Perth places to drink: See the best street art and places to drink on this tour

"Nidja" is the Noongar word for "here". Every day a different Indigenous word is featured on a cylindrical screen on the edge of Perth's Yagan Square, topped with 14 poles representing the local language groups.

So here I am, nidja. What else is there to learn? My guide Adie, of tour company Oh Hey WA, is leading me on her regular Perth Small Bar & Street Art tour, highlighting the artistic and liquid assets of the city's evolving centre.

After explaining the artistic features of Yagan Square, Adie takes me to Northbridge, Perth's nightlife hub. There's a wealth of street art in and around Nicks Lane, including beautiful renditions of a sugar glider, a smashed amphora, a colourful masked platypus, and a Chinese dragon.

The last is particularly relevant, as Perth's small Chinatown district is nearby. Another mural responds to anti-Asian attitudes prevalent during WA's 1890s gold rush with this message: "If people are of one heart, even the yellow earth can become gold".

It's time for our first bar, whose cool retro interior is a welcome refuge from the outdoor heat. Ezra Pound is a long atmospheric space of brick walls, and wooden furniture lined with worn velvet. Barman Kyle puts us onto the house favourite, a classic negroni. It's perfectly balanced and refreshing.

Crossing back to the CBD, we're soon in Prince Lane, whose entrance is marked by Stormie Mills' Lost Giant, a big painting of a man in a checked shirt. On his head is an actual metal crown, protruding from the wall. Near it is a mural called Pattern Making, which resembles the brightly dressed figures on the covers of sewing pattern books – a tribute to the fashion industry which once flourished here, says Adie.

We duck into the nearby Flour Factory, a bar on the site of (you guessed it) a former flour factory, to see a wheel called the "Gin Spin". You pay $12, the barman spins the wheel, and you're served whatever option comes up. It could be plain old London Dry, or it could be Scapegrace Black, which changes from black to pink with tonic.

Our next sit-down drinking stop is Caballitos, where I'm served Tommy's Margarita. It's based on the classic margarita made at a bar in San Francisco, said to be true to the Mexican style. It's deeply satisfying with its mix of tequila, agave nectar and lime juice, shaken with ice.