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12th June 2008.
First went to Mandurah when we arrived in Australia about 22 years ago and it was just a small bush town a few hours from Perth. It is now under an hours drive and has boomed into a thriving metropolis and millionaires paradise with houses on the canals and mega-buck boats moored on the private jetties.
The original town as we knew it and the streets have changed so much, it's hard to recognise the place, but that's progress and everything we remember as it was, has now gone. The new Marina apartments start at around 2 million dollars plus.
The Canals:
We went on a guided Canal tour and this was a real eye opener. 4 to 5 million dollar homes with their own private jetty, their own private boat moored at the back door and some of the boats have a 2.5 million dollar price tag. Where do people get so much money from??
Most of the tour operators told us the same thing "they have never seen any people at the houses during their tours and they have never seen a boat move". Maybe they're all models?
We were shown a small block vacant block that had just sold for 2 million dollars. Conditions of sale in the canals is, you have to build a house that costs more than the price of the block! Then shown another block with the original old shack that the original owners had lived in since new and purchased for 50 pounds many years ago, it sold a few weeks ago for 3 million dollars. That's what I call a good investment :) But, how can you build a house for in excess of 3 million dollars???????? Recommended tour.
Abingdon Miniature Village:
Seen the sign a few times before whilst passing through Mandurah, but decided to stop there this time and it was well worth the stop. A couple inspired by another miniature village they'd seen elsewhere, decided to build their own and they've done an awesome job of it. Another recommended tour.
Life On The Road:
Getting closer to Perth and really looking forward to catching up with family and friends again.
Been on the road for around 5 weeks now and have learn't so much about travelling oz and travellling videography.
It's been a totally different ball game to what we've done in the past. Corporate video and stills photography is so planned and structured. Now we've had to get used to remembering to record every experience, good and bad, and that's taking some adapting too, but we're getting there.
Off to Perth in the morning and looking forward to catching up with family and friends :) |
Our Trip 
