Adelaide Street
Fremantle: East End
A century ago, when the focus of the city was the inward and outward passage of freight through the port, the offices and warehouses of shipping agents around the west end of High Street were the heart and soul of Fremantle. During the 1960s, when containerisation brought a radical change in the way goods were shipped by sea, Fremantle began to go through a period of change. Though shipping companies began amalgamating, and others moved away, Fremantle did not die, rather it took on a new mantle - that of a retail centre for the surrounding suburbs. Modern shopping centres, supermarkets and retail stores sprang up in the eastern quarter of the city and St Johns Square, where High, Queen, Adelaide and William Streets meet, became the retail heart of Fremantle.
Basilica of St Patrick, Adelaide Street, Fremantle, WA Basilica of St Patrick is one of five Roman Catholic churches in Australia with minor basilica status. Designed by Michael Cavanagh in a gothic revival style, the nave opened on 3 June 1900. The design incorporated a nave with aisles and clerestory, transepts, a wide and spacious apse, with a tower and spire supported by flying buttresses rising from the northern side.
The parish is linked into the annual blessing of the fleet in Fremantle. In 1994, they celebrated a century of ministry to the church in Australia, and commissioned the current church as an icon in Fremantle as part of their celebrations.
Film and Television Institute, 92 Adelaide Street, Fremantle, WA The Institute occupies the heritage-listed old Fremantle Boys School, completed in 1855. This shingle roofed single storey limestone building in a Victorian Tudor style with Dutch gables, was designed by William Sanford and constructed utilising convict labour. Additions were carried out in 1910 by the Public Works Department.
The Film and Television Institute WA (FTI) is a Screen Resource centre aimed at increasing the vibrancy of the screen sector, including film, television, games and interactive.
The Fremantle Arts Centre building is one of the finest colonial buildings and Fremantle. It was built of local limestone by convicts in the 1860s as the Convict Establishment Fremantle Lunatic Asylum and Invalid Depot. It was later used as a Home for Women, by US servicemen during the Second World War and then the Fremantle Technical School before its restoration in 1970.
Fremantle Arts Centre is one of the State's most dynamic art organisations, it runs a diverse cultural program that includes exhibitions of contemporary visual arts and craft, Create courses and workshops, free Courtyard Music concerts, touring performances and a number of community based arts projects. Fremantle Arts Centre has a renowned Craft Shop which is stocked full of beautifully hand-crafted ceramics, glassware, wood and textiles by Western Australia's most accomplished craft artists, as well as a discerning selection of new releases, local history and lifestyle titles. Location: 1 Finnerty St., Fremantle.
Sshowcases Western Australia's military history including weapons and vehicles, uniforms and medals and war memorabilia from the pre-Federation period through to the present day. The museum currently has five established galleries and a static display of vehicles and other military hardware located in the parade ground.
Location: Artillery Barracks, Burt Street, Fremantle. Open Wednesday - Sunday 11:00am to 4:00pm. Entry fees apply. Contact: (08) 9430 2535
The War Memorial is located 43 metres above sea level on Monument Hill, one of the best vantage points in Fremantle. The hill overlooks Fremantle Harbour, Garden Island, and Rottnest Island to the west, and the Darling Ranges to the east, and is the highest natural point of elevation between the Indian Ocean and the Darling Ranges. The memorial itself comprises a large obelisk, the Fallen Soldiers' and Sailors' Memorial, surrounded by eight smaller memorials at what has been a public reserve since the early 19th century. A 21-inch-diameter mounted torpedo dedicated to the memory of United States Navy submariners who died at sea during the Second World War was unveiled by Rear Admiral Herman J. Kossler on 8 September 1967.
Commemorative services are held yearly at the Memorial on Anzac Day (25 April) and Remembrance Day (11 November). The Fallen Soldiers' and Sailors' Memorial is designed so that at dawn 1914 is illuminated, and at sunset 1919 is illuminated, alluding to a line in the "Ode of Remembrance": "At the going down of the sun and in the morning/We will remember them". On Anzac Day, the shadows are exactly aligned. Acess is off High Street or Knutsford Street. Monument Hill is in easy walking distance from Fremantle city centre.
These days a museum, Fremantle Prison was for many years the major Prison in the State of Western Australia. The prison was built by convict labour in the 1850s, and transferred to the colonial government in 1886 for use as a gaol for locally-sentenced prisoners.
It closed as a prison in 1991 and reopened as a historic site. It is now a public museum, managed by the Government of Western Australia with daily and nightly tours being operated.
St John's Anglican Church, 3 Adelaide Street, Fremantle, WA. St John's Anglican Church also known as St John the Evangelist Church, was originally opened in 1843, and then replaced with a larger building in 1882. The older building was demolished, and half the block sold to the local council, financing the new church, allowing Fremantle Town Hall to be built and for the High Street to be extended, giving the Kings Square its current shape.
The new church was designed by William Smith in London and built by Joshua James Harwood, a church warden at St George's Cathedral in Perth. His company, J.J.Harwood and Son, used limestone from a quarry in Cantonment Street to build the church.
Yorkshire flagstones, which form a pathway in front of the church, were brought out from England as ballast for sailing ships, many of which were carried convicts to the colony after 1850. One is carved with a broad arrow.
1884-1887 - Fremantle Town Hall, cnr High, William and Adelaide Streets, Fremantle, WA The official opening of Fremantle Town Hall, on 22 June 1887, coincided with the celebration of Queen Victoria's Jubilee. The triangular site was originally the property of the Anglican Church, but made available to the Council in 1884, using the money from the sale of the land to finance the building of the church.
The Hall's opening took place on 22 June 1887, after a seven-month delay to coincide with the celebration of the Queen's Jubilee. The ceremony was followed by a day of sports and a ball in the evening. Children attending government schools in Perth and Fremantle received an extra week's holiday.
Henderson Street, Fremantle, WA Before the opening of the Henderson Street Courthouse and police complex, four buildings were put to use as Fremantle court rooms on a sporadic basis. A new block of police quarters was built in 1897, followed by the courthouse. The courthouse was opened in 1898, and just in time, as in 1899 major civil disturbances began in Fremantle by way of a prolonged and violent dispute between organised and unorganised labour on the Fremantle water front. The police were kept very busy for weeks breaking up riots and bringing culprits before the courts. Those same premises are still part of a fully functioning Fremantle Police complex; the court rooms now serve as gymnasiums for the officers.
1851-1858 - Warder's Cottages, Henderson Street, Fremantle, WA As building of the Fremantle Gaol got under way in August 1851, Royal Engineer Captain Edmund Henderson commencced the construction of a row of cottages to house the prison warders. The first six residences (19-29 Henderson Street) were built in 1851, with all 15 completed by 1858. They continued to be used for that purpose until 1991. They are the oldest terrace houses in Western Australia, and feature challengingly steep stairs, wide floor boards and low doorways, built in an era when people were not as tall as today. They offered rather rustic living conditions with one family living upstairs and another downstairs. Behind each terrace are secret gardens, which hide tin sheds, laneways and mature trees.
