Visiting Perth, Australia: Top Sights on Foot
Things to Do in Perth: Exploring Western Australia’s Capital
Set on the Swan Coastal Plain between the Indian Ocean and the Darling Scarp, Perth is Australia’s fourth-largest city and the dynamic capital of Western Australia. Founded in 1829 by Captain James Stirling as the administrative centre of the Swan River Colony, the city has evolved from a quiet settlement into a vibrant regional hub with expansive parklands, rich colonial heritage, and a thriving cultural scene. Whether you are interested in historical landmarks, contemporary art, or modern waterfront spaces, Neywo offers a free audio guide for Perth featuring 34 narrated places to help you discover the city at your own pace.
What to See in Perth
Perth’s urban landscape blends historic architecture dating back to the 19th-century gold rushes and convict-era public works with striking modern installations.
Cultural Centre and Historic Landmarks
In Perth’s Cultural Centre, you will find the Western Australian Museum (WA Museum Boola Bardip), the state museum operating as a statutory authority under the Museum Act 1969, which officially opened in its current form in November 2020. Nearby stands the Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts (PICA), a lively venue for contemporary visual and performance art housed in a heritage-listed building from 1895–97 that originally served as the Perth Boys and Girls School.
Religious and civic heritage is dotted throughout the streets. On Victoria Avenue, St John’s Pro-Cathedral is Perth’s earliest Roman Catholic church, built of brick covered with Portland cement and featuring arched windows and buttresses. In the heart of the city on St Georges Terrace, St George’s Cathedral serves as the principal Anglican church, designed in the Victorian Academic Gothic style by architect Edmund Blacket. Meanwhile, the grand St Mary’s Cathedral sits at the center of Victoria Square, a site named Church Hill by surveyor John Septimus Roe in 1839 or 1840, featuring a striking curved expansion and second spire added during a restoration completed in 2009.
Nearby on St Georges Terrace, Government House and Grounds has served as the official residence of the Governor of Western Australia since the Swan River Colony was established, with the current Jacobean Revival house built between 1859 and 1864. You can also spot Barracks Arch, a striking remnant of the original government barracks building, and visit the Museum of Perth, a private, non-profit museum housed on Murray Street that chronicles the city’s social, cultural, and architectural history.
Modern Public Art and Waterfront Spaces
Perth also embraces contemporary design and public art. At Elizabeth Quay, Spanda rises 29 metres tall as an abstract, minimalist public art installation by Australian-born artist Christian de Vietri, evoking an ever-expanding vibrational pattern. In Forrest Place, you can encounter Grow Your Own, a large-scale, bright green abstract sculpture created by artist James Angus and unveiled in 2011, as well as Judith Forrest’s 2006 sculpture Pieces of Leisure. Sports fans will find Perth Rectangular Stadium (HBF Park) just near the central business district, a 20,500-capacity venue that hosts rugby and football matches.
Explore Perth with Neywo
To make the most of your visit, download Neywo and explore the city with a Perth self-guided walking tour. The app includes 3 walking tours and 1 bus route:
- Perth’s Cultural Centre: From Yagan Square to the Old Gaol: A 2.6 km walk taking 90 minutes across 10 stops.
- Hay Street Stories: Arch, Theatres and Colonial Churches: A 2.15 km walk taking 71 minutes across 8 stops.
- Swan River to the Cathedrals: A 2.33 km walk taking 83 minutes across 10 stops.
- Blue CAT: Perth’s Free City Bus from the Old Barracks to Yagan Square: A 6.7 km bus route taking 29 minutes across 5 stops.
Each story plays automatically as you reach the place, allowing you to walk entirely at your own pace with no group and no schedule, with narration available in 11 languages.
When you are ready to continue your journey across the region, discover nearby destinations such as Fremantle, Mandurah, Bunbury, Busselton, Albany, Esperance, Australind, and Broome, or learn more about Australia as a whole.
Places with an audio guide in Perth
8 places in Perth with a Neywo audio guide. Each one starts telling its story as you reach it.
Self-guided tours in Perth
4 tours in Perth, free in the Neywo app. Each stop tells its story as you reach it.
- Bus ride
Blue CAT: Perth's Free City Bus from the Old Barracks to Yagan Square
The Blue CAT is Perth's free Central Area Transit bus, running between Kings Park and the Perth Busport. Ride it past the last arch of the old barracks, down to the river at Barrack Square, then through the Cultural Centre with the old gaol and Northbridge's Lutheran church, ending at the lively Yagan Square.
Barracks Arch · Barrack Square · Perth Gaol · St John's Lutheran Church · Yagan Square
Open this tour: Blue CAT: Perth's Free City Bus from the Old Barracks to Yagan Square - Walk
Perth's Cultural Centre: From Yagan Square to the Old Gaol
Start at a lively public square named for an Aboriginal warrior, then walk through Perth's Cultural Centre. You pass a lime-green sculpture locals call the Cactus, a theatre honouring Heath Ledger, an 1890s school turned art institute, the state art gallery, the convict-era gaol and the state museum, and end at a Lutheran church in Northbridge. Beyond the church it continues to the oldest mosque in Perth and ends at the sculpture Pieces of Leisure.
Grow Your Own · Yagan Square · State Theatre Centre of Western Australia · Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts · Art Gallery of Western Australia · Western Australian Museum …
Open this tour: Perth's Cultural Centre: From Yagan Square to the Old Gaol - Walk
Hay Street Stories: Arch, Theatres and Colonial Churches
Follow the western end of St Georges Terrace and Hay Street through Perth's early history. See the last arch of a government barracks, an Edwardian theatre built as Australia's largest, the site of a glittering lost cinema with a famous kissed bust, and two of the oldest church buildings in the city. The walk ends at the address of the demolished Grand Theatre on Murray Street.
Barracks Arch · First Church of Christ, Scientist, Perth · Museum of Perth · His Majesty's Theatre · Wesley Church, Perth · Capitol Theatre, Perth …
Open this tour: Hay Street Stories: Arch, Theatres and Colonial Churches - Walk
Swan River to the Cathedrals
Begin on the river at Elizabeth Quay and Barrack Square, then climb up St Georges Terrace past the Governor's residence and Perth's Anglican cathedral, then across the site of the Playhouse to St Andrew's Church and St Georges Hall. Continue to the Brutalist concert hall and end at two Catholic landmarks side by side: the oldest Catholic church in Western Australia and the cathedral of Victoria Square.
Spanda · Barrack Square · Government House and Grounds · St George's Cathedral, Perth · The Playhouse Theatre · St Andrew's Church …
Open this tour: Swan River to the Cathedrals
Walk Perth with Neywo
Neywo turns Perth into a self-guided audio tour. Stories arrive as you reach the place they belong to, and the route reshapes when you wander off it.
