January 05 – Perth Bell Tower and Mint

We both slept in pretty late so by the time we left the hotel it was lunch time.  So it was off through Perth to find some lunch.

We found a nice restaurant in what used to be the old main Post Office.  The place was called “The Post” and the art consisted primarily of large sheets of stamps. 

This is in the old Post Office Building.

Then we walked down to the harbor to the Bell Tower.  

We had seen it a year ago when we were in Perth on our world cruise but there had been no time to tour it.  So today we went up to the top viewing platform and worked our way down.  It is a very interesting building and the bells have an interesting history.  Some of them are several years old and they previously were hung in the St. Martin in the Fields church in London.  When St. Martin was going to recast them Australia instead offered to take them in exchange for the raw materials to make new ones.

They also have the ANZAC Bell.  It is the largest bell cast in the Southern Hemisphere and it commemorates the 100th anniversary of World War I and the Australia and New Zealand soldiers who died during that war.

The bridge to the bell tower had chains that were covered with small love locks.  We have seen this in a number of places around the world, and have done it in China.

We then walked over to the Perth Mint.  The Mint was built in Perth because the major gold fields in Western Australia provided a good supply of gold.  It is still in operation but makes primarily collectible items.

The Mint has the world’s largest coin…a massive Australia Kangaroo solid gold coin that weighs one ton and has a face value of $1,000,000 Australian Dollars.  Today’s monetary value, based on the current price of gold, is $79,500,000.  As a collectible it is priceless.

We had a very good tour guide who was very informative.  

After a brief tour she took us into an area where they used to melt down the gold into bars.  She explained the process and then proceeded to pour a gold bar.  They have been using the same gold to make 7 bars a day, 7 days a week since 1993.  After each demonstration they just melt it down again. 

The mint also had lots of real gold nuggets and a large stack of bold bars on display.

We spent some time in the hotel and then went out to find a place for dinner.  Turns out a lot of business are closed as it is Sunday so we ended up eating at the same restaurant as last night.