The Bell Tower is a relatively new tourist attraction in Perth (it opend in 2000). The tower is sitting on the edge of the Swan River, close to the city.

The bell tower houses 18 bells and it is the biggest music instrument in the world. The tower is supposed to look like a ship, but in our opinion it looks rather like a swan. The bells have a combined weight of about nine tonnes, therefore the builder had to use concrete to build the inner chamber of the tower.

The bells themselves are all quite old, some can be traced to before the 14th century. The oldest bells, St Martin-in-the-Fields, are from London and were rung at the Trafalgar Square.

Bellringers ring the bells. The bellringers stand in a circle and ring the bells with a rope attached to a wheel next to the bell. They don’t ring the bells randomly, but in a circle. One bell starts ringing and then one after the other bell starts ringing in the circle. The order of the bells can be varied by a conductor calling out changes in order, for instance 1-2-3-4-5-6 can be changed 2-1-4-3-5-6, and so on. Therefore the tinkling sounds differently.

The bells are rung on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday between 12 and 1 pm. You can watch the bellringers through windows. The whole procedure of the bell ringing looks rather exhausting.

On top of the tower you have a nice view over the Swan River. There is a 360 degree platform, but this is nothing for people who are terrified of heights, because some parts of the platform have only a grid floor and a rather small reling made of glass.

We recommend the visit of the Bell Tower only at times when the bellringers ring the bells. Because otherwise you can’t really see something interesting and to pay 6 dollars entry fee just for the view is a little bit expensive. You can enjoy the view much better from the Kings Park and it’s free.