Describing Perth as to how it most often appears in my dreams
Sijie Liang
Perth CBD/City of Perth
Where St George’s/Adelaide Terrace starts is where the CBD usually starts for me in my dream. Many of the street/road names are the same, the ones that I can remember ie St George’s/Adelaide Terrace, Wellington Street, Barrack Street, Hay Street, Victoria Street, William Street etc. But that’s pretty much it in terms of similarities or recognisability. Frankly it probably looks more like Birnin Zana, the city in Wakanda than it does the Perth CBD. :P
Those streets aren’t the paved/asphalt streets in the real-world Perth, but are narrower with cobblestone and more windy.
Street signs and shop names used to be in Chinese, English and sometimes German for whatever reason. However since I’ve learned some Noongar language in the past 5 years or so, Noongar is included often now and even replaces the English sometimes ie “Mandjarli-miya” (Bread-house) for Bakery/Patisserie. “Mangka-miya” (Tea-house) for well Teahouse or Café. Some real world Noongar names show up because I’ve seen them so many times in the past few years like Derbal Yerigan (The Swan River), Moort-ak Waadiny (Wellington Square), Matagarap (the section of river near the Optus Stadium which also has a bridge named after it) and Boola Bardip (The WA Museum)
East Perth
For years, maybe a decade, there was this frequently recurring mystery place that would appear in my dreams. I couldn’t recognise it at all but it felt like Perth. It registered as a suburb of Perth as I would often to travel to it from other suburbs that I did recognise. I didn’t know where exactly it was though. It was quite a pretty suburb, it was fairly densely populated, it had nice tree cover, it was relatively walkable and had a waterfront. The architecture style was in something vaguely modern contemporary “European”(for lack of a better term). Quite a few townhouses and tall-ish multi-storey buildings. I never gave this mystery place much importance but I guess it was pleasant enough to be in my dreams and not my nightmares. I never bothered to try and figure out where this place was or at least what were the major influences on it.
Recently, a friend moved to East Perth, so I’ve visited that area quite often in the past 2 years. On one of our walks around the area, I was more mindfully taking in the surroundings and I realised “Mystery Place” was just East Perth all along. I even said it out loud to my friend, “This is the place from my dreams!” XD
I wonder how East Perth incepted into my mind before I started visiting it regularly. I don’t know. I’m thinking that I’ve probably been through the area several times in the past but just forgot.
Balcatta
I think I can count the number of times I’ve been to Balcatta in real life on one hand. There’s just not a real reason for me, to go up that way, unless it’s to go to the tip shop or to look around at one of the furniture stores. So it’s kind of a blank canvas.
Weirdly, in my dreams, I’ve been to Balcatta quite a few times. Lots of weird red brick Saracenic architecture everywhere. There’s a giant bazaar district. I’ve bumped into aliens and interacted with them quite a few times. There are lots of narrow laneways with shisha bars, some well hidden and not so well hidden speakeasies, small eateries as well as random shrines to random gods. Like something out of Star Wars, frankly. At that point, there’s no recognisable connection at all with the real life Balcatta. Once in a dream, I worked for a “Beautiful Balcatta” tourism campaign. I was in an ad, showing visitors, humans and aliens, the exciting exotic sights of Balcatta.
TL:DR version: Not really Balcatta as we know. Red bricks. Bazaars. Speakeasies. Shrines. Tourists. Aliens, like lots of aliens.
KGB (Koondoola-Girrawheen-Balga) and Mirrabooka
I’m gonna keep it real with you. I only really go into this area for it’s Viet food. So that’s pretty much my whole mental association with the area. How does this area show up in my dreams?
It’s like neighbourhoods and bits and pieces of Saigon/Ho Chi Minh City that I remember from my trips there but there’s far less trash on the ground and far less smog in the air. The Viet trees and plants transform into native ones like eucalypts and wattles. But it still pretty much looks like Saigon. The street and business signs have Viet, Noongar, Chinese and English on them.
Even in my dreams, I go to the KGB to eat. XD A lot of awkward first dates and successful business meetings with aliens were in a KGB pho restaurant. XD
Sometimes I’ll see and visit African restaurants and shops there in my dreams. I do remember, in real life, seeing a few in that area when driving around. In real life, there was an Ethiopian restaurant “Injera House” in Mirrabooka that I went to several times. Unfortunately I saw on their Facebook page, that they have closed permanently. ☹
Weirdly enough, I also remember going to a Gaeilge (Irish language) café and bookstore in Dream Mirrabooka and having a conversation with the owners in Gaeilge. Well, conversation is stretching it. I ordered a sandwich and cup of tea, and asked the owners which books they liked. :P
TL:DR version: Viet food. Transplanted Viet architecture. Aliens. Some African stuff. Some Irish language.
Northbridge
Northbridge is the boring exception to the rule of craziness. It's pretty much the same as real-life Northbridge and what I associate with it. That is Asian food and a vibrant night life. It's more built up and densely populated but I think my subconscious left it alone for the most part.
Vic Park
I attended much of my schooling in Vic Park, so the Vic Park of my schooling days is the one that is predominant in my dreams. But there are bits and bobs of the present-day Vic Park scattered throughout, like the Malaysian breakfast spot on Lenard St or Crow Books on Albany Highway. There’s more urban greenery and gardens about, as well as a lot more civic spaces. There are also huge swathes of Dream Vic Park with abandoned buildings and infrastructure, swallowed up by nature, which seems to be fairly common throughout Dream Perth. Maybe some sort of Grand Eco-Restoration or maybe the Aliens did it. Who knows. XD
Morley
Another place that I really only associate with food or shopping. Morley has yet to be explored in real-life or in my dreams. My exploration has been limited to the main central shopping/dining area that includes Coventry Village, Morley Markets (RIP 😞), Morley Galleria as well as quite a few nice Viet restaurants. Any straying from that area probably has been to visit friends who live or used to live in that area. If I strain to recall any further details, it pretty much shares common things with the rest of Dream Perth. In that it’s denser, greener, has good public transport, has more people, has more civic space, has some aliens out and about.
Belmont
I’d say as opposed to some of the other suburbs where I went balls out weird, Belmont remains fairly recognizable in my dreams. I mean Signal Hill Bushland is much larger, like much larger, I think I just have it swallow up the whole area along Belgravia Street up until Miles Park. There’s a delightful Mangka-miya inside Signal Hill Bushland that brews amazing tea and coffee, and bakes delicious breads and pastries. I once waited out a rain storm in that Mangka-miya, nursing a hot cup of Lemon Myrtle Tea and a slice of Purple Yam Cake. Jimmy the mailman also came into the shelter of the Mangka-miya, leaving his poor carrier Diprotodon (those died out like 40000 years ago or some shit) outside to soak in the rain.
There are noodle, dumpling and congee shops next to my house. Not just generic noodles, dumplings or congee either. But very specific regional specialties. Like Yunnanese Spicy Rice Noodles and Shanghainese Pan-Fried Dumplings. Whereas in reality, there’s no such thing.
I upgraded the infrastructure a bit, there’s a convenient light rail network throughout Belmont and the buses are pretty nice too.
Giant Starships are being constructed where the airport is. I’ll be in dream Belmont sometimes in front of my house and I’ll look out that way and I can see something that looks like the Enterprise that is something like 85% done.
Years ago I was obsessed with all things Brazil and weirdly watched a lot of things set in the favelas (shantytowns) of Rio. In my dreams, the whole area along Hardey Road was pretty much a favela. During that time, I must have also come across that factoid about Brazil having the largest Japanese population outside of Japan, because for a while there was also a pretty sizeable Little Japan/Japantown in that Hardey Road favela. Centenary Park as well as the name “Hardey Road” itself were still in the dreams. In recent years, some Dream gentrifiers must have got a hold of Dream Hardey Road because it increasingly resembles the boring real life Hardey Road, the favelas and Little Japan are slowly disappearing. ☹ Maybe I need to watch more Brazilian stuff again to stop the gentrifiers. XD
Weirdly enough, despite having a starship construction yard, I see no aliens around Dream Belmont. Maybe I’m a racist NIMBY hypocrite, the aliens can be in all the other suburbs and I’ll even grit my teeth and do a tourist campaign for “Beautiful” Balcatta with them but they’re not allowed in Belmont?
Okay yeah, Poor Belmont, I mean I didn’t decimate it like I did the CBD or Balcatta, but I still did some weird shit to it. XD
TL:DR version: Kiiiinda still Belmont? More bushland. Extinct megafauna brought back to life. Better more diverse food and transport options. Starship construction yard. Favelas that are being gentrified. Weirdly no aliens, possibly due to internalized xenophobia.
Bentley
My real-life experience of Bentley is pretty much restricted to Curtin Uni, Bentley Tafe, a former workplace and the Karawara Shopping Centre (even though I think that Karawara is technically a separate suburb). Apart from those specific locations, it's almost always a place I'm driving through on the way to somewhere else. And in my dreams, it seems Bentley is pretty much the same. No aliens, no nature swallowing it up, no handy mass transit, no interesting architecture, no speakeasies. Strangely ossified in a way, perhaps it's meant to be.
Walyalap Fremantle
I go down to Freo in real life maybe 2-3 times a month. To visit friends, go to the markets, go to the beach or to just have a wander around with no particular goal in mind. I think the architecture and general port city vibe is pretty cool, there's always something interesting going on. If I strain to recall how it presents in my dreams, my subconscious hasn't really fucked with it that much. You know, better mass transit, more greenery, a bit denser in parts, aliens out and about. That's about it really.
Here's an interesting dream Journal entry dated 27/09/2017 where Fremantle is briefly mentioned where I lie about my ethnicity for a free cuppa 😝:
(Recurring theme/setting: Alternate mixed-up Perth. Recognisable Perth of the past and of the present mashed together with some futuristic elements but also with more density. Architectural influences from all over the world. Definitely a lot more Asian in general.)
At an small open air cafe, chatting with the workers. Mention that I'm on my way to see the "Water Tower Temple". One of the workers with a huge grin asks if I'm going because I'm Nepali as he is also Nepali and goes often. For some odd reason, I respond that I'm part Nepali, part Ladakh. He seems very happy and refills my cup of coffee. A cute woman comes up to me and says she overheard my plans to go to the temple and asks if she can accompany me. I have no problems with the suggestion obviously.
A bit later at the Water Tower Temple, shoes off before entering. Beautiful place, like a mixture of a mosque, a Buddhist temple, a Hindu temple and a Cathedral with lots of water features. I meet the same cute woman again in the shoe area, we briefly chat for a bit. Wander around the city for a bit more, tall old buildings, mixed architectural influences from around the world.
See a docks area in the distance reminiscent of Fremantle. Do a bit of Parkour in what looks like an area slated for demolition. Get some pointers from another bloke doing parkour, on how to scale a wall more efficiently. A bit later, still wandering around the place. Gradually there's a few less tall buildings, and it opens up with parkland and urban farms. I walk into one of these urban farms which grows a lot of fruit. A kind woman working at the farm asks me if I'd like to buy anything. I tell her that I'll grab some grapes and apples. The dream kind of faded out after that.
Guildford/Midland
I've visited Guildford and Midland very sparingly throughout the years both in real life and in my dreams. I don't have a super strong impression of it, negative or positive. I do find it's mixture of old colonial era architecture with more modern buildings pretty interesting, but other than that, it's another sort of blank canvas for the subconscious.
Here's a dream Journal entry dated 29/02/2022 that was set in Guildford but I suspect the Guildford in the dream would look very different to that of real-life:
I go to a Auslan catch-up at the "South Guildford Hotel" It was a restaurant overlooking the river and a big road bridge. It was fun chatting and hanging out. There was even some slightly drunken dancing. 😂 I saw a lot of familiar faces, from Tafe as well folks that usually show up to real-life Auslan catch-ups. Afterwards I walked around the area outside of the restaurant.
I met up with some African friends, I can't remember if a specific country of origin was mentioned. The friends were unrecognisable to me but they seemed quite friendly and familiar with me. They knew my name, we had a strong rapport.
We hung out for a bit and then they said they had to leave and meet with someone important.
I continued exploring the area. It had strong vibrant African, Indian and Aboriginal cultural influences. It also weirdly had some cyberpunk/futuristic elements too like extremely modded cars parked on the street like the ones seen in the game Cyberpunk 2077, and holo-displays for various different media projected onto buildings and footpaths.
I visited a store for a short bit, I don't remember the name of the store but I remember it was part bookstore, part art-store and part café. It had stuff from various Aboriginal cultures, the books in various Aboriginal languages, among them Noongar of course. I had a brief but interesting conversation with the shop owner in mostly Noongar language. At the end of the conversation though, the shop-owner told me in English that they were closing up early as he had a feeling things were about to get hot in the area and suggested that I should go home too.
I walked out of the café and noticed that the atmosphere of the area had indeed become tense. I pulled out a weird long yellow rod from behind my back, pressed a button on it and it quickly transformed into a hover scooter of some sort, it had no wheels. I hopped on and rode towards the big road bridge. As I was riding, I started hearing a whole bunch of doors being locked and shutters being rolled down. And then faint distant machine gun fire and some screaming. The dream faded out after that.
Kalamunda/The Hills
In real life, I almost always head up this way to go on hikes or to visit a friend who lives in the area. So Kalamunda and the Hills in my dreams is mostly forest and bushland, probably eternally set in the wetter seasons of Makuru and Djilba, my favourite part of the year at least for hiking and nature-watching. Lots of vibrant wildflowers, lots of wildlife, babbling brooks and waterfalls. Probably an alien or two or robots or uplifted sentient animals that are also out for a hike. If built up areas do show up, from what I recall, there's a sort of dense old cobblestone city vibe with mixed architecture, “Global architecture” if you will. Like a less hokey version of Las Vegas or Disneyland 😜 I don't recall seeing the actual built bits of Kalamunda.
Here's an interesting dream journal entry from 12/11/2022 that mentions Kalamunda:
A Perth Asian Food Lovers meet up in the Perth Hills, up Kalamunda way. Spot of hiking, spot of markets. There was also a party in a restaurant inside a private room. I remember taking a few hits from someone's joint.😂 Wandered around "Kalamunda" afterwards, it looked different to the real life Kalamunda. A bit dense and built up but with very old buildings and cobblestone walkways. I stopped off at a small ice cream shop located underneath a stone staircase. Got something with mango and avocado in it. Dream faded out around then.
Driving and Traveling Around
If you thought real-life driving in Perth was horrible, driving in Dream Perth is a nightmare. A lot of the roads are crumbling and being taken over by nature. What road network still exists is awfully dense with lots of sharp turns. For some reason, there are lots of very steep hilly roads in my dreams that I stupidly try to tackle with a scooter or my old Toyota Seca, which ends up just crapping itself half the time. The freeways don’t make sense at all and really just serve as the stage for overly elaborate car chase scenes. I’ve been chased by the police and have ended up in the Derbal Yerrigan/Swan River a disturbing number of times. Car physics in Dream Perth resembles those of GTA, cars can crash into each other or into a railing, fly and flip through the air, land and still be good to go right afterwards.
If you actually need to get anywhere and in one piece safely, you’re better off taking the hyper-futuristic, very lovely, cheap and extensive mass rapid transit network that runs throughout Perth that is also linked to a global network. In one dream, I took the “Sky-Train” at Perth City Station, bought a $10 ticket for a 2 hour long trip to Germany to visit a friend.
TLDR: Don’t drive your car in Dream Perth, take the bus or train instead.
What about the parts that I’ve not yet seen or seen very few times in my dreams?
There doesn’t seem to be a real correlation with the number of times I’ve been to a place in real life and the number of times I see it in my dreams. I mean, my brain works in mysterious ways. It latched onto Balcatta for some reason despite me, as I said, only having gone there a handful of times in my whole life. I’ve been down in the Murdoch area several hundred times in my life for uni and Tafe and I can’t recall ever seeing it once in my dreams. Sorry, Murdoch! I promise it’s not out of spite.
Or maybe, my brother Minh is right, and I’m actually in a coma. So what I think my “dreams” are my actual memories and what I think is my “reality” is some fucked up coma construction.
Or maybe, and this is a crazy thought, these are just dreams I’m talking about and they don’t have to make sense. XD