Fremantle Round House

Fremantle Fishing Boat Harbour

Fremantle Maritime Museum

Fremantle Fishing Boat Harbour

Fremantle is a port city in Western Australia, located 19 kilometres southwest of Perth, the state capital, at the mouth of the Swan River on Australia's west coast.

A coastal city within the Perth metopolitan area, Fremantle has very much the feel of an old port. The city is loved by visitors and locals alike as much for its easy-going pace as for its fine collection of colonial era limestone buildings. It is known affectionately in the Western Australian vernacular as "Freo".
Less than an hour by car or train from Perth, Fremantle is popular with diners, catering for all tastes and budgets. 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.
For a city of smaller size, Fremantle's population is very diverse. Only 64% of the population was born in Australia. The largest overseas-born population groups come from the United Kingdom, Italy, New Zealand, Ireland and Germany. There are also sizeable Madeiran, Portuguese and Croatian communities.

Brief History

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.
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.

Historic buildings

Fremantle has an extensive and well preserved heritage, including; convict-built colonial era buildings, the old jetty and port, and prisons which constitute a variety and unity of historic buildings. These were often built in limestone with ornate facades in a succession of architectural styles. Rapid development following the harbour works gave rise to an Edwardian precinct as merchant and shipping companies built in the West end and on reclaimed land.
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 fro m the jetty and beach. When the first 75 convicts arrived from Britain in 1850 to support the colony's dwindling population, it became apparent 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.
The Round House is located in what is now known as Fremantle's West End: a collection of streets containing colonial buildings at the tip of the southern end of the port, which is vaguely reminiscent of Stockholm. A process of gentrification in the early 1990s was accelerated by the establishment of the University of Notre Dame Australia, which occupies, and has restored, many of the buildings in the West End.
The majestic Fremantle History Museum is another building constructed in the 1860s by convicts from indigenous limestone: it is a former asylum building on Ord Street, and is one of Fremantle's most significant landmarks. This building was the land base of the US Navy during World War II. It now also houses the Fremantle Arts Centre and the Immigration Museum, which aims to preserve the history and stories of all immigrants who arrived in Western Australia.

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