Western Australia celebrates

Press, 8 December 1987, Page 47

Western Australia celebrates

While many of the pioneering events of the Australian Bicentennial will be celebrated in the eastern states, the celebrations will involve the entire country. Western Australia, for example, is taking an active role in bicentennial happenings. According to Garry Hanstead at the Western Australian Tourism Commission’s office in Auckland, New Zealanders visiting the West next year can be assured of a variety of exciting extras.

The Festival of Perth is one example of special activities related to the bicentenary. Running from February 12, through to March 5, it will include three major features involving funds from the Australian Bicentennial Authority. These are the Chicago Symphony Orchestra with its , musical director Sir Georg Solti and guest conductor Michael TilsonThomas; the Centre International de Creations Theatrales directed by Peter Brook, presenting his new nine-hour production of the epic Indian legend “The Maha-

bharata”; and the Twyla Tharp Dance Company from New York.

Another Bicentenary special at the Festival of Perth will be an exhibition of 71 paintings entitled, “Old Masters, New Visions,” from the Phillips Collection, Washington D.C.

This includes Renoir’s “The Luncheon of the Boating Party,” which collector Duncan Phillips described as “one of the great pictures of the world ... every inch of the canvas is alive and worth framing for itself.” Other highlights will include a season of the fastpaced musical “Starlight Express” at the huge superdome within the Burswood Island Resort (which also includes Perth’s casino). Starlight Express (May 17-29) has an extraordinary high-tech set built in Japan, with its actors and actresses moving about on roller skates as they sing. The bicentenary is coming early to the West. A number of the tall ships visit’ng Australia for the Hobart-Sydney race and the Sydney Harbour parade of sail will call at Fremantle from December 8-12. The vessels will not only make an impressive sight, but will also be open to visitors.

Ships sailing on the First Fleet re-enactment voyage from Portsmouth to Sydney will also be in Fremantle during December.

A number of other maritime activities will also feature in Western Australia’s bicentenary programme.;

At the Western Australian Maritime Museum in Fremantle, a new permanent exhibition has been developed to present the state’s rich maritime heritage.

The museum is housed in an historic commissariat building, constructed in the 1850 s with convict labour.

It is widely regarded as having the finest maritime archaeological collection in Australia and is internationally renowned for its underwater archaeological expeditions.

Underwater marvels created by nature are also highlighted by one of the most enthusiastically acclaimed bicentenary moves; the creation of a national maritime park to protect the Ningaloo Reef. The Ningaloo Reef stretches for about 260 kilometres along Western Australia’s central coast

and rivals the better known Great Barrier Reef in Queensland for colourful coral, fish and other marinelife.

Its big advantage is that, unlike the Great Barrier Reef, it is very close to shore. Creation of a national marine park will stop indiscriminate fishing and coral and shell collecting on the reef. An interpretative centre is being built at Milyering, south of Exmouth.

An interesting Bicentenary activity which will appeal to many New Zealand visitors is the registration, mapping and signposting of a network of trails.

These include perfume trails, stock routes, environment walks, and even underwater shipwreck trails.

Other activities include an extension to the popular Golden Mile Museum in Kalgoorlie (housed in a former pub), a new lookout tree in the timbertown of Pemberton, restoration of the Round House in Fremantle (Western Australia’s oldest building and a familiar sight to all Kiwis who visited for the America’s Cup) and restoration of the impressive gun battery on Rottnest Island.

Several conventions, seminars and other meetings in' Perth are also included on the Bicentenary calendar of events. For example, several medical conferences have been promoted in New Zealand. Others include an international astrologers conference in January, the Association of Commonwealth Universities 14th Quinquennial Congress in February and a specialist technical conference on geotechnology in March.

During its tour around Australia, the Australian Bicentennial Exhibition will be in the West from late March through to the middle of May, stopping in Kalgoorlie, Albany, Bunbury, Perth, Geraldton and Port Hedland.