A Singaporean In Australia

Every suburb in Perth has its unique characteristics. My preference tends to tilt towards the older suburbs due to their rather unstructured built up due to a less extensive urban planning. I used to live in Holland Village. It was probably one of the most beautiful neighbourhood in Singapore. It was rustic even back in the 80s despite being relatively new back then. The HDB blocks were positioned almost randomly. Top of the slope (Blk 10), bottom (Blk 13) and even on a slope (Blk 12). Basically the entirely Holland Village was built to blend with the existing terrain. The result was stunning. The neighbourhood felt amazing for a child to grow up in due to the natural terrain. We had our imagination stretched to the maximum fitting the unusual (in Singapore context) natural features in our made up role-playing children games. We had a huge array of games which differed from most Singaporean kids in that era. These memories were the foundation of preferences in my living environment.

These days, they virtually flattened the entire place before building an entire neighbourhood or suburb in a mini-township manner. This isn't pertaining to Singapore only but to Perth as well. Look at the new suburbs such as Canningvale, Success, Southern River, Harisdale or Piara Waters. Beautiful places no doubt about it, give me a house in any of these I wouldn't have a single complain. From a personal point of view however, I would prefer a older suburb which was built by blending with the natural surroundings rather than a blueprint on a entirely flattened out land.

The above, by the way, isn't much related to what I wanted to share in this post. Just ignore it if you managed to plough yourself through it. Heh. Jen discovered a gem in Gosnells. It was just a 10-15 minutes stroll from where I am living. Centennial Pioneer Park was just behind the library in Gosnells and we paid a visit the day before with Penny. Penny was unimpressed. As you can't expect an Egyptian to be very impressed with sand, you can't expect a Malaysian really rave about woods, rivers, hills and wild animals. To each their own. For me I'm not in love with concrete.

By the way, the library is Gosnells is just by the main road. That actually mean this Park is just 50 metres or less away from the hustle of civilisation. When we opened Goldilocks' doors, we were greeted by the calls of nature. Not the kind you are thinking about, but real music of nature. Right above where we parked, were birds chirping loudly. It instantly reminded me of the wonderful trip to the far south in Pemberton, one of the best place I had visited in my life.

Being Singaporean, I checked the surrounding grounds and cars to see how well mannered the birds were. Surprisingly there wasn't any by-product from the birds here. Guess our black pigeons back home were just one kind of a troll. 

Look at the above picture. The library was the building at the far end. That was Goldilocks on the right and Baby Albany. Centennial Pioneer Park was just on our right. It was quite a big descend so it felt like a portal to another world when we actually went right down.

Right above me were the colourful birds. The trees seemed full of these because Penny and I didn't had too much trouble taking a picture of a couple of these. I'm not a bird man so I can't tell the species. They seemed much bigger than the birds in Pemberton though and a lot more wary of human beings. Beautiful things weren't they?

I didn't know what the heck was this. I am into furry animals but I don't really like its expression. A snap of it was all I wanted and I duly left when I got it.

Now, THIS. Is what I really wanted to get close and personal with. I still miss my dog a lot. If you ask me what is my regret coming to Perth, I cannot name any except for not being there for my most loyal pal when he left for heaven. This little old Jack Russell Terrier here loved me and allowed me to spend a few good minutes enjoying old times. Rally belonged to one of the elderly gentleman in the park.

The park was on very low ground, probably as low as the water table. Thus the environment felt moist and cool. It will be an excellent place for a BBQ in the summer - I think. To facilitate families and the physically impaired, they built 'tree top walks'-like kind of bridges to allow strollers or wheelchairs to come right through without problems and enjoying the lovely ambience at the same time.

Portal to another world. The closest thing I can think about is the road leading us to Labrador Park. Once we passed that big block of small hill, the entire place felt secluded from the outside world. Of course, the ships that sailed continuously in and out of Habour Front spoiled it all for me.

There were 2 sets of play equipment here. Adequate to keep little boys and girls entertained for an afternoon. Pity even Australia chose these plastic-ky playgrounds. Safety first. Bo bian. LL. New kids will never know how awesome "Dragon" was.

The BBQ pits. Very very well kept. Free to use, no booking is required. No charcoal is required. Press a button and the pit will be electrically heated and off you go. Just a quick thought. What will our foreign talent do with one of this in our neighbourhood park?

A narrow stream, part of the Canning River. The post which brought back bad memories.

Simple and fuss-free park benches.

There were fallen trees and branches all over the place. They were kept where they were because they provide food for the natural habitants of the park. This one doubled up as somebody's bridge, no doubt about it.

The kind of open spaces I moved here for.