Fremantle (;Australians generally favour the pronunciation "FREE-mantle" over its English antecedent "Fre-MAN-tle". However, the stress commonly reverts to the second syllable in phonetic compounds such as 'North Fre-MAN-tle', 'South Fre-MAN-tle', etc. "Freo" is pronounced FREE-oh. ; nicknamed Freo) is a port city in Western Australia located at the mouth of the Swan River in the metropolitan area of Perth, the state capital. Fremantle Harbour serves as the port of Perth.
Prior to British settlement, the indigenous Noongar people inhabited the area for millennia, and knew it by the name of Walyalup ("place of the woylie")."(26/3/2018) Inaugural Woylie Festival starts tomorrow" , fremantle.gov.au. Retrieved 5 July 2020. Visited by Dutch explorers in the 1600s, Fremantle was the first area settled by the Swan River colonists in 1829, and is named after Captain Charles Fremantle, an English naval officer who claimed the west coast of New Holland as British territory. The settlement struggled in its first decades, and in 1850, with the advent of penal transportation to the colony, Fremantle became Australia's primary destination for convicts. The convict-built Fremantle Prison operated long after transportation of convicts ended in 1868, and is now a World Heritage Site.
Fremantle was charted as a municipality in 1883, and the following decade its harbour was deepened for commercial shipping, transforming the port into a bustling trade centre and gateway at the height of the Western Australian gold rushes. Declared a city in 1929, Fremantle played a key role in World War II as the largest submarine base in the Southern Hemisphere. Post-war immigration from Europe, particularly Italy, helped shape Fremantle's character, and it rapidly gentrified after hosting the 1987 America's Cup sailing competition. Today, Fremantle is recognised for its well-preserved Victorian and Edwardian streetscapes and convict-era architecture, and is known as a bohemian enclave with a thriving arts and culinary scene. It is also the traditional home of the Fremantle Football Club, one of the two Australian Football League teams based in Western Australia.
History Indigenous Australians The original inhabitants of the land on which the city is built are the Whadjuk Noongar people, who called the area Walyalup ("place of the woylie"). To the local Noongar people, Fremantle is a place of ceremonies, significant cultural practices and trading. For millennia the Noongar people met there in spring and autumn to feast on fish and game.
Anglesea Point and the limestone hill area at Arthur Head, where the Round House prison stands, to Point Marquis was called Manjaree, an important meeting placeHistory: Migration to Fremantle at the Western Australian Museum Welcome Walls where bush paths converged and a major trading place for Whadjuk and neighbouring Noongars. Today, Whadjuk and other Noongars continue to gather and meet in Walyalup and at Manjaree.
European settlement and convict era
The first Europeans to visit the site of modern-day Fremantle were Dutch explorers captained by Willem de Vlamingh, in 1697. They mapped the area and went up the Swan River, and Vlamingh reported that it would be an ideal place for a settlement, although no attempts were made at the time.
The area was considered as a site for possible British settlement in 1827, when Captain James Stirling, in , explored the coastal areas near the Swan River. His favourable report was welcomed by the British Government, who had for some time been suspicious of French colonial intentions towards the western portion of Australia. As a result of Stirling's report, Captain Charles Fremantle of , a 603-ton, 28-gun frigate, was instructed to sail to the west coast of Australia to establish a settlement there.Jackson, K. (1984). Fremantle, Western Australia, p. 7
On 2 May 1829, Fremantle hoisted the Union Flag in a bay near what is now known as Arthur Head, and in accordance with his instructions, took formal possession "of the whole of the West Coast of New Holland" in the name of Britain's King George IV.Fremantle-the beginning (1972) In Gateway June 1973, £ol.2, No. 1, p. 12. Western Australia Day (formerly Foundation Day) is observed on the first Monday in June, although it was actually on 2 June 1829 that Captain James Stirling on arrived with Surveyor-General Roe and the first contingent of immigrants to set up the Swan River Colony.Hitchcock, J.K. (1927). Fremantle, 1829–49, found in Early Days, Vol. 1, Part 1, p. 11
The settlement of Perth began on 12 August 1829. Captain Fremantle left the colony on 25 August after providing much assistance to Stirling in setting up the colony. It was then that Stirling decided to name the port settlement Fremantle. In early September 1829, the merchant vessel Anglesea grounded at Gage Roads, at the mouth of the Swan River. She did not break up, as had been expected, but instead survived to become Western Australia's first prison hulk. , which arrived on about 10 October 1829, was "the second passenger ship that sailed for Western Australia."
On 1 June 1850, the first convicts arrived at Fremantle aboard . The thirty-seventh and last convict ship to dock at Fremantle was on 10 January 1868, signalling the end of penal transportation to Australia. Among the 280 convicts on board were 62 Fenian military and political prisoners—members of the Irish Republican Brotherhood—six of whom managed to escape the Convict Establishment in the Catalpa rescue of 1876.The Fenians , FremantlePrison.com.au. Retrieved 9 December 2011. During this period, notorious South Sea pirate Bully Hayes lived in Fremantle with his fiancée Miss Scott, daughter of the Fremantle Harbour Master.Clune, Frank. Captain Bully Hayes: Blackbirder and Bigamist. Perth: Hesperian Press, 1997. , p. 11
Gateway to the West
In 1897, Irish-born engineer C. Y. 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. This occurred at the height of the late 19th-century Western Australian gold rush, transforming Fremantle into a capital of trade and gateway for thousands of gold miners to the inland boom towns of Coolgardie, Kalgoorlie and Southern Cross. Camels and their Afghan drivers were familiar sights, and by-laws regulating the driving of camels through the streets of Fremantle were enacted.Stevens, Christine (2002). Tin Mosques and Ghan Towns: A History of Afghan Camel Drivers in Australia. Melbourne: Oxford University Press. pp. 109–112. .
The wealth generated during this period resulted in the construction of many pubs, hotels, banks, warehouses, import-export businesses and shipping companies throughout Fremantle, and in 1905, the Fremantle tram network opened.
In 1919, a deadly clash between striking waterside workers and police took place at Fremantle Harbour.
Naval operations
During the Second World War, Fremantle was the home of the largest base for Allied submarines in the Southern Hemisphere, and the second largest in the Pacific War after Pearl Harbor.Cairns, Lynn. Secret Fleets: Fremantle's World War II Submarine Base. Western Australian Museum, 2011. . In the lead-up to and during the war, the port's existing batteries were upgraded and new ones were constructed, forming a coastal defence system referred to as Fremantle Fortress. There were up to 125 US, 31 British and 11 Free Dutch submarines operating out of Fremantle,Cairns, L. (1995) Fremantle's secret fleets. until the Americans moved forward to the Philippines. One of the first US submarines to arrive in Fremantle, the USS Sargo (SS-188), was bombed by an Australian Lockheed Hudson, which mistook it for a Japanese vessel.Dowson, J. (2003). Old Fremantle. Crawley, W.A: University of Western Australia Press. pp 214. The movements and presence of USS Sturgeon (SS-187) is a good example of such activity.
Fremantle was considered a "veritable Shangri-la" among submariners during the war, however tensions between transient American and non-American soldiers often led to alcohol-fuelled violence. On 11 April 1944, a brawl between American and New Zealand servicemen at the National Hotel resulted in many injuries and the death from stab wounds of two Māori soldiers.Soldiers' deaths: Coroner's finding The West Australian, 28 June 1944, p.4, at TroveMaoris Tell Vivid Stories Of Fremantle Stabbing Brawl Which Ended In Two Deaths The Mirror, Perth, 1 July 1944, at Trove
Post-Second World War
After Australia won the 1983 America's Cup yacht race, Fremantle hosted Australia's defence of the trophy in 1987. The series was held in Gage Roads and significantly boosted the local economy and tourism. A new Fremantle marina, Challenger Harbour, was built alongside the existing Fishing Boat Harbour.
The City of Fremantle introduced several urban renewal projects in 2012, encouraging mixed-use development by increasing the maximum building height on key sites in the CBD, including Kings Square and the inner East End. In January 2013, the City of Fremantle became the first council in Australia to outlaw the use of non-degradable plastic bags within their local area.Zaw, Yolanda (31 January 2013). , The West Australian. Retrieved 4 February 2013.
Fremantle still serves as the chief general seaport for Western Australia, though far greater tonnages are exported from the iron-ore ports of the Pilbara.
Geography
Fremantle lies on a series of limestone hills known by the Nyungar people as Booyeembara; the sandplain to the east is Gardoo.Lyon, R. M., A Glance at the Manners and Languages of the Aboriginal Inhabitants of Western Australia, 1833; published in Green 1979 (below).Green, N. (ed.) Nyungar: The People, Creative Research Publishing, Mount Lawley College, Perth, 1979 The original vegetation of the area was mainly Xanthorrhoea and eucalyptus trees, which were traditionally fired annually by the Aboriginal people.
The suburb of Fremantle is bounded by the Swan River to the north and north-west, the Indian Ocean to the west, South Street to the south, and the suburbs of East Fremantle and White Gum Valley to the east. The central part of the suburb extends eastwards to include Royal Fremantle Golf Club and a suburban area south of Marmion Street and west of Carrington Street.
The City of Fremantle local government area also includes the suburbs of Beaconsfield, Hilton, North Fremantle, O'Connor, Samson, South Fremantle, and White Gum Valley. East Fremantle has its own town council and is not governed by the City of Fremantle.
Fremantle is the end of the Fremantle railway line which runs from Perth to Fremantle, run by the Western Australia's Public Transport Authority. Major highways including Stirling Highway, Canning Highway and Leach Highway have Fremantle as their start point and/or terminus.
Climate Fremantle has a Mediterranean climate (Köppen: Csa). The regular sea breeze is known as the Fremantle Doctor, as it provides cooling relief from the summer heat when it arrives between noon and 3pm. Fremantle is generally a few degrees cooler than Perth in summer.
Politics
The Fremantle state seat was continuously held by the Australian Labor Party from 1924 until 2009, when it was lost at a by-election to Greens candidate Adele Carles. The seat was returned to Labor (Simone McGurk) in the 2013 state election. The federal electorate has returned Labor members continuously since 1934, including former Prime Minister John Curtin, and is represented by Josh Wilson.
The local government of the City of Fremantle consists of a mayor and council. Ben Lawver has been the mayor since the 2025 local government elections.