Fremantle, Western Austrailia

16 December 2018 - Sunday

Fremantle, Western Australia

What happened to Saturday?

We left San Francisco at 8:30p Friday -- arrived Sydney at 6:01 am Sunday after about 14+ hours in the air -- then hopped a flight to Perth at about 11:30a arriving just over 4 hours later at 1:25pm Sunday afternoon.

Sunrise coming into Sydney, Australia

We flew Qantas -- service was excellent -- we were in business so that does make a difference -- but everything went like clockwork -- and even the food was good.

The Esplanade Hotel in downtown Fremantle -- our home for the next six days -- is a thirty-minute cab ride from the Perth Airport.   The hotel building housed imported convicts from 1850 until 1855 while they built their new home -- The Fremantle Prison.     The hotel was designed in 1897 with many and varied extensions over the years.  It is the perfect location -- walking distance to everything and a free bus ride to go a bit farther out.

Colette and Marc at Fremantle Harbor, Australia -- "Freo" is the nickname for Fremantle

 Colette and Marc arrive just before us  -- so after getting settled, we all meet for an early dinner at "Little Creatures", a brewery/pub located near the hotel.   Have no idea where this name came from -- but the place is very noisy -- very large -- and just "so-so" on the food.  But -- we're all tired and need to stay up as late as possible.

Surprisingly -- we don't feel as bad as we thought we might.  Tomorrow we'll begin exploring.

17 December 2018 - Monday

Fremantle, Western Australia

Woke at 5:30 am -- Phil already up and down in the lobby having coffee -- he brought me a cup about 6:30 am.   The four of us have breakfast at "The Mill Bakehouse On Norfolk" -- very good but not cheap.  Meals seem to be very expensive here even taking into account that the Australian Dollar is worth 70% of the American Dollar.

Today we will explore Fremantle, Western Australia's chief port, sitting at the mouth of the Swan River on the Indian Ocean.   Founded and claimed as British Territory in 1829 by Captain Charles Fremantle, this port, known as the Swan River Colony, became the western gateway to Australia for passenger ships.  By 1832, 1500 people inhabited the colony but it was a hard life and gradually people left.  During a depression in the early 1840's, a petition was made to England that convicts be sent to provide much needed labor.

Between 1842 and 1850, two hundred and thirty-four juvenile offenders arrived in Western Australia on the condition that if they apprenticed themselves to local tradesmen they would be considered free.

Pat in front of The Fremantle Prison

By 1849 the Swan River Colony was officially announced as "a penal settlement to accelerate economic growth".  Between 1850 and 1868 more than nine thousand convicts arrived in Fremantle -- most of them stayed after finishing their prison sentence.   The Irish convicts started arriving in 1861

Colette and Pat inside a solitary confinement cell.

 We begin at The Fremantle Prison taking the Convict Prison Tour, which establishes that this prison was built by the convicts from 1850 to 1855 and was in operation until 1991.  Although electricity was added in 1907, the prison never did have plumbing.   Life in this prison was what seems to us as unbearable. The cells are 4' x 7' with a hammock, a chair, a desk surface and a bucket.    In later years a garden was added to the grounds so prisoners could work growing food for their population.  A library was also added as were two chapels -- Protestant -- and then in 1861 the Catholic population proposed their own chapel and paid for it. 

We visited the "flogging post" used until 1943 -- a session with 100 lashes was not unusual.   The term "letting the cat out of the bag" comes from the cat of nine tails that was used to flog the prisoners and kept in a bag.

Prison Garb at Fremantle Prison

Two options for leaving the prison existed:  1) Probation during which the prisoner was required to secure a job and lodging on his own, 2) Conditional Pardon during which the prisoner could go to any part of Australia but never go back to Great Britain.

Keeping with the "Convict" theme for the day, we decide our next visit is to the  "Round House Precinct" located on a headland overlooking the Swan River mouth and Cockburn Sound.  The Round House, built in 1831, was the first jail of the Swan River Colony.  A courthouse was added in 1835 and in 1844 a 15-year-old convicted murderer was hanged in gallows nearby.  The new colony built two lighthouses and a signaling station to help with navigation in this location as well as cottages to house pilots, lighthouse keepers and others who kept things running. 

View from the Roundhouse Precinct

 By 1886 the Round House became the responsibility of the local police who used it as a short-term lock-up until 1900.   The same year, a Time Ball was erected near the lighthouse and signal station as part of a procedure to give mariners and residents an exact daily time check.   The ball was hoisted to the top of the tower three minutes before 1pm and released at exactly 1pm by an electrical signal sent by wire from the Astronomical Observatory in Perth.  The electrical signal also triggered a shot from a cannon.  This procedure continued until 1937 -- when it was deemed unnecessary.

In 1998 the Fremantle Signal Station was reactivated.  The cannon now belongs to the Fremantle Football Club and is fired each day at 1pm.  We just happened to be in attendance at todays firing.

Firing of the Canon at 1:00 pm Daily.

We are getting hungry so a stop at the "Bar Orient" is in order -- excellent lunch for $26 AUD for Phil and me -- not bad.

Lunch at the "Bar Orient"

 Then, we're off to the Shipwreck Museum -- which is free with donation expected.

This is a most impressive museum with large pieces of shipwrecks including the Batavia -- a Dutch East India Company ship.  On her maiden voyage in 1629 the Batavia struck a reef near Beacon Island off the western coast of Australia. Only 40 of the 322 aboard drowned.  Survivors were transferred to various islands.   Since drinking water could not be found, the Captain and other senior officers left the survivors in search of water.   The man left in charge of the survivors decided to murder those who might interfere with his plan to hijack any ship which might come by to rescue them.  The skeleton of one of the murder victims is on display in this museum.   An interesting story which can be found on Wikipedia.   All these Batavia artifacts were found in the early 1970's by an Australian maritime archaeologist.

Pat at the partial wreck of the Batavia.

 The Shipwreck Museum has many artifacts and probably deserves more time that we spend since it is late afternoon and we are tired.

After a brief rest -- we are out the door looking for a place to have dinner.  We settle on Sandrino Cafe -- which was okay for a light supper.

This has been a good first day in Fremantle.  Tomorrow we'll take the train to Perth.

Thanks for Reading.

Pat