Perth is a lot more hip than you realise

Perth has always been a popular Australian destination where Singaporeans go to study, retire or have a family farmstay holiday. Hip, stylish and happening? Hardly. When I mentioned plans to visit the city early this year, a friend warned that I would get bored by six in the evening when the CBD shuts down as most of the city’s workforce head back to the suburbs where 90 per cent of Perth’s population live.

Well, things have changed. Yes, there are still those picture-perfect powdery beaches and vineyards further afar at Margaret River to lure travellers. But the streets of Perth are now bursting with options for dining, drinking and even luxurious digs to spend the night. There are also lots of integrated public spaces such Elizabeth Quay, which cost more than US$1 billion (S$1.35 billion) to build. The 100,000sqm waterfront development, which opened in January this year will soon be buzzing with retail, food and beverage outlets and hotels. The project already has an inlet and island with recreational spaces including a water park, plenty of linked walking and sitting spaces, and public art.

This boom stemmed from Perth’s success story — the city had benefitted from a demand for commodities that tin-rich Western Australia could meet. There has also been an influx of new residents. The Committee for Perth, a local business think-tank, estimates that the city’s population (now at 2.5 million) will grow to four million by 2050. With all this, Perth is seized by a new energy. A slew of new developments like a colossal sports arena, a new museum, a major expansion of the airport and the debut of big names in hospitality such as Starwood, Westin and Ritz-Carlton are slated for the near future on the site of Elizabeth Quay.

Business owners are upbeat about Perth’s growth as a tourist destination.

“Sure, there will be more new hotels, but we view this competition as healthy as it will mean a more vibrant atmosphere which is always good for business,” said Miles Hull, one of the Alex Hotel’s co-founders, over lattes. Alex is one of Perth’s most fashionable hotels and I learnt from him that Singapore is the hotel’s second largest international market after the United Kingdom.

Over at Crown Perth, an integrated complex of hotel, casino and restaurants, hotel executives excitedly unveiled the blueprint of a six-star hotel, the Crown Tower set to open this December, bringing Crown’s rooms in the city to a total of 1,200 — no doubt to meet an anticipated demand, a large portion of which Crown foresees to be from Asian countries.

And speaking of fashionable new hotels, the star of the newly restored State Buildings (formerly the Treasury Complex) in downtown Perth’s historic Cathedral Square is a 48-room property, Como The Treasury, owned by Singaporean Christina Ong. The restoration story is an interesting one — the 140-year-old buildings, which once housed the city’s Cabinet, land titles, post offices and the treasury, had been left vacant for the past 20 years. They were brought back to life by local property development visionary Adrian Fini, who also founded brewery Little Creatures, in an US$80 million project and the job was tasked to Perth-born, Singapore-based architect Kerry Hill who preserved 95 per cent of the original structure. With a deft hand, Hill blended his signature style of understated luxe hotel — present in the taupe, blonde and cream shades in the interiors (the exteriors are a warm brick) with just the right touch of patina and restored neoclassical accents such as the glass conservatory in the cafe and arched doorways.

The State Buildings are also home to Perth’s hippest eateries, cafes and bars: Telegram Coffee helmed by barista Luke Arnold, Long Chim by chef David Thompson, Petition Kitchen and Petition Wine Bar & Merchant, which incorporates an impressive 18-tap craft beer bar, and Jed Gerrard’s Wildflower which showcases Western Australia’s produce in an inspired seasonal menu.

Foodies will also be glad to know that 40 more small new bars and 140 restaurants with liquor licences have opened in Perth since 2007 when the liquor licensing laws were relaxed. The Standard bar in gentrified Northbridge, once a gritty part of town (there is still a sprinkling of shops selling sex paraphernalia), was packed on a Sunday night by diners coming for fusion nosh such as beef carpaccio with wasabi cream. Northbridge’s status as ‘bohemian town’ is given more credence by the amount of street art on its walls. Street art flourishes at 140 on William, a former drab building now filled with eateries such as Jamie’s Italian. While I have had better casual Italian, the long snaking queues when it first opened and the fact that the branch is still the busiest in the Pacific show that the locals appreciate an opening in Perth by a celebrity chef of Oliver’s standing.

On my last day in Perth, I returned to my hotel at Como The Treasury after wandering around St Georges Terrace to shop. At 4pm, the notoriously hard-hitting Australian sun streamed through the windows, interspersed with rays that bounced off the stained glass on St George’s Cathedral across my room, and cast a smouldering spectrum of light. I imagined this picture of genteel beauty is what Perth’s golden age in the 19th century during the Gold Rush era must have been like, when people once thronged and gathered in the city. People are now returning. And Perth’s future has never looked shinier.