Fremantle Travel Guide

The port city of Fremantle is a jewel in Western Australia's crown, largely because of its colonial architectural heritage. Freo (as the locals call it) is also a city where locals know each other, and there are plenty of interesting (and sometimes eccentric) residents. Modern Fremantle is a far cry from the barren, sandy plain that greeted the first wave of English settlers back in 1829 at the newly constituted Swan River Colony. Most were city dwellers, and after five months at sea in sailing ships they landed on salt-marsh flats that sorely tested their fortitude. Living in tents with packing cases for chairs, they found no edible crops, and the nearest freshwater was a distant 51 km (32 mi)—and a tortuous trip up the salty waters of the Swan. As a result they soon moved the settlement upriver to the vicinity of present-day Perth.