Perth Voice Interactive

Open House Perth is back after overwhelming numbers turned up to tour the backstages of Perth’s iconic buildings last year.

Architect Carly Barrett based the Perth tours on a similar model from London, and almost 50,000 people went on the free tours through 56 destinations its first year in 2012.

Liam Gobbert is the tour guide for Council House, and will be showing people around the rarely-seen corridors of the capital’s seat of power.

He says the building has an interesting tale behind it: Built in 1963, staff were moved out in the 1990s so asbestos could be removed, and then there were plans to pull it down.

“It was saved by campaigning,” says Mr Gobbert, a committee member with planning thinktank Future Perth.

Also a guide in the inaugural year, Mr Gobbert says the tours are so popular because of “the allure of the unknown”. “It was the mystique about it: Venturing into the unknown, buildings that you see and walk past every day. It’s almost taboo.”

It’s on across November 2 and 3 and locations this year include the state theatre, Central Park, QV1, Gordon Stephenson House and the WA Ballet Centre.

Head to http://www.openhouseperth.net for all the info on the tours. They’re all free, but some fill up quickly and ballots are drawn to select spots for the most popular drawcards.

by DAVID BELL