Fremantle

Fremantle is the port town at the mouth of the Swan River. It was visited by Dutch explorers in the 1600s and was the first area to be settled by the Swan River colonists when they arrived in 1829. It has retained its historic village feel over the decades. How, I don’t know, given the tendency to knock down anything old in Perth city during the 1960s and 70s. 

There have been waves of reinvigoration over the years but somehow or other none of them have ruined the historic ambience of the town. In the lead up to the America’s Cup in 1987, the government founded the Fremantle Arts Foundation to make sure that the response to the Cup wasn’t just the development of commercial bars and restaurants. Alan, our father, chaired FAF and I remember pop up galleries and exhibitions, theatre companies and murals. 

There there’s only one high rise building, the 11-storey Port Administration building. The trade off for preservation is usually lack of development and at the moment, Fremantle lacks some of dynamism of past years. Myer Department store closed. There’s no supermarket any more. There are empty, graffiti-ed warehouses. But there are still interesting shops and cafes and restaurants and lovely historic streetscapes to explore. 

My growing up memories include going to the Capri, a cheap Italian restaurant for a meal - and it’s still there. Having fish and chips at Cicerello's on the wharf - and it’s still there. Sandwiches at Culley's Tea Rooms where you received one and half rounds of white bread for the price of one round - it's still there but the sandwiches are standard these days.  Visiting the Roundhouse, the oldest public building in Perth built as a prison in 1831 - and that still sits proudly at the end of High St. Browsing in Elizabeth’s Secondhand Book warehouse where all the books are piled on top of each other - and that’s still there. And the smell of the live sheep ships - although that’s on the way out. 

Some of the best books I read set in Perth were published by Fremantle Press - and that’s still going. One of the most beautiful buildings in Freo was an asylum but now, in the form of the Fremantle Arts Centre, it's a place of music and art for the local community. Opposite it is the Fremantle Swimming Pool where I spent many a summer teaching kids to swim - and rescuing Italian grannies all in black when they fell in.

Fremantle Arts Centre

There’s Gino’s coffee bar and the Essex St Cinema. The Fremantle Markets and the Maritme Museum. There’s an endless number of 19th century and early 20th century pubs that are still operating. It's a very walkable village.

 Some of the best theatre I saw was at Winter Theatre based in Freo in the early 1980s where I saw fabulous productions of shows such as Accidental Death of an Anarchist and Studs Terkel's Working. Then there was the Fly by Night Club where local musicians played. I spent months in 1978 watching Japanese movies every Monday night at the Film and Television Institute based in Fremantle. Alan went to Fremantle Boys School. Betty was on the board of Spare Parts Puppet Theatre, also based in Freo. This was the company that contributed accidentally to an Arts Minister going to goal. David Parker solicited a gift from a mining executive to help Spare Parts. It all came out in the WA Inc Royal Commission.  Although Mr Parker's original prison sentence for corruption was eventually overthrown, he still went to gaol for purgery.

In other words, we've had all sorts of links with Fremantle over many years which is why the call to live in the south, close to the town, was strong. 

I’m not sure if there is as much cultural activity as in the 1970s and 1980s but it’s still more pleasurable to wander the streets of Fremantle than the City of Perth.