Spearwood

The oceanfront suburb of Spearwood, just five kilometres or so south of Fremantle, is a great spot for fishing and crabbing and for gazing across toward lovely Rottnest Island, 20km offshore.

It's here at Spearwood at a place called Cables Ski World that you can experience the Slingshot fun ride, which the literature describes as an 'amazing reverse bungee jump, flying 45m into the air (higher than a 15-storey building)".

But, of course, there are more sedate activities to be enjoyed. Spearwood is close to the fascinating city of Fremantle - Perth's port - which is full of wonderful old historic buildings, sensational restaurants, pubs and bars.

Don't pass up a visit to Fremantle Gaol, which operated as a prison from 1855 until it was decommissioned in 1991 or the brilliant Fremantle Arts Centre - once an asylum for women.

Fremantle Maritime Museum is recognised as one of the world's best maritime archaeological museums. For a time from the dawn of the seventeenth century, Indiamen skirted the west coast of Australia in the voyage from Holland to the fabled East Indies and many of these ships were lost on the reef-strewn shore. The museum is a treasure house of relics from these Dutch shipwrecks.