Fremantle Australia

It has been very difficult reducing our Fremantle pictures to 12. We thoroughly enjoyed our 2 days in the city and surrounding area. To put things in perspective, Fremantle is the port city for Perth, which is 20-some kilometers inland. It is a relatively small city of approximately 30,000, but we found plenty to do there—so much that we never made it to Perth!

On our first day we visited 2 national parks north of Fremantle along the ocean. The first, Yanchep National Park, surrounded a mostly-dry lake and was home to some great wildlife.

Picture 1 shows a Kookaburra sitting in an old gum tree. (Doesn’t that make you want to break into song???). Picture 2 shows a cuddly koala. Picture 3 shows one of many gray kangaroos that we saw.

The second, Nambung National Park, is the gateway to The Pinnacles. These are limestone rocks, up to 10 feet tall, that seem to be growing from the sand. Of course, it’s the reverse. Time has worn away rock, leaving these amazing formations. Picture 4 shows one grouping, including the one that wore away to look like Queen Victoria. Picture 5 shows another that looks like an old man in profile.

The coast along western Australia consists of rocky coasts in some areas, sand dunes in other areas and gorgeous beaches. Picture 6 shows a view of some dunes from The Pinnacles. Close-up and in the sun, the dunes are white and look like snowdrifts.

We spent our second day wandering the streets of Freemantle. We spent the entire morning at the Freemantle Prison, which closed in the early 1990s and is now a museum. It had been an active prison for about 150 years and closed when it did because it was not considered sanitary—they did not have indoor plumbing and the inmates used buckets in their cells. 

We took 2 tours at the prison: Doing Time and Great Escapes. Our guide was exceptionally good: honest about what really went on and forthright with information that is often not known. It was a bit grisly, but fascinating.

Picture 7 shows the entrance to the prison, which was designed for 1000 prisoners, but has held more. It has a women’s building that could hold 70 women and the remaining buildings provided maximum security for men. Picture 8 shows one section of one building. It is 4 stories tall. The netting at the 2^nd floor level is a suicide net.

Picture 9 is a typical cell—about 4 feet by 7 feet. There is a window that provides light, but doesn’t open. The only fresh air was from a louvered board under the door. In the early years of the prison, there was a hammock in place of the cot. In later years, bunk beds replaced the cots. Prisoners spent 16 hours in their cell a day and 8 hours either working or in the exercise yard. Working was preferable to the inmates, as it provided them with a small salary, which allowed them to buy “extras”, such as food, cigarettes, etc.

Australia has abandoned capital punishment. Before the change in law, however, 44 executions took place in the Fremantle Prison, the last in the 1970s. The British considered hanging the most human, killing the individual in ¾ of a second. Picture 10 shows the very gruesome death chamber.

Over 200 people have escaped from Fremantle Prison and all have been re-caught—a record of which they are very proud. The final re-capture occurred in 2005. This prisoner had been at large for 30 years, lived a good and respectable life and had the misfortune to develop terminal cancer.  Unable to work, he applied for retirement benefits. Unfortunately, he didn’t do it in late 2004, when the disease was discovered, but waited until January of 2005. On January 1, 2005, Australia coordinated their data systems. When his name popped up for retirement benefits, it also popped up as an escaped convict. He was promptly arrested, returned to Fremantle, put in jail, pardoned and sent back to his home. But it gave the Fremantle Prison its perfect record of all escapees caught.

Our Great Escapes tour was full of many interesting stories like this. But our guide also emphasized other means of escape, such as painting. Picture 11 shows one cell, with a particularly talented resident.

Following the Freemantle Prison and a craft beer and pizza lunch, we visited the Western Australia Museum Shipwreck Galleries. It’s small, but contains some very interesting relics that have been pulled from the ocean floor. There are several Dutch shipwrecks off the west coast of Australia. As the Dutch East Indies Company ships rounded the Cape of Good Hope in Africa, the winds would sometimes carry them off course and they would end up hitting the reef off Australia instead of Indonesia.

One such example was the Batavia. The crew saved one small boat and managed to get everyone ashore on an island. A very grizzly mutiny and massacre followed. The perpetrators were tried and punished and the episode seemed to be over. A few years ago, however, divers found some of its remains, which now reside in the Shipwreck Museum. Not as complete as the Vasa in Stockholm, but the port side of the stern still remains, as shown in Picture 12.

We continue to enjoy the lesser-known parts of Australia. Two more stops before heading to Indonesia.