For those who’ve watched the mushfest Notting Hill, featuring Julia Roberts and Hugh Grant, you might remember another important character – a park bench bearing the inscription ‘For June who loved this garden. From Joseph who always sat beside her.’ Turns out Queens Gardens is the perfect place for celebrity park benches to retire to, as it was gifted to the City of Perth by an anonymous gent following a failed marriage proposal. Ouchie. Opened in 1899 and named in honour of Queen Victoria on her Diamond Jubilee, the botanic gardens replaced the city’s former brickworks. It’s hard to believe that the beautiful be-ducked lakes were once clay pits. The garden’s iconic 1929 Peter Pan bronze is a cast from the Kensington Gardens original by George Frampton. So many whimsical little animals are to be discovered in its form, that it’s like crack for kiddies!