Freo Walkabout

Fremantle City consists of several smaller suburbs - Beaconsfield, Fremantle, Hilton, North Fremantle, O'Connor, Samson, South Fremantle and White Gum Valley. (East Fremantle is its own town.) The city has a total area of 18.7 square kilometers (that's 7.2 square miles for you Yanks). Fremantle gets 18,000 visitors a day with a 2001 population of only 25,000 so that should tell you there's lots to see and do. I'll try to give you the flavor of the area without too much detail.

Now that's a Town Hall! It opened in June 1887 in honor of Queen Victoria's Jubilee. It's not as fancy inside except the foyer, where they found elaborate decorations under old paint and restored them. This building houses the library, tourist information, and the usual administrative offices.

Here are some other buildings in no particular order for you to get a feel for the town.


St. John's Church was erected in 1882 but has windows from the old church that was built in 1843. The floor is Australian jarrah wood as is the floor of the home we're renting.


The pedestrian mall reminds me of Old Town Fort Collins but the shops are very different.


For one thing, we don't have palm trees in Colorado!



This building is the former trades hall, built in 1904. I don't know if you can see the three number eights at the top of the building but they stand for eight hours of work, eight hours of sleep and eight hours of free time. Another theory is that they also represent pieces of eight. This was built in 1904.

This is the old Orient Hotel, infamous place where the successful escape of six Fenian prisoners was planned with the help of an American whaling ship. Fenians were the IRA of 1876 and planned to overthrow British rule of Ireland.

Well, I'm tired for now after a hard day of housework (see, it's not all fun and games here!) so will leave the rest for another installment. We miss you all despite the fact that this is a wonderful place to be.

Politicians Are Much The Same

Western Australia held its state elections yesterday. Voting is compulsory and they vote on Saturday. If Australians fail to vote, they are fined $25!

We were very intrigued to see how this system works. The incumbent premiere called the election about a year early. He made the announcement on August 6th, giving his opponents four weeks to prepare. The election resulted in a hung Parliament. Here' the story according to ABC:

"Counting is set to resume in the WA election today but it could still be several days before a result is known.The failure of either major party to win enough seats to govern WA means the National Party may hold the balance of power but it could fall to independents. Both Labor and the Liberals are courting the National party as the four seats they hold may be crucial in forming government.

Yesterday the Nationals leader Brendan Grylls met the Labor leader Alan Carpenter, and he will sound out the Liberal's Colin Barnett this morning.

He says whichever party supports his plan to return a quarter of royalties collected to the regions will get his party's backing.

The ABC's political analyst Antony Green says either way, WA will have a hung Parliament.

"The Liberal Party plus the Nationals may not even have enough seats on their own, this is a Parliament that will come down to the independents." he said.

Counting of preferences will not take place until the end of the week.

According to Antony Green's ABC election analysis computer, Labor is likely to hold 27 seats, and the Liberals 22.

The Nationals have won four seats, and independents three.

Three seats are still in doubt - Riverton, Forrestfield and Alfred Cove.

30 seats is required for victory."

Sounds a bit like our national elections. At least they have more than two parties here. We're just glad to have an end to the political commercials! Unfortunately, they also have succumbed to negative ad campaigns instead of sticking to the issues but at least it's only for four weeks.