Tuesday March 21, 2023
We sailed into Fremantle port early and made an amazing 180 degree pirouette in one of the narrowest parts, so the bow and stern were only feet away from the dockside on either end. A very close call but well managed by the Captain. We docked, port to dock, at the International Cruise Terminal that is opposite to the container port. Once again a very modern terminal, but with no retail facilities, shops, only the necessary customs, immigration, baggage handling and the extremely thorough magnetometer where everything including belts have to go through the machine with no hand screening. We found all of the above to be the case in virtually all Australian ports other than in Busselton where it was just a public pier with no screening facilities.
Fremantle – called “Freo” by the locals, as Australians abbreviate most things; in the aboriginal Nyungar language, is called Walyalup – Place of the Walie – brush-tailed bettong (a small marsupial Australian mammal); is located at the mouth of the Swan River. The area was visited as early as the 1600s by Dutch explorers but it was colonized by the British Captain Charles Fremantle on the ship HMS Challenger. He claimed the West Coast of New Holland as land of King George IV on June 2, 1829. Perth was settled on August 12, 1829. Fremantle became a primary destination for convicts and the (1831) “Round House” was the first prison, which proceeded the large prison built by convicts that continued to operate until 1868 and then was remodeled and only relatively recently stopped being a prison. It is now a World Heritage site and a tourist attraction. We visited both during the visit. It was chartered as a municipality in 1883 and a city in 1929. During WW2, it was the largest submarine base in the Southern Hemisphere hosting some 125 USA, 31 UK and 11 Dutch submarines. However this was not always the case as there was a large block of limestone under the water preventing ships from entering the harbor. It’s big “Claim to Fame” recently was that the Royal Perth Yacht Club won, and held the trophy, of the America’s Cup Sailing race in 1987, breaking the world record of dominance by the USA of winning competition after competition, in any sport. It has many Victorian and Edwardian buildings and is the traditional home of Australian Rules Football.
We boarded coach 1 with Jane, the guide, and the driver, Steve who helped with the commentary and seemed to be more effective than the guide who seemed to be more of a housewife showing friends her town, but not a professional guide. However, she was pleasant and perfectly adequate. Unfortunately, before we got started, the microphone was not working at the back of the coach and this created some animosity, particularly one woman who complained a lot. Jane tried to do her best standing in the middle of the coach, but that is illegal as in all of Australia, on a coach that has seatbelts, all have to wear seatbelts at all times in the coach or be personally subject to a fine. Eventually the driver got it working and all calmed down. The tour was the “Essence of Western Australia”. Yesterday we did the “Essence of Busselton” and the essence was drinking alcohol, so we were afraid we were in for another day of wine and beer. This turned out to be only partially true as there was only one vineyard we visited and had a glass of beer at lunch, otherwise it was all in the coach, photo stops and a river cruise.
Perth and Fremantle used to be separate towns, but now seem to be all one as you can’t really tell where one ends and the other starts. Perth (called Boorloo in the local Nyungar language) was founded further up river from Fremantle as it was closer to the fields which provided the food for the residents. Agriculture was eventually replaced by mining (iron ore and diamonds for example) then by oil and gas as the primary economic activity. Perth is considered the most isolated state capital of any in the world as it is 4 hours by ‘plane from Canberra and 2,000 miles from Antarctica. There are 2.7 million people living in Western Australia of which 2.4 million live in the greater Perth area. It consists of 30 local government areas and 350 suburbs! Western Australia covers about 1/3 of the land mass of Australia. Greater Perth extends about 150 kilometers in length as most want to live close to the water and 60 kilometers in width from the sea to the lakes past the Darling escarpment. Based on Archaeological evidence the first settlers – the Noongar people inhabited this area 45,000 years ago. The Central Buisness District was the Territory of the Moro, a Noongar clan who were part of several Noongar clans that lived around the Swan River and collectively known as the Whadjuk. The Whadjuk were themselves part of a larger group of 14 tribes that collectively are the Noongar socio-linguistic group.
There is a small island named by the Dutch called Rottnest as the animals that lived there resembled rats so rats nest seemed appropriate. There are two swimming races a year from the mainland to Rottnest, one usually attracts 2,000 swimmers and the other about 1,500. Housing is expensive as a nice house in a decent area will cost about $5 million. We did pass a very nice tennis club that has grass courts. Our overall impression of the city was very positive, nice buildings, nice layout, nice harbor, nice people and we are sure – a nice place to live. We were amazed by the number of pleasure craft (motor & sail) in the marinas and apparently on holidays and at the week-end, the harbor is filled with individuals on their pleasure boats. The Swan River, so named because of the many black swans on the river, is not very deep so it has never been a commercial harbor. The name Perth comes from the Scottish town of the same name.
Our first stop was at Kings Park and Botanical Garden (www.bgpa.wa.gov.au) on Mount Eliza. A 400 hectare park that is bigger than Central Park in New York and bigger than Hyde Park in London. It offers a great view of the Perth harbor, the Swan and Canning Rivers and has the War Memorial with all the names of those who gave their lives that lived in the Perth area. The view was spectacular and being a cloudless 33 C temperature day, it was all spectacular. We unfortunately did not have time to see it, but apparently the Botanic Gardens with over 3,000 species of flora and the fact that much of the garden is Australian natural “bush” make it a place to spend a lot more time. However we were back on the coach, seeing the sights of Perth and heading to the Swan River Valley.
We went to the Upper Reach Winery in the Swan Valley where the owner’s wife who was from London UK, but had lived in Puebla, Mexico gave us a nice history of how they came to be vineyard owners and producers of wine. Apparently the man came from this region and his family were all farmers, he did not want to go into farming so went to the UK and met his wife and they were married and living in Liverpool, working in a wine shop where he had access to wines and a group of friends would get together once a month and taste some of the wines. He, after a while decided that he wanted to return to Australia and they bought this property which had some vines, but they knew nothing about making wine other than they enjoyed drinking it. They approached a local wine consultant to help them get started and he kindly offered his services as a gift to the newcomers. The first year was a disaster, but then they were growing and handpicking grapes and selling them to wineries. However, it was costing them to do this, so eventually they constructed buildings and started making wine. It is more of a boutique type winery with a production that they sell locally and to their “Members” who commit to buying 6 cases of 12 bottles a year. We tasted 5 wines, most of which were still a bit young, but had wine prizes and we enjoyed the first three a great deal. We started with 2 whites then a rose and eventually got into the 2 reds – Cabernet and Shiraz. We were not so keen on the Reds but did buy one of the three first wines.
We next arrived at the elaborate Mandoon Estate and Homestead Brewery where we had a nice lunch, with a beer brewed on premises, half inside / half outside overlooking the vines. It was nice, but yesterday was more spectacular. We ended up with a burger and fish and chips which we had chosen on the coach earlier and the order was called in to the restaurant.
It was time to then head to the Barrack Street Jetty where we were to board the SeaLink Captain Cook Cruises 100 foot Catamaran James Sterling (named after the founder of Perth). It was a large vessel that does runs to Rottnest Island and to Fremantle. While we were in the queue to board the vessel, a middle-aged lady passenger who seemed thin and fit, collapsed, probably from dehydration. Our guide obtained water and a wheel chair and was able to attend to her. She boarded the catamaran with the rest of us and by the time we returned to the coach all was well. This was the second time this had happened to us, a different lady collapsed when we were on the beach with the seals a couple of days ago. The Captain gave excellent commentary of what we were passing and the views were excellent of the harbor and all down the Swan River. As we came to Fremantle we saw the Queen Mary 2 from the river as well as a Japanese Icebreaker 5003 that was docked in front of the QM2. It was spacious, 2 floor Catamaran with bar and other facilities, which was a highlight of the day. After 1 1/2 hours we were back in Fremantle for a drive around the city and stopped at the Fremantle Prison, where we had an interesting talk of the horrors of prison life and the fact it was used during the convict era up to 1971. It is now a tourist attraction, but we did not have time to go inside, although one can visit and hear a great deal more about the prison. The original prison was what is called the Round Hose which was used for a few years before the main prison was built by convicts. An interesting day and we were tired, so had a salad at the cafeteria then went to the theatre. The show tonight was the amazing Nathanial Rankin doing his show “Astonishment” which is a variety show based on the art of magic, but much more. A very entertaining show. Tonight we set our clocks back one hour.
Roger & Anne Travels 