Perth, Western Australia: Gosnells Parks and Railway Markets - Day 11

Gosnells City Council has always been supportive of the arts to the point where
you can see many examples of public art throughout the town centre.

Gosnells the suburb, or even the City of Gosnells, isn't really a destination at the forefront of anyone's mind when visiting Perth. Even now, after so much money has been spent on making pleasing community spaces and facilities, in the 24 years since I moved back to South Australia.

It's certainly a much more pleasant looking place to live now than it was during the years I grew up there, from the age of eight. My family moved there from South Australia (after a brief eight month stay in Kelmscott while we waited for our house in Gosnells to be built) at the beginning of 1978.

Today's plans were for my mum and I to catch up for lunch and do a bit of a walk around Gosnells - where she still lives - though not in the original house we had built, which was sold years ago.

Usually it's a chance for me to see what's changed since the last time I was there, but since it wasn't that long ago, relatively speaking, other than a new community park space, near the railway station, it looked mostly the same.

Dome Cafe

Mum and I walked to the Gosnells Dome Cafe, which is really quite nice inside, with full leather style armchair seats at some tables as well as proper booth seats and couches.

Mum shouted me lunch. We both had ham and cheese toasties with potato chips and tomato salsa dip, along with a cup of tea. I'd definitely recommend it. The food was nice and the dining area makes the whole experience feel more up market than the prices suggest.

The Agonis Centre
Clock Tower.

Agonis Centre

We then walked down to the Agonis centre, which is a bit of a landmark with its fairly modern looking clock tower. Inside, just in front of where the library - sorry, the Knowledge Centre - is, there is a permanent display giving a history of the area. 

Then, out the back of the centre we made our way around, what is a kind of tree top walk, down to the playground, community stage/amphitheatre, and river board walk that is very nice for some light exercise or if you're into nature photography.

Treetop walkway (along the back) that leads down to the playground and
parkland behind the Agonis Centre.

The Gosnells Railway Markets

From there Mum and I made our way back to the Gosnells Railway Market, passing through the new open space park, that wasn't there before, just in front of the railway station.

The Market seemed very empty for a Friday afternoon. Many shops inside were closed and there didn't seem to be much going on in the food hall. Unless the weekends are better I suspect the markets won't be open too many more years (or maybe it will?).

These Markets were actually opened a few years before I left Perth. Not sure of the exact year (1991 I think since that's when the train (image below) was placed inside)? The market did start off strong, with a busy food hall, fruit and veg market, and a good selection of variety stalls selling typical market type items, books, clothing, bric-a-brac etc.

This Dd 596 Steam Locomotive sits between the food court and the main market area. It's
representative of the trains that used to travel the line through Gosnells up until 1968.

I think the hope was that they would help make Gosnells a weekend destination (since they are only open Thursday through Sunday). Unfortunately they never really attracted much more than the local market. I think they were hoping for something like The Fremantle Market, which I have never known not to be packed, and challenging just to walk around for the sheer number of shoppers.

As I said, Gosnells is not really a destination anyone thinks of when visiting Perth. Even people who live in the surrounding suburbs, I suspect, rarely ever make Gosnells a destination for a day out.

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Anyway, that was day 11 of my trip to Perth. Mum and I went back to her place to relax with a cup of tea, before I headed off to visit my brother, who lives a suburb over in Maddington, for a couple of hours.

My partner, Enigma, spent the day with my Dad's partner, taking a trip out to Hillary's Boat Harbour, where there is a similar, but more successful market out on the jetty.