Inside Perth’s COMO The Treasury: A decade of luxury redefined
When this landmark property opened its doors, it felt like Perth had come of age. We revisit to see if it has stood the test of time.
It’s rare for a hotel to sit astride a major city with such imperious ease that it acts as a nucleus, or even a magnet, which attracts not just guests but passers-by, CBD denizens and plain old stickybeaks. Some of the world’s greats in this rarefied category include Singapore’s Raffles, Penang’s E&O, Colombo’s Galle Face and Hong Kong’s Peninsula. These are places to take tea, meet friends, ogle the glorious architecture and enjoy moments of sanctuary and (of course) stickybeaking.
So when COMO The Treasury opened in Perth a decade ago, it could be said the West Australian capital came of age, at least in the universe of luxury accommodation. The conversion of the city’s pompous mid 19th-century state buildings, by Palassis Architects in the initial stages, then Perth architect Kerry Hill and his practice for restoration and interiors, was a game-changer. Surveyors-general, crown solicitors and administration bigwigs had all toiled in these glorious surrounds. Now it was open to one and all. Hill passed away in 2018 but the project reigns, an immutable tribute to his genius and vision. I had a phone chat with him in 2016 and he was agreeably modest and forthcoming. “It’s always about sensitivity,” he said.
This time round, I am in the city for just three nights, refreshing my knowledge and simultaneously hoping not too much has changed at this 48-room hotel set snug in the southwest corner of the monumental Cathedral Square precinct, which includes edifices such as St George’s Cathedral and Perth Town Hall. There have been layout tweaks and a reworking of food and beverage offerings by the Singapore-headquartered COMO group but the bones are there, solid and immutable.
The brand is well-known for the flair of design director Christina Ong, who never does things by half. “Close your eyes, clear your nostrils and walk this way,” I was told at COMO Canggu in Bali years ago as a staff member led me to the spa, where the house-brand COMO Shambhala products beckoned with scents of peppermint, eucalyptus, geranium and lavender. At all the group’s properties, from Tuscany to Turks & Caicos, you can “smell your way around” as a travelling companion once noted, and she was right.
And there’s consistency, too, in Ong’s trademark pale palette, the quality linens and on-trend lighting, and accessories such as Ploh combed cotton bathrobes, which easily eclipse all other brands. Spaces bloom with creativity, not clutter. Stay long enough and you’ll be a COMO convert. There’s never a jarring note. Cream is the new black, as it were.
I am ensconced in high-ceilinged Room 20, once an office (or perhaps two) and now the size of a small ballroom, with tall doors opening to a colonnade where there’s outdoor furniture, and my neighbouring rooms are shielded by tall potted plants so there’s both modesty and embrasure. Each chamber’s layout has been “dictated by the building’s existing bones”, according to the official spiel. Across the way is the multi-awarded City of Perth Library, also designed by Hill and his practice, in 2016. The curved, cylindrical architecture is brilliant, and there’s a sense of light and air and connectivity. It feels as much a cathedral for reading as it does a city’s living room and learning hub, filled not just with beautiful timbers and surfaces, but the possibility of great ideas and with latitude for both contemplation and conversation.
Taking in the further interior details of Room 20, the shower recess is the size of a car wash (a pixie vehicle, granted, but what a generous space), the freestanding tub demands serious soaking, bubbled up with zesty bath gel. On a platter sit four perfect green apples, polished to a see-your-face shine. A rippled glass vase holds spiky native leaves. Wildflower Bush tea bags lurk with the promise of “restorative deep sleep” come bedtime, thanks to calming herbs.
The leather straps that serve as handles on drawers and cupboards are so classy that just the idea of chrome seems way too crass. Even the lobby is not your usual check-in area with uniformed staff lined up at a long counter. Instead, there’s a plumply furnished Arrivals Lounge and intuitive receptionists who produce refreshments and settle guests in with mellow ease. More tea? Champagne? How about an extra slice of Fremantle’s layered Honeycake Original, hand-rolled and beyond delicious?
On the topic of comestibles, this property is as diverse as any food precinct and each restaurant has a head chef, which is rare. Executive chef Lucas Fernandes from Brazil oversees proceedings and guides me around Post and Petition. The former is a casual and convivial diner in the former GPO franking room, open for breakfast, lunch and dinner, with indoor-outdoor seating and an osteria-style menu. It feels very Italian, with faint echoes of the airy style of Milan’s celebrated Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II.
Petition is a neighbourhood fave with a buzzy vibe, and menu dishes cleverly staged as smalls, comestibles and substantials. In the middle category, a medley of burrata, pickled carrots, roast beetroot and pumpkin seed pesto is now my official desert island dish. I also peep inside Wine Merchant, which serves share plates to accompany a long list of premium drops curated by director of wine Emma Farrelly.
And then we head down into the lower courtyard, home to Long Chim, originally opened by Thai food authority David Thompson, who still has a hand in the menus. The forecourt is abuzz with the lunchtime crowd dining street-food style on colourful stools beside long tables under a fiesta of colourful parasols and fairy lights. The food is buzzing too, primarily with chillies. I recall Thompson calling these “scud missiles” ages ago, and he made me eat one whole and then collapsed laughing as my eyes watered and nose dripped. I have almost forgiven him. But with Fernandes, things are gentler and he demonstrates how to make the perfect papaya salad, involving therapeutic smashing with mortar and pestle.
In the fancypants realms of rooftop restaurant Wildflower, things are more sedate but just as enjoyable. This long glassy cube was hoisted up and over at Hill’s command just before the building was completed. It’s a fabulous folly, a sort of elegant eyrie from which to view segments of Perth’s skyline, swathes of parkland and the Swan River beyond. The decor is stark and streamlined, in soft greys with a highlight mural by Valerie Sparks featuring smudgy outlines of native trees found in the city’s Kings Park. A menu by new head chef Paul Wilson, with a diverse roll call of hospitality credits from destinations as varied as Copenhagen and Cairns, continues the original ethos of foraged fare across the six seasons of Australian Indigenous culture. Each plating in his tasting menus is an artwork, with invigorating flavour pops such as bunya nuts, green ants, desert limes and bush mint. The wine list is top class, and cocktails with names such as Fluorescence and Funky Runner are as on-trend as they sound. Then there’s the Shambhala Spa for superior facials, massages and therapies, and, high in the sky, a 20m heated lap pool protected by tall louvred window walls overlooking the square.
Or just loiter in the covered internal courtyard, exploring tiny shops such as Sue Lewis Chocolatier, where flavours such as lemon myrtle and wattle seed with honey rule in her crafted creations. The early morning queues for freshly roasted takeaway coffee are long and slightly pushy at Telegram, which locals hail as the city’s best. There’s a definite resonance in the idea of lining up for say, coffee originating in Ethiopia or Colombia, where in times past, citizens of Perth may have waited to post letters to pen pals in such equally exotic climes. Stamps of approval all around.
In the know
COMO The Treasury received top gongs for Best Accommodation, Metro; Environmental Services; and Hotel Wine List (Wildflower) in the recent The Australian Hotels Association (WA) Awards. Check website for seasonal rates and specials. Advance purchase deals of a minimum two nights include a $50 hotel credit to spend on site.
Susan Kurosawa was a guest of COMO The Treasury.
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