The Bell Tower was successful in achieving a Silver Medal in the Major Tourist Attraction category at the WA Tourism awards. The awards were announced at a gala dinner at the Burswood Entertainment Complex.
The Bell Tower located on Riverside Drive overlooking the picturesque Swan River is one of Perth's most unique attractions. Filled with fascinating historic content and boasting a unique and distinctive design - resulting from a major architectural competition - it has become an icon for Perth and Western Australia.
This historic ring of bells was given to the people of Western Australia as part of the national Bicentennial celebrations in 1988. Among its many attributes the Bell Tower includes the twelve bells of St Martin-in-the-Fields, which are recorded as being in existence from before the 14th century and recast in the 16th century by Queen Elizabeth I. The bells were again recast between 1725 and 1770 by three generations of the Rudhall family of bell founders from Gloucester in England, under the order of the Prince of Wales who was later crowned as King George II. They are one of the few sets of royal bells and are the only ones known to have left England.
There is nowhere else on Earth that visitors can get this close to historic bells – both to listen to their amazing sounds or be amazed at their immense size and the attraction acts as a custodian of tradition for the over six million Australians (2001 census) who regard their ancestry as English.
