Three Things I Love: She lives and breathes great Perth experiences. Here are her go-tos

In this series, WAtoday reaches out to the Perth community to discover three things people love most about our coastal capital. Today we feature Chrissie Maus, speaker, marketer and company director. Formerly chief executive of Melbourne’s Chapel Street Precinct, she now heads Fremantle’s Chamber of Commerce, winning marketing and tourism awards for her work in both roles. She is chair of the board for the Stephen Michael Foundation supporting needy WA children, and board director for marketing and advocacy body Destination Perth. She has trekked 100 kilometres of the most remote parts of the Great Wall of China for charity, crewed a 30-foot yacht for 1000 kilometres from Melbourne to Sydney with only three others and achieved her Master Scuba Diver certificate.

Maus hosting the Fremantle Chamber of Commerce Awards; sailing; trekking the Great Wall of China; and achieving her Master Scuba Diver certificate on the Great Barrier Reef.

I love the Regent Ballroom on Aberdeen Street, Northbridge. I’m there two or three times a week, and I’m dancing my bronze ballroom exam in three weeks. I do ballroom, foxtrot, waltz, and the quickstep, and I’ll also do my Latin exam soon – jive, salsa and cha-cha. It’s got a younger demographic than most ballroom places, it is a gorgeous place to go – it’s where Ben Cousins trained when he was on Dancing with the Stars. It also has Riley White – the most patient dance partner, and also the Ballroom’s director.

I love Darling Darling, on Henry Street in Fremantle’s west end, a little bar that’s like nowhere else in the world. You can go in there any time of day and chuck peanut shells on the floor and enjoy the sailing paraphernalia, there is rope everyone and only a flap of leather separates it from the street. It is otherworldly. I love its bespoke types of whiskey. I can’t remember the name of my favourite drink, I just ask for the apple one. I just moved to Fremantle three weeks ago into a renovated building that’s more than 100 years old. It’s in one of Fremantle’s earliest warehouse conversions, done way before they were trendy; a tri-level loft apartment. It was once a furniture factory, and the conversion was designed by architect Brian Klopper. It’s a work of art in itself and I can walk to Fremantle Arts Centre, Fremantle Leisure Centre, supermarkets, restaurants, transport and the South Terrace cappuccino strip.

I absolutely love stand-up paddleboarding all around Fremantle. I had a spinal fusion a year or so ago and am lucky to be dancing again, you usually have to wait a whole year to do anything again. I have to wait another three months before I can get back on my SUP at Bathers Beach.

On my paddleboard, I can think straight: reflect on the week ahead and how to get the best out of my team. The weather in Perth is the best for SUPing, and anyone who tells you Perth does not have the best beaches in the world is lying. I lived mostly locked down in Melbourne for two years over COVID, so any time I am out in the Perth sunshine I thank my lucky stars I am living back here.

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