Best Places to Buy Souvenirs in Perth (Skip the Tourist Junk)
Words by
Jack Morrison
Best Souvenir Shopping in Perth: A Local's Guide to Stuff That Actually Matters
I have lived in Perth for over a decade, buying gifts at these same shops and markets, and the best souvenir shopping in Perth is not anywhere near the airport or Murray Street. The city has quietly built a collection of makers, designers, and Indigenous-owned businesses that produce items worth taking home. You just have to know where to look.
Art Gallery of Western Australia Shop — Perth Cultural Centre
The Art Gallery of Western Australia sits right in the Cultural Centre on James Street, between the State Library and the Museum. The shop inside the gallery sells limited-edition prints from WA-based artists, hand-thrown ceramics from Fremantle potters, and art books you will not find at any chain bookstore in the city. I picked up a stunning ink drawing of the Kimberley coastline last year by a Broome-based printmaker, and the gallery staff explained the entire story behind the artist's process.
The best time to visit is on a weekday morning around 10 AM, when the gallery just opened. Weekends get busy with families doing the school holiday circuit. Check whether the shop is hosting a temporary exhibition, because those pop-up vendor weekends are when local ceramicists and jewellers set up tables near the gallery entrance and they do not advertise widely beyond the gallery's own mailing list.
The Vibe? A relaxed gallery foyer with glass walls and polished concrete floors, zero hard sell.
The Bill? Prints start around $45 AUD, ceramics from $30 to $120, books anywhere from $20 to $60.
The Standout? Limited-run print editions by WA artists, many with authentication certificates.
The Catch? The gift shop closes 30 minutes before the main gallery, so do not assume you can rush in at the last minute.
The Hidden Detail? If you mention the gallery's curatorial staff, many box sets of exhibition catalogues go under the counter that are not on the public shelves, and those catalogues are genuinely collectable. Ask about "back-stock."
Pigeon Hole — Hay Street Mall / West Perth
Pigeon Hole is a tiny retail space on Hay Street, squeezed between a barber and a bubble tea shop. The owner is a Perth graphic designer, and almost everything on the walls is screen-printed or designed in-studio. You will find satirical "Keep Calm and Carry On" parodies replaced with Western Australian inside jokes, custom tea towels, enamel pins, and a rotating set of WA-themed prints. The prices are well below what you pay at the big department store "souvenir" sections.
The Vibe? Pigeon Hole sits inside Hay Street Mall, often has music playing, and the owner is usually behind the counter. It is a proper conversation, not just a transaction.
The Bill? Most prints range from $15 to $40, mugs and tea towels around $18 to $25.
The Standout? The WA-humor prints that only locals fully understand.
The Catch? Tiny space, often one or two other shoppers maximum, and absolutely no card reader, cash only.
The Hidden Detail? Ask about any special collaborations with local muralists, limited runs, they never make it onto social media before selling out.
Form — Claremont and Perth City (CAITY ROW flagship)
FORM started as a Perth collective of WA artists and has grown into a small but beautifully curated network of shops, the main one in the city at CAITY ROW on William Street and a second in Claremont. The city store is my top pick for local gifts in Perth because it exclusively stocks Western Australian and Australian makers, with a transparent artist bio card on every shelf. You will find aromatherapy blends from Margaret River, hand-dyed scarves from a Geraldton-based textile artist, and gorgeous small-batch ceramics from a Noongar artist and educator.
The flagship in Claremont is bigger and has a separate studio space upstairs where workshops sometimes run, but I would still start in the city because the selection is tighter and the curation feels more personal. Visit on a Tuesday or Wednesday afternoon if possible. Saturday in the city store is packed with people doing birthday shopping, and the owner told me Thursday mornings are when new stock from regional artists usually hits the shelves.
The Vibe? Clean, open-plan, earth tones, every shelf tells you who made the product.
The Bill? Small items like soaps from $12, art prints from $35, premium items like wool scarves $90 to $150.
The Standout? The ceramics from regional WA First Nations artists, all priced fairly and with full credit to the maker.
The Catch? The William Street store is compact, and it is awkward to browse with a large backpack, leave your luggage at your hotel.
The Hidden Detail? The staff will gift-wrap anything for free with a hand-written note if you ask, a service most tourists miss entirely.
The Perth Mint — East Perth
The Perth Mint on Hay Street in East Perth is a heritage-listed building that has been refining gold since 1899. Visitors often assume it is just a tourist stop and skip the gift shop, but the retail store sells unique commemorative coins and gold-plated nugget replicas that actually represent Western Australian history. I own a birthday coin from 1987, my birth year, that I bought on a Tuesday morning when the shop was nearly empty.
The mint runs daily gold-pouring demonstrations, and if you attend one, the staff often hand out a small discount voucher for the retail store afterward. The best time to visit is mid-morning on a weekday, well before the tour groups arrive around 12 PM. Bring your passport, because some items are restricted for international export and you will need ID to process the purchase.
The Vibe? Old-world banking hall meets museum retail, polished and serious, not gimmicky.
The Bill? Gold-plated small items start around $30, commemorative coins from $80, solid gold pieces well into the hundreds.
The Standout? Birth-year coins and WA-themed commemorative kangaroo and platypus editions.
The Catch? International shipping is not offered in-store for most precious metal items, and you must carry gold pieces through customs yourself and declare them.
The Hidden Detail? The building holds a Guinness World Record for the largest gold coin ever made (one tonne), and the in-store display of that coin is genuinely awe-inspiring. Ask the front desk for viewing times that align with slower periods.
Kings Park Store and Botanic Shop — Kings Park, Fraser Avenue
You go to Kings Park for the view, buy a dreadful magnet at the visitor centre, and wonder what else is even available. Inside the park's kiosks and shops you tend to run into the usual tourist traps: mass-market keychains on dusty sticks with "AUSTRALIA" in white Helvetica font. However, the Kings Park Visitor Centre does offer a curated mix of local gifts Perth visitors overlook because they are usually distracted by the Lotterywest Federation Walkway outside.
What most people do not know is that the Botanic Garden shop, tucked inside the Western Australian Botanic Garden on Fraser Avenue, stocks a range of native seed packets, botanical prints by WA illustrators, and books specific to the flora of the southwest botanical province, which is one of only six biodiversity hotspots in the world. I bought a set of twelve illustrated botanical cards for about $22, and they are genuinely frame-worthy. The best time to pop into the garden shop is mid-morning, after an early walk along Fraser Avenue and before midday, because the shop is small and gets congested with school groups by midday on weekdays.
The Vibe? Green, airy, educational but not pretentious, and entirely surrounded by living WA wildflowers.
The Bill? Seed packets $3 to $8, botanical prints $15 to $35, books $20 to $50.
The Standout? Native seed packets of kangaroo paw or banksia that you can legally carry home (check your country's biosecurity rules first, obviously).
The Catch? The shop has a small footprint with a narrow doorway designed in 1960s style, making it awkward with strollers.
The Hidden Detail? The visitor centre gift shop stocks a small but beautiful range of Noongar-designed bookmarks and postcards that are not replicated anywhere else in Perth. Ask at the counter for the local Indigenous art selection.
What to Buy in Perth: Indigenous Art at Art on the Move — Northbridge
A walk through Northbridge and you will see, through gallery windows, Indigenous art everywhere, dot paintings leaning against exposed brick and the shop assistants within dressed in art-world black. At Art on the Move, located on James Street in the Northbridge cultural precinct, the focus is specifically on art produced by Aboriginal artists and their communities across Western Australia and the Northern Territory. The Aboriginal-owned art centre supports multiple WA Aboriginal art centres, and a meaningful percentage of each sale goes directly to the artist and their community fund.
Every painting, print, or carved item in the store comes with a certificate of authenticity detailing the artist's country, language group, and story behind the work. That piece of paper is important, because it guarantees ethical provenance, something the imitation "Aboriginal-style" souvenir shops elsewhere in the city cannot offer. The weekday afternoon slot around 2 PM is ideal for browsing without pressure. Saturday mornings are when new works often arrive from remote communities, and gallery staff tend to be more available to explain individual pieces before the weekend rush.
The Vibe? Quiet, respectful, thoughtfully lit, with each artwork displayed with a full biography of its maker.
The Bill? Small prints start around $50, mid-size paintings from $150 to $500, larger works several hundred dollars or more.
The Standout? Region-specific collections from WA desert communities like Warakurna and Balgo, areas you have probably never heard of but absolutely should.
The Catch? The gallery deliberately avoids aggressive sales tactics, but the ethical reality is that meaningful Indigenous art is not cheap, and budgeting under $50 for an authentic piece is unrealistic.
The Hidden Detail? Ask the gallery coordinator about upcoming artist residencies in Perth, sometimes you can meet the person who made the artwork you are buying.
Hay Street and Murray Street Malls — Sticky Beaks Lane and Local Malls
I know, pedestrian malls are not exactly thrilling. But hear me out. Tucked between the fast fashion and phone repair shops on Hay Street and Murray Street, there are independent stalls and small outlets that most tourists walk straight past, staring at their phone. Sticky Beaks is a small bird sanctuary to miniature Australian wildfowl right on Hay Street, where the admission is free and a $5 animal feed bag makes a pretty decent photo, no souvenir required.
More useful to your shopping list, the small independent shops scattered along the malls change hands frequently, and a jeweller crafts pieces from reclaimed ocean plastic, and eco-friendly items fashioned from Tasmanian, Victorian, and Western Australian timbers. You need to slow down and look. The best browsing window is on a Sunday afternoon, when the big chain stores thin out and the independent stalls extend their hours.
The Vibe? Your standard Perth CBD pedestrian mall, but with a few genuine surprises if you pay attention.
The Bill? Wooden homewares from $15, handmade jewellery from $25 and up, pocket-money items $5 to $10.
The Standout? Local WA wooden souvenums: Peppermint trees and Jarrah-wood handcrafts are grown and crafted in WA.
The Catch? Parking in the city on weekends is a headache, and the mall can feel dead on a windy winter Saturday.
The Hidden Detail? The Murray Street Mall has a small cluster of independent card and stationery shops near the London Court end that stock WA-themed greeting cards and postcards you will not find at the airport.
Fremantle Markets — South Terrace, Fremantle
No Perth souvenir guide is complete without the Fremantle Markets, and I am not going to pretend otherwise. The weekend markets on South Terrace are where half of Perth goes to buy gifts, eat food, and people-watch, and the energy is infectious. The heritage-listed building itself dates to 1897, and the stone and iron architecture alone is worth the train ride from the city.
Inside, over 150 stalls operate on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays, and the range of authentic souvenirs Perth visitors actually want is impressive if you know which stalls to target. I always head straight for the back-left section, where a Noongar-owned stall sells hand-painted boomerangs, didgeridoos, and small canvas works with full cultural explanations. Nearby, a leatherworker tooling kangaroo-hide wallets and belts, and a woman selling handmade soaps scented with WA eucalyptus and boronia. The best time to arrive is right at 8 AM on a Saturday, before the crowds peak around 11 AM. By noon on Sunday, half the stalls are packing up early.
The Vibe? Heritage market hall, loud, aromatic, chaotic in the best way, with live buskers on weekends.
The Bill? Soaps and candles $8 to $20, leather goods $25 to $80, small art prints $15 to $40.
The Standout? The Noongar art and craft stall, where every item comes with a story card and direct artist credit.
The Catch? The markets are cash-heavy, and while some stalls now have EFTPOS, the card readers are unreliable near the back wall due to poor signal.
The Hidden Detail? The Friday market is smaller and less crowded than weekends, and some of the best artisan vendors only trade on Fridays. If you can only do one day, make it Friday morning.
When to Go and What to Know
Perth's retail scene is heavily weekend-driven, and many smaller shops in Northbridge and Fremantle do not open until 10 or 11 AM. If you are a morning person, use the early hours for Kings Park or the Perth Mint before the crowds. Weekday afternoons are your best bet for gallery shops and FORM, where staff have time to talk. Most shops accept card, but carry some cash for market stalls and tiny independents. If you are flying home, check Australian Border Force rules on what you can legally export, especially for items containing animal products, seeds, or precious metals. And do not leave souvenir shopping for the airport, the selection is overpriced and generic, and you will regret it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Perth expensive to visit? Give a realistic daily budget breakdown for mid-tier travelers.
A mid-tier traveler in Perth should budget around $180 to $250 AUD per day, covering a mid-range hotel or Airbnb ($120 to $170), meals at casual restaurants ($40 to $60), public transport ($10 to $15), and a modest shopping or activity allowance ($20 to $30). Fine dining, car rental, or premium experiences push that figure higher.
Are credit cards widely accepted across Perth, or is it necessary to carry cash for daily expenses?
Credit and debit cards, including contactless and mobile payments, are accepted at nearly all retail stores, restaurants, and cafes in Perth. Cash is still useful for market stalls, small independent shops, and some food trucks, so carrying $30 to $50 AUD in cash as a backup is practical.
How easy is it to find pure vegetarian, vegan, or plant-based dining options in Perth?
Perth has a strong and growing plant-based dining scene, with dedicated vegan and vegetarian restaurants concentrated in Northbridge, Fremantle, and the CBD. Most mainstream cafes and restaurants across the city now offer at least two or three clearly marked vegan options on their menus.
What is the average cost of a specialty coffee or local tea in Perth?
A specialty flat white or long black at a Perth cafe typically costs between $4.50 and $6.00 AUD. Loose-leaf local teas at specialty shops range from $8 to $20 AUD per 100-gram pack, depending on the blend and origin.
What is the standard tipping etiquette or service charge policy at restaurants in Perth?
Tipping is not expected or customary in Perth, as Australian hospitality workers receive a legal minimum wage well above the US standard. Rounding up the bill or leaving 10 percent at a restaurant is appreciated for exceptional service but is entirely optional and never obligatory.
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