Fremantle
Affectionately known in the Western Australian vernacular as "Freo", Fremantle is located 19 km southwest of Perth, the state capital, at the mouth of the Swan River on Australia's west coast. A thriving port city serving the City of Perth and the State of Western Australia, Fremantle was the first area settled by the Swan River colonists in 1829 - in fact it was on Bathers Beach of Fremantle that the new colonists landed after their long voyage from Britain. Hundreds and thousands of migrants to Western Australia would follow in their footsteps for the next 140 years, Fremantle being their point of entry into Australia's largest state.
Less than an hour by car or train from Perth, Fremantle remains a fishing and shipping port, but serves a dual role as a place of recreation. Fremantle is popular with diners, catering for all tastes and budgets with its wide range of eating places. Italian and Asian cuisine is abundant as well as a vast variety of seafood restaurants. There are numerous cafes and coffee shops situated around Fremantle, particularly on its famous 'Cappuccino Strip' - a section of South Terrace given over to alfresco dining since 1977. Fremantle is also a popular place for its nightlife, second only to Northbridge in Perth's CBD. It attracts people from all over the metropolitan region for its pubs, bars and nightclubs.
The city has an operational fishing boat harbour which contain markets and restaurants, developed as a tourist precinct. Fishing charter boats also operate from this harbour.
Fremantle was the host city for the America's Cup yachting race in 1987, after Australia was the first country to ever win the race, aside from the USA, in 1983. The unsuccessful cup defence was conducted on the waters in Gage Roads, off Fremantle.
How To Get There: by train from Perth; by road from Perth (20 km) via Stirling Hwy or Canning Hwy; by cruise ferry from Barrack St jetty, Perth.
- East End
- The Cappucino Strip
- Harbourside
- High Street
- West End
- Arthurs Head
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A visit to Fremantle would not complete without having a coffee or meal on South Terrace, which is known locally as the Cappuccino Strip. This cosmopolitan area houses many coffee houses, restaurants and pubs that are alive with people night and day, anytime of the week. The strip came into its own during Fremantle's defence of the America's Cup in 1987, prior to which it was given a much needed makeover, and has never looked back. My personal favourite on the Cappuccino Strip is Fremantle Bakehouse. They make the most gigantic, yummy apple pies and their steak sandwich is claimed to be the best in Fremantle.
The Fremantle Markets were originally opened in 1897 and are now classified by the National Trust. The Fremantle Markets operate every long weekend and public holiday, as do the E Shed Markets across the harbour near the Fremantle train station.
A short walk from the centre of Fremantle, the Fremantle Fishing Boat Harbour is a unique tourist location that provides an array of very special visitor experiences, including restaurants, a brewery, short stay accommodation, function facilities, high speed jet boat rides and charter sailing tours. These businesses operate in the environment of a working harbour where there is a constant passing parade of fishing vessels and daily fishing industry activities.
Specialising in all the best seafood the ocean has to offer, there is a wide cuisine range on offer around the harbour's boardwalks from the many restaurants and cafes. Fish and chips at Cicerellos, a fishing business that has traded here since 1903, is somewhat of a local tradition that started the trend of dining at the place where the local catch is broght ashore.
A world-class museum telling the story of Western Australia's maritime history. Located at Forrest Landing, the site of the first landing in 1829, on the Western end of historical Victoria Quay, it shares the experiences of WA's early ocean explorers as well as more recent maritime exploits - Alan Bond's America's Cup-winning yacht Australia II is a star exhibit.
The Oberon Class Royal Australian Navy submarine HMAS Ovens is an external exhibit, open for tours, next to the Maritime Museum. She was the first submarine to be preserved in Australia as a museum ship.
Location: Victoria Quay, Fremantle. Open daily from 9.30-5.00, excluding Wednesdays; closed Wednesdays and Christmas Day, Boxing Day, New Years Day, Good Friday, Easter Monday & Anzac Day. Entry fees apply. Contact: (08) 9431 8334.
Monument Hill, the highest point in Fremantle, has been a popular lookout over the port and surrounding areas since the early days of British Colonisation. In the second half on the 19th century, an obelisk at the hill's summit provided a trig point to navigators and surveyors. Early in the 20th century the hill was made a park and continued as a lookout and beauty spot.
To commemorate the losses of the 1914-1918 war, the City of Fremantle erected the Fallen Sailors & Soldiers Memorial at Monument Hill in 1928. The layout of plantings and parkland was established in the 1930s. More memorials were erected after the 1939-1945 war.
This excellent museum showcases 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 short walk through the old whalers tunnel under the Round House at Arthurs Head leads to a little visited but historically very significant corner of Fremenatle. It was here on 2 May 1829, that Capt. Fremantle landed and took formal possession of the whole of the west coast of what was then known as New Holland, in the name of the British monarch, on the establishment of the colony of Western Australia.
Within 8 years, two whaling companies had established shore bases here and were responsible for cutting the tunnel through Arthurs Head. Walk through the Whaler's Tunnel under the Round House to see remnants of the whaling station's tryworks and hearths, close by is part of the wall from Mews' 1850s boatshed. At the southern end of the bay are the remains of the 1,004 metre Long Jetty, which served as the colony's main berthing facility from its completion in 1873 until the 1920s.
Whaler's Tunnel and the excavated cliff of Arthurs Head from Bather's Bay.
Point Marquis, the headland at the northern end of Whaler's Bay, was always in demand for defences, due to its prominent position and its proximity to the port. The first gun battery built on the headland was completed in 1908. The battery existed until 1942 when the guns were moved north of Fremantle to Leighton. Part of a gun enplacement can be seen in the shallows at the northern end of Bather's Beach.
The Round House, the oldest remaining building in Western Australia, was built as a gaol between 1830 - 1831. The Round House had eight cells and a gaoler's residence, which all opened up into a central courtyard. In the 1800s, bay whaling was carried out from Bathers Beach below the Round House. As part of the whaling operations, a tunnel was constructed under the Round House to provide whalers with access to the town from the jetty and beach. Stocks were installed in the 1840's and in 1844 John Gavin, as fifteen year old convicted murderer, was hanged nearby.
When the first 75 convicts arrived from Britain in 1850 to support the colony's dwindling population, it became appurent that the Round House was inadequate to house them. The convicts built a new gaol, which was completed in the 1850s and continued to be used as Fremantle's prison until 1991.
Apart from the Round House and the courthouse other buildings on Arthur Head included cottages to house the harbour-master, pilots and lighthouse keepers, and two lighthouses.
Location: 10 Arthur Head, Fremantle. Open: 10.30am - 3.30pm daily. Closed Christmas Day & Good Friday. Entry by donation. Contact: (08) 9336 6636.
This iconic building was built of local limestone by convicts in 1864 as the Convict Establishment Fremantle Lunatic Asylum and Invalid Depot. It was later used as a Home for Women, by US Naval servicemen during the Second World War and then the Fremantle Technical School before its restoration in 1970. Upon its re-opening, the building housed the Fremantle Maritime Museum until it moved to its current location quayside.
Housed in a wing of the building is The Fremantle Arts Centre. 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.
Fremantle 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 remained in continual use as a prison until 1991. The site includes the prison, gatehouse, perimeter walls, cottages, tunnels, and prisoner art. It was a place of hangings, floggings, dramatic convict escapes and prisoner riots. Inmates included imperial convicts, colonial prisoners, enemy aliens, prisoners of war and maximum-security detainees.
After its closure in 1991, the WA state government embarked on a long-term conservation plan to ensure the Prison's preservation. One of the largest surviving convict prisons in the world today, it is currently part of a joint nomination of Australian Convict Sites for World Heritage status. It is now a museum, which documents the building's history.
Location: off Parry Street (walk up Fairburn Ramp to the Prison's Gatehouse)
Opening hours: open 9.00am to 5.00pm 7 days a week, excluding Good Friday and Christmas Day.
More than a century before James Cook sailed the east coast of Australia, Dutch trading vessels regularly plied the waters of the west coast of Australia on their way from The Netherlands to the Dutch East Indies (Indonesia). A number came too close to this remote shore, and floundered on its hazardous reefs. During the latter half of the 20th century many of these wrecks were discovered and their treasures removed for posterity. Many such items are on display in the Maritime Museum Shipwreck Galleries.
Relics from the Batavia shipwreck (1629)
The Commissariat building, which houses the museum, was built out of limestone quarried at nearby Arthurs Head between 1851 and 1862 under the supervision of its architect, James Manning, Clerk of Works. It became the Government Stores Complex and Customs House. The building is today home to the Shipwreck Galleries of the Western Australian Maririme Museum, which tell the story of many ships that have been wrecked along the Western Australian coast. Pride of place is the a reconstruction of the actual keel of the Dutch cargo ship, Batavia, which founded on reefs in the Abrolhos Islands north of Perth in 1629.
Location: Cnr Marine Tce. and Cliff St. off Phillimore St, Fremantle. Contact: (08) 9431 8444. Website. How to get there: train to Fremantle.
Fremantle was the first settlement of the Swan River Colonists in 1829. It was declared a city in 1929, and has a population of approximately 25,000. The city is named after Charles Fremantle, the English naval officer who had pronounced possession of Western Australia and who established the camp at the site. Fremantle lies on a series of limestone hills known by the Nyungar people as Booyeembara; the sandplain to the east is Gardoo. The original vegetation of the area was mainly Xanthorrhoea and eucalyptus trees, being fired annually (in late spring or summer) by the traditional owners.
On 25th April 1829, the ship HMS Challenger under the guidance of Captain Fremantle had arrived in the waters off the Fremantle coast to make preparations for the Swan River Colony. On 2nd May 1829, Captain Fremantle formally took possession on behalf of King George IV the entire west coast of New Holland just near the south head of the Swan River. A few days later a camp was set up in a bay just south of the head, and Fremantle has been occupied ever since. A month later, on 1 June Captain James Stirling on the Parmelia arrived to officially set up the Swan River Colony. Perth itself was not settled until 12 August that year. Captain Fremantle left the colony on 25th August after providing much assistance to Stirling in setting up the colony. It is then when Stirling decided that the port settlement would be called Fremantle.
Memorial to C.Y. O'Connor in front of the Fremantle Ports building
In 1897, Western Australia's Irish-born engineer-chief, Charles Yelverton O'Connor, deepened Fremantle harbour and removed the limestone bar and sand shoals across the entrance to the Swan River, thus rendering Fremantle a serviceable port for commercial shipping. Fremantle still serves as the chief seaport of Western Australia. During World War II, Fremantle was the 2nd largest base for Allied submarines operating in the Pacific Theatre. There were up to 125 US, 31 British and 11 Free Dutch Submarines operating out of Fremantle, until the Americans moved forward to the Philippines. The movements and presence of USS Sturgeon (SS-187) is a good example of such activity.
The origin of many street names is obvious in the name: Beach St (tho the beach is gone), Cliff St, East St, High St, Hillside Rd, Marine Tce, Market St (tho that market was never set up) South St, South Tce, Sea View St, Quarry St. Some are named after well-known people: Queen Victoria St, Adelaide St (William IV's consort). Several of the older street names are those of members of the crew of Capt Fremantle's ship, HMS Challenger, and of Capt Stirling's ship HMS Success. Some of the place names below are not Fremantle names but were bestowed in the early days of the Colony.
