Doing Time!

In keeping with the Australian penchant for abbreviating names and adding an 'o' at the end, our final destination, Fremantle is more commonly referred to as 'Freo'. Fremantle or 'Freo' is a port city on the southern side of the Swan River and has a more working class and hippie reputation when compared to its neighbour across the river, Perth. It is also considered to have the finest collection of heritage buildings of any Australian city.

Our first job on arrival, having dropped off our bags in our studio, was to return our car to the hire company. We had ended up completing a 1700 mile road trip and avoided any mishaps with kangaroos, emus or any of the other driving hazards. During our trip we'd also avoided contact with snakes or venomous spiders - although I noticed a flattened dead spider on the passenger seat as we returned the car. It appeared Mrs B. has squashed it...and suffered no obvious ill effects....unlike the spider. This left me pondering what was more dangerous, spiders or Mrs B....

The following morning we headed for Freo's number one visitor attraction: prison!

Fremantle prison was built in 1850 as a convict jail and used continuously to incarcerate convicts and then prisoners until as recently as 1991. It has had a chequered history with escapes and riots and a reputation for some quite appalling conditions. It is now a UNESCO World Heritage building and a visitor attraction.

The Gatehouse, Fremantle Prison

We booked ourselves into the 'Doing Time' tour and at the appointed time met our guide, Justin, who led us into the reception area. I was then 'volunteered' to stand on a line in front of the rest of the group whilst Justin explained that prisoners would have been required to strip naked before undergoing an intimate examination. Fortunately the tour didn't aim to precisely replicate the experience of prisoners...and I kept my clothes on.

Me...looking slightly nervous

The tour took us through various parts of the prison and our guide explained how it had been built and evolved over the years. The conditions experienced by prisoners up until it closed were horrendous. The treatment by guards and diet (no fresh fruit or vegetables) created an incendiary environment not helped by the fact that temperatures in the cells could reach 50°C in the summer months.

The inside of a cell decorated by a prisoner.

A full scale riot occurred in 1988 largely as a consequence of these conditions. Incredibly over the years there were a lot of escapes. One of the more infamous escapees was a bank robber called Brenden Abbott who escaped in 1989 and then went on the run for 5 ½ years. One of our tour group said her husband who worked in a bank had met him. He'd pointed a gun at her husband's head during a bank robbery!

The most harrowing parts of the prison were the solitary confinement block, (prisoners were confined in these cells for 23 hours a day and some had no light at all), the whipping post and most harrowing the execution shed. Australia ceased capital punishment in 1967. The last prisoner was hanged here in 1964.

None of the above sounds like an enjoyable experience but surprisingly our tour was informative, educational and our guide was full of stories that were funny as well as sad. We were allowed to leave and were therefore free to explore more of Freo. 

Walking took us through Freo's shopping areas which were mainly heritage buildings, some well preserved, others showing the passage of time, and along 'cappuccino strip' - where finding somewhere to sit and have a coffee isn't very challenging!

Cappuccino Strip, Fremantle

An excellent little street cafe called 'Legally Brewed' provided lunch - a tasty and quite messy pulled beef burrito.

After lunch we found ourselves on the seafront and a brewery. Little Creatures is a large craft ale brewer who have re-purposed an old dockside warehouse as a brewery. This was an excellent use of an old warehouse and I sampled their pale ale before we carried on walking. Down on the seafront we came across a bronze statue of Bon Scott the late lead singer of AC/DC who had lived in Freo. This prompted a memory of seeing him and the band live in the 1970's at a small gig in Coventry. Along the seafront and around the fishing boat harbour there were other statues and pieces of public art.

Mrs B. striding purposefully towards the bar...

Statue of Bon Scott

Our walking brought us to the Roundhouse, the oldest building in Fremantle, and, by coincidence, also used as a prison!

After a full day of walking and now quite tired we called time on our explorations and took home some deli food to restore energy levels. We'd got one more full day to continue to get to know Freo and my research had revealed there were other craft breweries to visit. 

We woke early the next morning and walked to the centre from our studio to visit another of Freo's attractions its weekend market. Part fruit and vegetable, part food sellers and stalls and parts crafts and souvenirs the market was a vibrant and bustling place. The market buildings were over 100 years old - another part of Freo's heritage. 

Fremantle market

After browsing the stalls we settled for another coffee just off cappuccino strip and read through the local papers before wandering through the streets and soaking in the architecture.

Coffee time

At lunchtime we returned to the market yard, used a table to have a picnic and then waited for a koala. Mrs B. had been keen to see a koala even though their natural habitat is not central Fremantle or even West Australia. A local wildlife park brought in a few animals to the markets and as a result, and in return for a donation, Mrs B got to stroke a koala - to her delight and the koalas supreme disinterest - it seemed more engaged with munching eucalyptus leaves.

After Mrs B. was dragged away from the koala we walked a mile or so to an art gallery that was located in an old lunatic asylum. There wasn't to much to see but an exhibition of work inspired by Gallipoli created by an Australian artist Lev Vykopal was both interesting and moving. 

After some culture I decided we needed to visit another brewery so more walking found us at the Monk Brewery in the heart of Freo where we shared a tasting tray of their 8 different (and excellent) beers ranging from light wheat beer to dark porters. 

Me..doing an Eric Morecambe impression

We then returned to the Little Creatures brewery for more beer which in my case went extremely well with a harissa lamb and feta topped wood fired pizza. The day had flown by and we reluctantly walked back to our temporary home for our last night on Australian territory. Some careful packing was needed to protect some wine bottles that had made my backpack somewhat heavier than when we started. A bright and sunny morning greeted us next day as we made our way from Fremantle towards Perth airport for the long flight home. There was time to stop for a coffee in Perth and take in the tranquility of a park with one last sight of parrots in the trees before we heaved our packs onto our backs for one last time.

And so ended our travels through South West Australia. A land of contrast and great natural beauty. Like many countries Australia has undercurrents of tension and societal issues that a visitor only senses rather than fully understands. The treatment of the aboriginal communities by white settlers from the time of their arrival up until the recent past was appalling and many aborigines have never recovered from the scars inflicted. An undercurrent of racism persists in society even now as does a disregard for the environment as mining conglomerates are permitted to extract natural resources in a largely unfettered way. The people we met on our travels were unfailingly helpful, friendly and good company and proud of their country, its landscape and heritage. All in all it was a trip with experiences that will live long in the memory.