Skip to main content

Perth, Western Australia. Trip 2013 Highlights, Part 2: Fremantle

Fremantle: High Street view from the Round House.
Every trip to Perth, my partner, Enigma, and I try to plan at least a day in Fremantle together as our 'just us' part of the holiday. The port city is the one place we'd both choose to live if there was no other factors to consider about where we call home.

I personally like it for it's historic architecture and history but more so, it's proximity to great beaches and the fact it's still a working port. Container and holiday ships are always coming and going and serves as a constant reminder that there's a bigger world out there.

Not that I particularly want to explore that bigger world, it's more a metaphor for always thinking about the bigger picture. Looking beyond just your point of view. That kind of thing.

Anyhow, the purpose of this post is not to get all philosophical. This is all about how we spent our day in Fremantle.

Fremantle Tram Tours

Fremantle Tram.
Enigma had read about Fremantle's Tram Tours. The Trams themselves are replica 'Trams' that are more like a bus. They don't run on tram lines but they do follow the exact same circuit of six stops around Fremantle. The trams do eight circuits (during peak season) spread out over the course of a day meaning you can buy a ticket and then hop on and off different trams if you want to spend a little more time at a specific location.

Fremantle Gaol.
Now a Museum with Cafe.
Enigma and I chose to do the full circuit in one go. Other options include tours that also meet up with the ferry tour from Fremantle to Perth (and back) which will then meet up with the Bus Tour of Perth city. There's also a tram tour that includes lunch on the Ferry to Perth and back, meeting up with the tram again on the return and a Friday night Ghostly Tour. Prices vary depending on the tour.

The tram tour stops at six locations but as you go the drivers point out all the various historic sites and other points of interest, giving you a little bit of information about each.

War Memorial.
It's quite a nice tour but, to be honest, it does feel a little rushed with few opportunities to stop and take photos. Though if you planned your whole day around the tram tour and did hop on and off different trams you'd have plenty of time for photos and a good look around.

The Round House and Bather's Bay

After our Tram Tour Enigma and I headed up to the Round House which overlooks Bather's Bay (an ideal little beach to take small children or to just sit and relax).

The Round House (building on the right)
overlooking Bather's Bay on the left.
Old Whaling tunnel
running directly under
the Round House.
The Round House is Fremantle's first Gaol built on, what is mostly, a limestone rock hill.

The Gaol is now a museum that is worth exploring for the gold coin donation required to get in. However I usually visit this location because it has the best view looking over most of Fremantle on one side, then the best view looking out to sea on the other.

Many people have leaned along the rock wall, looking out over Bather's Beach, as the sun sets in the west over the years - including myself.

Fishing Boat Harbour Board Walk

The fishing boat harbour board walk is just over the other side of Bather's Bay and features many different restaurants and kiosks which overlooks where all the locals moor their boats.

Restaurants looking out towards Fishing Boat Harbour.
Enigma and I had intended to have fish and chips for dinner at Cicerello's, supposedly the best in the state, but it was too early so we settled for drinks and took the time to take a few more photos.

Bon Scott tribute Statue
at the Boat Habour.
Most notable to international visitors who may also be fans of the Australian band AC/DC is the statue of Bon Scott. The singer, as far as I know, is buried in Fremantle Cemetery, possibly in an unmarked grave now, as there used to be problems with fans stealing his headstone.

I'm sure the statue was built not only to pay tribute to Bon but to also take some of the focus away from his grave site. Since a photo with a statue of the legend is probably more desirable for all but the most hardcore of fans.

The statue is very life-like but at half scale (I'd say, at a guess). Which made me think he looked a bit Hobbit-sized in comparison to some of the other statues dedicated to fishermen, which are all life size. You'll definitely think "I thought Bon was taller?"

Market Street - Cafe Strip

After we'd explored the harbour we headed back to Market Street, otherwise known as Fremantle's Cafe Strip. Before looking for somewhere to have dinner, Enigma made a couple of stops to buy souvenirs for the grand kids and chocolate for us from Fremantle Chocolate.

The Cafe Strip its self features Alfresco Dining up and down both sides of the street from almost any culture you can imagine. Having been too early for fish and chips at the Harbour we looked for somewhere along the strip that could do a nice fish and chips.

Ali Baba and the
40 Dishes.
We settled upon a small Turkish cafe called Ali Baba and the 40 Dishes. Which, wisely offers a fairly standard fish and chips (I don't know, everyone just expects to be able to get fish and chips in a port city I guess so most places include it on the menu).

We weren't looking for anywhere too flashy but the strip has all levels of dining from small cafes and fast food to full table service and indoor dining. There's bound to be something to suit anyone.

Port Beach - North Fremantle

After dinner it was starting to get dark but there was just enough time for a trip into North Fremantle to show Enigma that Fremantle actually does have a proper beach in Port Beach.

Unfortunately it was too dark to get a good photo by this time but the image below gives you a reasonable view looking back towards the lights of central Fremantle and the port - where we'd spent our day.

Port Beach, looking back towards the lights of Fremantle Harbour.
Photo: Enigma.

Comments

  1. Nice photos. The info about Fremantle is good, as I wouldn't know even though I live here! I'm going to send these two blogs to our Janet I think. I was supposed to be giving her an email about your trip with your tight itinary, but haven't managed it yet. Also the family photos to send, but only three with me on and not really all that good of me this time. Kathy took one of us all on her phone, which I was going to ask her to send to see if it was any beter?

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Comments are moderated by an actual human (me, TET) and may not publish right away. I do read all comments and only reject those not directly related to the post or are spam/scams (I'm looking at you Illuminati recruiters... I mean scammers. Stop commenting on my Illuminati post!).

Buy Gifts and Apparel featuring art by TET.

Popular posts from this blog

I'm Confused About Why People Prefer to Say Discombobulated?

D iscombobulated. Is a word that I think someone rediscovered about three or four years ago (maybe more because the pandemic years have thrown out my sense of time) and now I hear it a lot. It's not a new word by any means, but when I started hearing multiple celebrities using it in everyday sentences, I actively had to look up what it meant. Define it with as many synonyms as you like but essentially it's just another word meaning 'confused'. Seinfeld Quotes: Quotes.net The words are pretty much interchangeable. He was discombobulated by too many choices. He was confused by too many choices.  My confusion is the length of the word. It's unnecessarily long with too many syllables. There are many other words that mean confused, and therefore also mean discombobulated. Most of them are shorter and easier to say. So why not just say 'confused'? Perhaps discombobulated sounds more intelligent, maybe?  Hawaii Five-0 Quotes: Quotes.net I've noticed it gets us...

Movie Review: Captain America: Brave New World (2025) *No Spoilers*

I  decided not see Captain America: Brave New World in a cinema because everything I heard about the film pointed to a disjointed mess, from testing poorly, to whole characters being added in during reshoots. The trailers looked okay but, since they featured Red Hulk, quite a bit, it felt like there wasn't much left as a drawcard for seeing the film in a cinema. Having now seen the film on Disney+ I feel it was a good decision. While the big budget effects no doubt would've looked better on a big screen, the story wasn't particularly complex or intriguing enough to make the film stand out. If anything, it's a straight forward action movie with a hero who is just kind of... there. The story revolves around a plot to kill the newly elected US President, former General Thaddeus Ross (Harrison Ford). Captain America (Anthony Mackie) must find who is the real mastermind in order to clear his friend and the original Super Solider, Isaiah Bradley's (Carl Lumbly), name. I...

TV Series Review: Humans (2015-2018, 3 Seasons) *No Spoilers*

Colin Morgan, Katherine Parkinson, Ivanno Jeremiah, Gemma Chan, and Emily Berrington in Humans (2015) W hile it may seem late to be reviewing Humans now, nearly seven years after the show wrapped, the only thing that's really aged about it is the opening titles... and even then, not that much. I think I caught the first season on Netflix back in 2015, and then kind of dropped off waiting for a new season to appear. As of writing this, all three seasons are on Amazon Prime. Humans is set in a parallel world that looks much like ours except humanoid robot helpers, that look just like real humans, called 'Synths', are now common place. Season one begins at the point where the first synths go from being subservient machines to gaining consciousness, and explores not only how humanity reacts to that but how the synths react to humanity's perceptions as well. Initially it follows a group of OG synths, already given consciousness by their creator, and just trying to survive i...

Australian Federal Election 2025 - World's Most Boring Government Re-elected by Landside - We're Even More Fine!

Anthony Albanese Victory by ChatGPT and TET. W hen I started writing about the 2025 Federal election the polls were suggesting the world's most boring government was crusing to a defeat . As it turns out, boring is good, and Australia wants more of it, handing the current government a landslide win with a majority vote. Anthony Albanese became the first PM since John Howard to win a consecutive term, and the first Labor PM since Bob Hawke to do so. Some of that comes down to the leadership revolving door both major parties had through the mid 2000s. Although Anthony is my preferred PM over Dutton the irony is Dutton sounds more like a leader with a fairly commanding voice and an ability to speak well, without sounding like he's waffling and dodging questions, even if he is. Anthony, on the other hand, does have the ability (and speech writer) to say a lot of inspiring things but it gets lost in the delivery. He doesn't seem to know when to emphasise a point for effect. In h...

Resident Dragon: Checking In with My Daily Gag Cartoon/Comic About a Fire Dragon Living in the Suburbs

A t the beginning of the year I introduced you to my latest cartoon/comic series, Resident Dragon (because a dragon's got to live somewhere).  A daily - well, week-day-ly - gag cartoon about Red the Fire Dragon, living in a shared house in the suburbs, with his human friend, TET and his two pets, Grrr Dog and Cool Froyd the cat. Back then I had about 100 cartoons sketched out, with eleven completely digitally inked and coloured.  As of writing this, I haven't yet skipped a day of my schedule, and am seven toons short of an even 200 sketched out, with 31 fully inked and coloured. Actually, it's 33 but I only publish one full colour toon each week, so I have two in the wings. I'm not planning on doing daily toons forever. My goal is to hit 366 so I have enough to fill a daily desk calendar, should I decide to sell one. Currently you can buy individual prints of my finished toons in my Resident Dragon Store . When I have enough finished toons I will be compiling them into...

Movie Review: A Complete Unknown (2024) *No Spoilers*

Y ou would think the Bob Dylan story would be 'wind-swept and interesting,' to quote Billy Connelly, however, despite  A Complete Unknown  being quite an engaging film, it feels like it missed the years that really shaped him as a song writer/performer. The film starts in 1961, with a then unknown, 19-year-old Bob Dylan (Timothée Chalamet) arriving in New York City with his guitar.  From there he forges relationships with musical icons on his meteoric rise, culminating in a groundbreaking performance that reverberates around the world. The problem being, according to this film, Dylan arrived in New York, for the most part, fully formed as a folk singer/song writer. In virtually no time he makes a very important connection that puts him on the trajectory of doing the work and becoming a name, before making his world changing performance. While there is some drama behind the scenes with his various relationships, none of it is particularly unique to any number of up and com...

TV Series Review: Star Wars: Andor - Season 2 (2025, Disney+) *No Spoilers*

D isney+'s Star Wars: Andor  the first season is widely regarded as some of the best Star Wars since the original trilogy, and I don't disagree in my  Andor Season 1  review. Despite that, it does have its problems, mainly a lot of space between action pieces. That's not to say nothing is happening in those spaces, but I do remember being frustrated how long season one took to get to a promised heist scene, going from conversation to conversation over several episodes. However, when Andor does have action, it usually delivers, with action that serves the story rather than action because 'it's time for some action now'. Unfortunately that gave Andor the reputation for being Star Wars 'for grown ups'. People who understand how tension and intrigue can come just as much from character interaction, who is talking to who, and what they're saying. That lead to low viewership and the show's proposed number of seasons being reduced to just two (I believe...