Fremantle: The Port City That Out-Characters Perth

Fremantle, the historic port city at the mouth of the Swan River 19 kilometres south of Perth's CBD, provides the character, the arts, and the community authenticity that the larger city's more polished CBD sometimes lacks. The combination of the Victorian and Federation-era buildings of the West End, the Fremantle Prison and the maritime heritage of the Roundhouse, the Fremantle Markets' Saturday and Sunday trading that has continued since 1897, and the arts and music scene that the preserved character of the port city sustains, creates the Fremantle experience that the Perth visitor who goes only to the CBD misses and that the residents who choose Fremantle as their home prize for the independence of spirit that the port city's working-class and bohemian history has given it.

The Fremantle Arts Centre, the National Trust-classified building that was constructed as a lunatic asylum in the 1860s and that is now one of Australia's most significant arts centres, provides the exhibition program, the artist studios, the summer music festival, and the community arts education that sustain the arts community that Fremantle has been home to across the post-war decades. The building's extraordinary Gothic-influenced architecture and the garden that surrounds it create the aesthetic environment that makes the arts centre one of the most beautiful cultural institutions in Western Australia.

The live music scene in Fremantle, centred on the Fly By Night Musicians Club and the succession of pubs and small venues that have nurtured Western Australian music talent including Eskimo Joe, John Butler Trio, and the long list of WA bands that have emerged from the Fremantle circuit, sustains the music culture that makes Fremantle the most musically vibrant community in the Perth metropolitan area. The Friday night street busking and the venue-based live music provide the live music encounter that the visitor and the local seek when the recorded music and the streaming service are not enough.

The cafe culture of Fremantle, centred on South Terrace (the Fremantle 'Cappuccino Strip') and the cafe precinct around the Fremantle Markets, reflects the Italian community influence that the post-war migration from the Veneto and Lazio regions brought to Fremantle and that the espresso culture the Italian community established has been maintained and developed by the subsequent generations of Fremantle cafe operators. The Saturday morning coffee ritual at Fremantle's best cafes is one of the most civilised ways to begin the Fremantle market day.

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