Perth’s hot new hotel is a former carpark
Why new additions to the food, wine and design scene mean the WA capital should be your next holiday destination.
As I depart downtown Perth for the Wonil Hotel 5km away, I have questions. Such as, why would you leave the city centre to stay on the grounds of the University of Western Australia in a spot that was, until recently, known as Carpark 23?
On arrival, I ponder this as I get busy inspecting my hotel room – one of 66 – in the new wing of UWA’s Forrest Hall.
This low-rise precinct is otherwise dedicated to housing university scholars, along with newly separated billionaires Andrew “Twiggy” and Nicola Forrest’s philanthropic organisations – Forrest Research Foundation, which brings brainiacs from around the world to five WA universities and also funded the precinct’s construction, and Minderoo Foundation.
The development was designed by Kerry Hill Architects – fitting, given that the late Perth-born, Singapore-based Hill was one of UWA’s early architecture graduates.
Anyone who has stayed at Hill’s landmark properties, such as The Lalu Hotel overlooking Taiwan’s Sun Moon Lake, will feel a thrill of recognition at the Wonil’s sustainable design features.
They include naturally ventilated walkways, stone screens and green “walls” that filter light and noise.
It is brisk on my balcony but it offers a decent view over a rowing-boat shed and sailing club fronting the Swan River’s Matilda Bay, along with a peek at distant skyscrapers.
Back inside, the room is all restrained lines and palette (tan, grey, white), which brings a Scandinavian sensibility to mind. The only frippery is one of those sliding bathroom walls that always reveals a bit too much.
Although the Wonil (an Indigenous word for peppermint tree) is operated by Accor, taxi drivers don’t always have it on their radar. Nevertheless, one finds me waiting in the subterranean drop-off area and runs me into town.
I have just enough time for a squiz through WA Museum Boola Bardip’s colour-coded floors before it closes for the day. On my must-see list here is Otto – the 24m-long blue whale skeleton that dangles from a ceiling.
There’s also an impressive dinosaur display and other sections devoted to pink diamonds, Indigenous culture and more.
I’m about to dive into the capital’s urban culture, thanks to a private walking tour with Robyn Ennis from Oh Hey WA, a tour company founded by her sister, Adie Chapman. To be honest, the prospect of trudging the streets for 2½ hours after a long day feels daunting but Ennis is so effervescent that I’m swept up in her enthusiasm.
We meet in Forrest Place at the James Angus sculpture nicknamed the Big Cactus (it even has a Twitter account). Officially, it’s a representation of a living organism.
After ticking off more quirks and artworks – hidden down laneways or in plain sight – it’s time to rehydrate at the first of two bar stops.
Walk through a red telephone box on Barrack St and you’ll find yourself in the subterranean Alfred’s Pizzeria, which slings pizza until 11.45pm (Sydney, take note) and a WA-centric range of craft beers. Its spirits list is also strong, as is the case at our final stop.
We take the long way around to the glass-walled, greenery-fringed Terrarium, via Elizabeth Quay Bridge and some guerilla street-art installations. By now, I’ve worked up an appetite.
Ennis and I part ways and I head towards Cooee Perth. The riverfront restaurant, which opened at the Old Swan Brewery site in late 2020, is owned by Twiggy’s Tattarang private investment group that’s also based here.
I don’t see him tucking into dinner but the service is my idea of perfect: relaxed but serious when it comes to which wine – (a rose from Si Vintners in Margaret River) works best with my rather large order of focaccia with whipped eggplant, Shark Bay cuttlefish dressed with nduja, grilled zucchini with tahini and black sesame, crispy brussels sprouts with goat cheese.
Although it’s dark as I work through all this deliciousness, I’d earlier clocked a sight along the foreshore that prompts me to set an early alarm. I must snap the Crawley Edge Boatshed, also known as the Blue Boat House (the colour was the idea of fashionista and former politician Julie Bishop).
At the crack of dawn, I’m up and power-walking along a circuit that first takes me through the southern tip of Kings Park and Botanic Garden. Larger than New York’s Central Park at 400ha, Kings Park incorporates a swathe of natural bushland as well as cultivated gardens. At Dryandra Lookout, I pause to watch rowers pulling through the river.
Before returning to the Wonil to wolf down one of the prettiest avo smashes you’ll ever see, I cross the park’s Forrest Drive (in Perth, it’s not like you can’t see the Forrest for the trees).
With more time, I could have traced this road towards Kings Park’s city end where there’s a statue of the state’s first premier and Twiggy’s great-grand-uncle, Sir John Forrest.
Sir John was also first president of the Kings Park Board and is remembered for doubling the size of the reserve and influencing its initial design.
One early proposal was that UWA should be located within the park – an idea that was dropped in 1914. It was the first of many attempts to excise some of this parkland for other purposes.
I wish I had time for more park highlights – such as the giant boab that transfixed the state in 2008 as it took a 3200km road trip from Warmun, in the Kimberley, to its new location near Forrest Carpark – but that would require a longer stay at the Wonil.
And then it dawns on me why you would stay in a former carpark 5km from the city: its location is actually pretty smart.
In the Know
Rooms at the Wonil Hotel Perth start from $218 a night. The hotel’s West Kitchen & Bar now offers all-day dining. Wonil’s net revenue is reinvested into the Forrest Research Foundation. Oh Hey! WA offers walking tours and tailored private tours.
Cooee Perth is open daily.
Katrina Lobley was a guest of Tourism Western Australia.
