These hopping kangaroos, along with another 'roo drinking out of the fountain, are outside Council House (municipal office building) and are popular with tourists and locals alike.
This starts a Hollywood Blvd. Walk of Fame-style trek through downtown of Western Australia's own stars of commerce, politics, sports, agriculture, charity, public service and general glitterati. This keeps more than a few tourists with their nose to the ground instead looking ahead.
Here we have Perth's first bishop, Matthew Hale, preserved for all time welcoming boys to his downtown school. The building is now repurposed as the new building moved to some prime real estate closer to the ocean. Hale School remains to this day a very illustrious institution for boys.
At the main shopping area of the CBD [Central Business District=downtown], the statues get livelier as do the people. Street performers entertain the shopping crowds. An aboriginal man with his didgeridoo, a mime, a guitar player, even a man who rolls in his stand-up piano on a wheeled dolly. The tips must be good or how else could the opera singer still remain smiling through her fifth rendition of "Nessun Dorma" in one hour? It is a powerful, if subconscious, lift to the psyche of people walking about the shopping area.
There are a couple of these gum nut (from native eucalypt trees) fountains to be found in the center of traffic circles. Traffic circles are not rare and the challenge becomes how to make them noticeable and unique. Many have a large tree in that center island but I like fountains, whether water is running from it or not.
Some may see community art as a superfluous bit of expensive fluff, but Perth proves there is real public value in it.
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