Summer holiday guide: Teleportation, gladiators, koalas and treasure hunting ... that’s entertainment

Just mention teleportation, gladiators, koalas or treasure hunting to watch the kids drop the remote and leap from the couch to go on these outings. Imaginations will go into overdrive at the WA Maritime Museum’s new interactive exhibition about Ancient Rome. From Caesar’s military genius to gladiators, and the Colosseum, discover more about this fascinating era. It’s on daily, 9.30am-5pm until April and from now until January 19 kids can make a paper-craft gladiator helmet or goddess mask and decorate a battleship. Teleportation and wormholes are part of Scitech’s new exhibition, Science Fiction: Science Future which lets kids try their hand at building a virtual robot or controlling a computer with just their eyes. They can even see what it’s like to become invisible. It’s open 9.30am- 4pm weekdays and 10am-5pm on weekend. If you have budding scientists on your hands then check out the hands-on experiments at Belmont Forum shopping centre. Up to five experiments are done during each of the 45-minute sessions which on weekdays from Jan 6-17. Pull on some ice skates for the ultimate cool-off to challenge body and mind. Cockburn Ice Arena has a summer school where kids, including tiny tots, can learn the basics, or join a general session and enjoy fun on the rink. With koalas on the east coast often in the news at this time of the year, why not get up close and personal with one at the Cohunu Koala Park? The park (Nettleton Rd, Byford) is home to a colony of more than 20 koalas and you can cuddle one and take your own photographs for $30 per person between 10am and 4pm daily. The park also has other wildlife, including emus, wallabies, dingoes and kangaroos and a miniature railway. Fishing in the morning or early evening can be great fun even if they're not biting. For kid-friendly spots to catch a herring or blowie, try the Hillarys Boat Harbour (the jetty near AQWA), the jetty at Chidley Point Reserve in Caporn St, Mosman Park or Palm Beach jetty off the Rockingham esplanade. If the kids have a taste for something a little bigger like tailor, then try Fremantle Harbour behind the E Shed markets. Go on a hunt with a twist at Perth Zoo by searching for life-sized installations of Wally (of Where’s Wally? fame) and one of a rare Woylie that are hidden throughout the grounds. Also, until February 2, the zoo will be open until 7.30pm on Saturdays to make the most of cooler evenings. Hexagons are the heroes of school holiday fun at the Art Gallery of WA with a hunt for them throughout the building and the chance to be part of an evolving installation of the shapes in the Imagination Room. The gallery is free to visit and is open 10am-5pm daily, except Tuesdays. If you have a couple of super sleuths in your midst then try your hand at the popular Great Valley Rally and follow cryptic clues through Swan Valley to solve a mystery message. The rally is designed for families with children aged five to 12 and takes around three hours to complete, leaving from the Swan Valley Visitor Centre (Guildford Courthouse, cnr Meadow and Swan Streets) and takes in local history, attractions and indigenous culture.