

? Emily Gelineau: Maybe the bell Tower.

There is a really wonderful bell tower.

I think people will try to tell you to take a tour, but you don't really need to.

You can just walk up the bell tower, look and leave.

Like, I think that's, that's all that you really need to do.

But should you still see it?

I think you should still see it.

I just don't think you need a two hour tour of it.

I think you just can go by yourself and then leave and say that you've done it.

Yeah.

I never did the tour of the Bell Tower.

No, it's not that worth it.

I did the tour of the Mint.

that, that's cool.

That's cool.

Yeah.

That's actually quite useful and you get some nice insights.

But the Bell Tower, ah, it's a tower.

It's got a bell.

It's a tower with a bell.

Yeah.

I feel like lots of people have seen that before.

It's also pretty modern.

It's not very like different looking.

Yeah.

What's your favorite time of year to recommend someone visits Perth?

I would say February, March, April, because of the weather, but

also there's a lot of things happening.

So we have Fringe festival, Perth Festival, so there's lots of different

arts and culture things to do as well as installments on the beach.

It's just the perfect time if you wanna be outdoors.

Your top food and drink to try?

As I said, Sal's Pasta in Cottesloe.

That has to be one.

Um,

a place called Buteko in Scarborough, that's Brazilian

food, absolutely incredible.

Cicerello's fish and chips in Fremantle, one of the oldest fish and chips places.

Six Senses thai restaurant, amazing Thai food.

They have one in the city and in a place called Leederville.

I'm trying to think of like different...

this is a really weird one, but if you're just like, after a really

casual lunch, I really like Grill'd.

They just do great burgers and chips, like just really good quality.

You can never go wrong with Grill'd.

Oh, now you've got me thinking about burgers and chips.

There's something very funny about Australia that I think people who've never

been before would just wouldn't expect.

Yes.

And

that's Burger King.

Yeah, we, yes.

No, it

doesn't exist.

Know, burger King doesn't exist.

Does, yes.

The quick rundown is that it doesn't really exist because when they tried

to bring it to Australia, there was a guy that already owned the name Burger

King for his own burger shop, and instead of being like, yes, no worry,

this large franchise can take it, he put up a bit of a fuss and he was like,

no, I'm not getting rid of the name.

Actually, there are no more Burger King restaurants under his name.

He just owns the domain.

And so Burger King could not operate under that name in Australia, so

they changed it to Hungry Jacks.

Which actually I feel like works a little bit better in the Australian climate.

It just feels a little bit more like us rather than Burger King.

It's a bit different as well.

It's not typical Burger King, but it's similar.

But Grill'd is the one to go to,

but Grill'd is the one to go to.

It's way better.

I usually ask: what's your top book or TV recommendation

to get somebody in the mood for a visit to where we're going.

But given that you are a musician, if you would prefer to give a

music recommendation, you may

Sure.

I would recommend listening to, um.

I'm gonna go quite broad in the genres here, but John Butler is a very famous

artist in the sort of folk, even reggae sort of genre and he came from Perth,

and he's very famous and well known.

And a young band that is doing really well at the moment called Spacey Jane.

They are from the southwest of WA and they have been making it really

well in a sort of indie pop scene.

So they're doing a really good job.

In terms of slightly older, maybe back in the eighties and nineties.

Um, Eskimo Joe was a very famous band and they still do perform to this day and

they have some really fantastic songs.

So yeah, I thought basically those three bands are, because they cover different

ages and different spectrums and also different periods of Perth music as well.

And the final question: if somebody wants to take home a souvenir

from Perth and they don't want it to be that generic t-shirt made in China.

Yep.

What should they keep an eye out for

? Emily Gelineau: It depends, of course, on the quarantine laws of your country,

but I would recommend picking up something with jarrah wood or sandalwood.

Sandalwood is native to Northwest Australia, and it's actually used in

perfumes and oil and body lotion, and it's meant to be a really calming ingredient.

So I'd pick something up that has sandalwood in because you

can't really find that elsewhere other than Northwest Australia.

So that's pretty cool.

And jarrah wood is also native to Perth in the Southwest.

So if you can find something made of jarrah, maybe it's like a, just

a, a small thing for your table or maybe if you go to the Fremantle

markets, you're for sure going to find something with those products.

And I would buy them because it's something that is unique and also

native to WA rather than something that you said could be made anywhere else.

And I do really like the smell of sandalwood.

It's incredible.

Incense, all that sort of thing.

It's really nice

And nowhere has.

Quarantine rules quite like WA.

Yeah.

So if you're taking out it's easy, get out out, it's probably fine.

Just don't bring it in.

You can't bring anything in.

No.

Not even from other parts of Australia.

No.

We are very, very strict.

But you, when you come, you will understand, you know, we are a

very isolated place and you can understand if one thing goes

wrong, it's not very good for us.

And uh, we do have wonderful nature and we have some wonderful native food,

plants, all that, that sort of thing.

So we wanna make sure that they keep thriving as well.

Emily Gelineau, thank you so much for unlocking Perth for us.

Thank you Daniel.

Thanks for having me.

Well, thank you very much again to Emily Gelineau for Unlocking

Perth and well so much of Western Australia for us in that conversation.

And if you are heading towards Perth and you'd love to hear her

perform, then it's easy to find out where she is because she puts it

on her Instagram at Emily Gelineau.

It's all there.

And of course you can find her music there too.

I hope you enjoyed this episode of The Destination Unlocked Podcast.

And just before you go, do make sure that you are following us

wherever you're currently listening, so that the next time you want to

go armchair traveling somewhere, you know exactly where to find us.

I'll see you next time.

Bye-bye.