Dan Will Travel
I'm Dan and I WILL Travel
Seems sort of weird that once gain I have done an Australian prison tour, this time the World Heritage site, Fremantle prison.
But, as in Europe one goes to cathedrals and such to see how the culture evolved, one can learn so much about Australian settlement history by its prisons. Remember, that was a key aspect of England’s desire for and use of Australia, a place to send its convicts.
This one was a bit tougher to visit versus Port Arthur in Tasmania as it was still in use up until 1991. For instance, it never had working toilets, so even in 1991, the convicts had to use red buckets.
Besides the prison, the historic port town of Fremantle was quite nice to visit with its range of so many historic buildings. It was only a 20 minute light rail trip from the center of Perth.
Perth is a bustling super clean city with some great modern skyscrapers mixed well with the many heritage buildings still surviving. On my night of arrival, there was the big holiday parade on the street of my hotel. As it is summer, it was sort of like the Torchlight parade, but with Santa Claus themes.
I am off now back across the country to Melbourne where I start my driving part of the journey.
I did not do a blog on the Indian Pacific train trip as the one I did from last year seemed pretty complete. You can scroll way down to read that one if you would like.
I liked this contrast of old and new.
windows
Finally, a close up of some ‘roos! OK, they are metal, but look how life like!
One of the most creative “fountains” I have ever seen!
new rising beyond old
Entrance, Fremantle prison
One of the many cell blocks, sorted out essentially by type and severity of crime committed.
Carolers in Fremantle? Not sure what was going on.
As I wrote in the previous post, the Australian government just passed a “backpacker tax.” What in the world is that you say?
Let’s start with an analysis of basic geography. Looking at a map, it is clear that Australia is not connected to Mexico or anything else for that matter. The good news is that they do not have to build that wall, nor do they have to try to get Mexico to pay for it. The bad news is they do not have a source of cheap labor to do the work that they do not want to do. Like pick fruit, or clean hotel rooms, and such. So, they have a visa system that allows people, mostly young to come here on holiday, work for some time and actually get their visa extended as a result of the work they do. For instance, a remote hotel that I stayed in in Tasmania last year was staffed almost entirely by nice young French people. They work for some months, get lodging paid and some small amount of wage, and they are allowed to legally and financially extend their trip.
Amazingly, until this week, that income was not taxed! But, now it is. The bill started at 32% which seemed far too high, but they settled at 15%. As I understand it, if the people stay long enough they get some of it back, so it really seems reasonable and the young people interviewed were mostly OK with it.
Well, sorry to share this news, but we do not have a corner on all of the problems. (Yes, we may be in the lead, but others are with us…..)
Australia’s economic divide is strikingly similar. Economic growth in the cities has been at close to 4%, while most of the rest of the country is a zero or negative growth over the past 4-5 years. This is, of course, creating the similar situation as we have in the US. Lots of unhappy people with most of the urban population not really even fully aware of the problem.
The government seems dysfunctional, although not nearly to the same degree. The big challenge the past week was passing the final two bills so they could go on holiday. (Sound familiar?) So, what momentous legislation did they pass? An anti-union construction bill and a backpacker tax. (More on that later.) And, to make it really tough on us outsiders, even the party names make no sense. The Liberal party is actually the conservative one. Maybe a name change would be in order? Labor is the more typical liberal party.
And, if you have school age kids to take with you on your move, you really should take stock of the news of November 29th. The latest test results are in and Aussie kids rank BELOW Kazakhstan kids in reading and math. BELOW.
So, as you contemplate the new America, our mess is not just our mess. Others seem intent upon joining us. But, like us in general, the people here are very nice and friendly and welcoming to all guests.