How Perth was reborn as a magnet for hipsters

In The Shark Net, Robert Drewe's memoir of growing up in Perth, the capital of Western Australia, in the 50s and 60s, the novelist describes the city as a "branch manager's town", lacking charisma, identity and amenities. If you had suggested even 20 years ago that it would become a hipster hangout you'd have been regarded as a few stubbies short of a six-pack. Well, Perth is now so hip it has an artisanal cheese-themed restaurant housed in the vault of an old bank – the former branch manager of which is no doubt spinning in his grave out in Karrakatta Cemetery.

He's from Saskatchewan in Canada, a landlocked place of harsh winters, and worked across the world for a Japanese electronics company, but found his feet in Perth when he co-founded a walking tours company. "In Melbourne and London people work hard but they don't know when to stop," he said. "Here they work hard and then they switch off, go to the beach, whatever. The work-life balance is more healthy. I really love it." And with that he padded off into the balmy evening, no doubt for a moonlit swim.

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