Artistic TRAVEL TALK with Shelagh Magadza director, Perth International Arts Festival

Favourite destination?

Fiji – I have great memories of lazy days, swimming and island-hopping.

Favourite place in WA to take out-of-towners?

If there is time, we make the pilgrimage out to Lake Ballard in the Goldfields to see Antony Gormley’s ‘Inside Australia’. For shorter trips, Margaret River is always a great combination of bush, sea and great wine.

Biggest travel disaster?

Arriving in a small French town late at night and finding the hotel reception closed for the night and a note saying the keys were in a little lock-box … for which I didn’t have a code. Spent half of the night sleeping on garden furniture on the hotel patio before another guest let me use the phone in their room to contact the manager. He emerged wearing only underpants and yelled at me in French before finally handing over a room key.

What’s always in your carry-on luggage?

A good book and my sister’s secret recipe throat spray that seems to keep the plane bugs at bay.

Where have you always wanted to travel?

South America, both for all the history as well as for the incredible natural landscape, and physical environment.

You hope that Perth always retains ...

... an awareness of how special our environment is.

You wish that Perth could be more like …

... Berlin, and build some remarkable buildings for our cultural and public life.