Freo’s Royale Fringe Festival

It was fabulous to see the fringe festival in Fremantle – Freo Royale – kick off in style last night.

Freo named one of 2015’s best independent FRINGE WORLD venues in its first year. In our second year, Freo has twice as many venues and performances on offer – many exclusive to Freo

The festival’s heart is the Kings Square Common a great pop up bar space to hang out in between shows. Last night I saw the Freo Royale Comedy Gala in the Fremantle Town Hall which was MCed by the very funny Paul McDermott who is here with the Doug Anthony All-Stars. It was a full house and a great taster of the comedy and burlesque that is on offer at the festival.  The line for the next show at 9.30pm – Lumnious – was impressive also and judging by the preview of this show at the launch it will be a spectacular show.

So get out and make the most of the shows on offer in Fremantle. It is going to be a fun fortnight ahead. http://freoroyale.com.au/

Watercolours for Waroona/Yarloop Fire Auction in Freo on 4th of February

Perth Now: Fremantle named Australia’s top trending travel destination

Pleasing to see Freo top another travellers list in 2016. According to Perth Now: FREMANTLE has topped a list of this year’s top trending Australian destinations for Aussie travellers.

Flight Centre puts the increasing popularity of the West Australian port city, which is up 126 per cent from 2015, largely down to the rise of the cruise industry in the west.

Little Creatures Brewery at Fremantle, named Australia’s top trending city. Picture: Jarrad Seng

The relaunched luxury Hayman Island resort in the Whitsundays recentlyreopened as a five-star brand under new management from One&Only, helping put it at No.2 according to the travel company, which says flight bookings were up 46 per cent last year.

You can read the rest of the article here: http://www.perthnow.com.au/news/western-australia/fremantle-named-australias-top-trending-travel-destinations/news-story/fdab3c5a6a3568a51623097ff3a3184c

Freo Amateur Photo Competition

Kind of late notice for this one but ...

OPEN FOR ENTRIES UNTIL 31 JANUARY 2016!

The 2016 Amateur Photographic Competition Fremantle calls for amateur photographers to capture images celebrating the landscape and lifestyle of our great port city. Across six categories you can show us why Fremantle is such a great place to work, live and play.

This is your opportunity to win some fantastic prizes to continue your photographic journey with a Canon EOS 700D DSLR, cash prizes & much more up for grabs!

Submissions close on 31 January 2016! 

To view all of the categories please click here.
To view all of the Terms & Conditions please click here.
To view the Galleries from the last two competitions please click here.

Website: http://www.fremantleapc.com.au
Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/apcfremantle/

Congratulations to the winners of the Premier’s active citizenship awards

 The Premier’s active citizenship awards foster, recognize and celebrate significant contributions to community life and active citizenship in all local government areas of Western Australia.

The following recipients have been selected because they have made a noteworthy contribution during the year or given outstanding service to the local community over a number of years through active involvement.

For the Community Group award a special mention goes to:

Community volunteers of the One Stop Shop

The One Stop Shop provides a comfortable connective space for over 55s, through free classes and activities the volunteers support the idea of positive aging, giving support in this transitional time.

Volunteers oversea the day to day running of the drop in centre, providing among other things computer tuition and maintaining the rooftop garden. Well done to everyone involved.

 

And the winner of the Community Group award is…… Rethink the link

Rethink the Link is a dedicated community group who believes there is a better solution to the proposed Perth Freight Link and the raft of economic, environmental and social impacts it will have on the local community. The group promotes sustainable transport solutions and its overall goal is to convince the State and Federal governments to rethink their commitment to the Perth freight Link in its current form and consider an alternative sustainable transport solution.

They are highly organized, mobile and deeply passionate. In a short time they have generated significant community support . A great example of this was last year’s Fremantle Festival, where an orange sea of around 2 000 people marched in protest of the PFL in the annual festival parade.

Congratulations to everyone involved in Rethink the Link.

 

In the under 25s category the winner is….

Benjamin Power

Ben facilitated Catch Music’s Fremantle Session, volunteering his time and going above and beyond to make sure the Fremantle group were able to showcase their hard work.

His dedicated efforts in welcoming members of the Fremantle community regardless of age, cultural background, ability or disability made Catch Music Fremantle a resounding success.

Fremantle has a proud history of producing great music and an equally proud history of being inclusive and accepting of all people. Ben exemplifies the very things that make Fremantle great and for that we thank and congratulate him.

 

The Premier’s Active Citizenship Award

A notable mention goes to…

Aprile Jasmine

Aprile has been volunteering for Amnesty international for nearly 2 years. During this time she has been responsible for setting up a Fremantle action group to raise awareness about human rights and the treatment of refugees through information stalls, photo booths, movie screenings and petitions.

Her commitment to human rights sees her recognized here today. Keep up the great work Aprile!

The winner of the Premier’s Active Citizenship Award this year goes to…

Adin Lang

Adin is the founder and driving force behind the Friends of Hollis Park community group. The  groups aim is to rehabilitate the degraded areas of Hollis Park and surrounding areas into something the community can enjoy for generations to come.

Adin’s passion and commitment saw his idea to plant 20-50 trees by a small group of locals grow into a full-scale project with an ever growing group of volunteers and contributors.

The defining moment of the group came in July 2015 when volunteers planted 5,000 native trees in under three hours to redefine the area. It was a great event and united the local community.

Well done Adin – your commitment to Fremantle and your local community is unquestionable. On behalf of the City of Fremantle I congratulate you on winning this year’s Active Citizenship award and wish you well with the ongoing work of the Hollis Park rejuvenation project.

 

 

 

 

Australia Day in Fremantle

It was another great Australia Day in Fremantle yesterday with a big citizenship ceremony on the Esplanade followed by the Premier’s Active Citizenship Awards, some great music and of course the quite spectacular cracker show aka Indian Ocean fireworks. It was also great to see the J Shed area so popular on its first weekend.

Before the citizenship swearing in ceremony Australia Day Ambassador Krista McMeeken, a young Aboriginal women from Esperance, gave a thoughtful speech on how Australia Day has a range of different meanings. It is in part a celebration that in Australia we are blessed to live in a wonderful climate with beautiful landscapes and large open spaces, a place that presents many opportunities for people to pursue their dreams and live their lives without fear of persecution.

But there is a flip side to this and Australia Day is also a day of reflection that Australia’s past that included some terrible atrocities especially to Aboriginal people – from early massacres to the stolen generation. Even today there is a long way to go: Aboriginal life expectancy is still 10 years less than that of the rest of the Australian population and a young aboriginal person is still more likely to go to jail than finish high school. The confronting statistics are from Stan Grant’s recent debate video that has gone viral and is well worth a view.

 

Australia is a wonderful and lucky country but also a country with a long way to go in terms of dealing with inequality and disadvantage before we can all truly celebrate together on Australia Day.

Melissa Parke to leave federal parliament at the next election

Melissa Parke as been an outstanding Federal member for Fremantle. A big thanks to her for her strong social conscience and being willing to stand up and speak out on issue both locally, nationally and internationally. We could do with people in politics like her.

This is the first part of the medial release that just went out.

Fremantle’s iconic West End precinct looks to State Heritage Listing

As you may have seen in the media today the Heritage Council of Western Australia is seeking the community’s view on the proposal to include Fremantle’s iconic West End precinct in the State Register of Heritage Places.

https://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/wa/a/30630503/fremantles-west-end-could-be-heritage-listed/

This is very exciting news for Fremantle. If listed, the West End would constitute the largest ever addition to the register and would include around 250 buildings covering an area of approximately 20 hectares (200 000 sqm).

The potential listing would have many flow-on benefits for the broader community and owners of properties within the nominated area. The City has for a long time recognised the cultural heritage value of the precinct and inclusion on the State Heritage Register would not only provide the recognition the area deserves, it can also help unlock further potential for economic growth in a place that was the epicentre for commerce for much of Fremantle’s history.

I encourage the entire community, but particularly owners and tenants in the West End, to support this initiative by making their comments through the State Heritage Office.

Benefits of registration

Heritage has always been an important factor in tourism in Fremantle, but increasingly, heritage is also proving a unique point of difference for businesses like bars and eateries, as well as for local retailers, who are successfully adapting heritage buildings for modern needs.

“We’ve seen some fantastic heritage adaptations in recent years with businesses such as Bread in Common, The Esplanade Hotel Fremantle by Rydges, the National Hotel and many others all using heritage as a business advantage.

It’s a common misconception that heritage listing a property means owners cannot make any changes to their properties but this is not the case. Adaptations which are sympathetic to heritage values can open a place to new uses and make it relevant to contemporary life

As well as the recognition of the West End’s significance as a unique and valuable place in WA, inclusion in the State Register:

• provides an opportunity for private owners of registered properties to apply for heritage grants from the Heritage Council
• delivers a point of difference for businesses in the area who can market their business as being part of a State Heritage Listed historic precinct
• allows property owners to register their interest in the Heritage Council’s plaque program whereby heritage plaques can be produced and prominently displayed on their property
• opens up the potential for the City to use the West End’s heritage status in future marketing and economic development initiatives for the precinct
• does not prevent an owner from making changes to their property. Owners will continue to apply to the City of Fremantle for routine development approvals, with more significant proposals referred to the Heritage Council for advice.
• 

Next steps

The State Heritage Office has now commenced stakeholder engagement. This process includes engaging with the more than 400 owners and 295 tenants to seek their views on the proposed registration. A final decision on whether the West End will be entered in the State Register will be made by the Minister for Heritage after considering comments received.

Background

In 2014 the City of Fremantle nominated the West End of Fremantle to the Heritage Council for them to consider its inclusion on the State Register of Heritage Places given its cultural heritage significance to Western Australia.

The nomination followed a recommendation of the West End Working Group, consisting of City officials and community representatives, which was established in 2010 specifically to look at heritage listing the West End of Fremantle.

The area nominated by the West End Working Group (and that which is now under consideration for registration) is bounded by Market Street to the east, Collie Street and Marine Terrace to the south, Little High Street to the west and Phillimore Street to the north. These boundaries define the original ‘business district’ of gold-boom Fremantle. It is a highly intact precinct that boasts an impressive variety of Federation-era buildings that illustrate the workings of a port city in the 1890s to 1900s.

Following a preliminary assessment, the Heritage Council resolved that it should be considered for registration.

 

View the State Heritage Office media release

View the West End curtilage map

Visit www.fremantle.wa.gov.au/westend for more information

 

 

 

not worth making an issue of, but for the record his statement that the Council ignored the recommendation of the West End Working Group is not correct – the FINAL recommendation of the WEWG to Council in September 2013 supported nomination of the area which has now been proposed, not the bigger area including Kings Square and the Prison

Fremantle’s waterfront development potential ‘bigger than Elizabeth Quay’

There is a once is a generation opportunity to reconnect Freo to the working port and its waterfront by moving the cars and sheep trade to Kwinana ASAP and having the Freo CBD flow all the way through to the water. Brendan Foster has just written the story below for Domain.com.

http://www.domain.com.au/news/fremantles-waterfront-development-bigger-than-elizabeth-quay-mayor-20160118-gm8a9f/

The City of Fremantle has a radical plan to transform land in front of Fremantle Harbour and the Swan River into one of the biggest waterfront developments Perth has ever seen.

The council wants to develop 120,000 square metres of prime waterfront land from the WA Maritime Museum down to South Quay, just past the Fremantle Traffic Bridge for housing, hotels, cafes, bars and restaurants. The majority of the land leased to the Fremantle Ports by the Barnett government is currently used for storing new cars.

The council faces one major hurdle: the WA government put the port up for sale at the last state budget to pay off a whopping debt, and is expected to fetch more than $1.5 billion.

Fremantle mayor Brad Pettitt realised he had a fight on his hands to get the WA government to part with the prime real estate, but he estimated the land sale could pour more than $250 million into the state’s kitty.

Dr Pettitt said he expected the port city would work with the Metropolitan Redevelopment Authority or LandCorp on the project so the state government would be part of the development.

“This is a once-in-a-generation project and it will be bigger than Elizabeth Quay and the Perth City Link combined,” he said.

“Imagine a publicly accessible historic port waterfront from the WA Maritime Museum down to the Fremantle traffic bridge,” he said.

“Imagine the Fremantle Passenger Terminal not surrounded by a sea of parked cars but instead being part of an attractive precinct to greet cruise ship tourists. Imagine restaurants, bars and cafes overlooking the working cranes across the water on North Quay.

“At the moment some of the lowest-value land uses like parking cars and unloading scrap metal are performed on some of the best and most valuable land in WA.”

Dr Pettitt said he did not see the port moving out of Fremantle, but wanted to put a cap on the number of containers coming into the port city.

He had previously been outspoken about the Barnett government’s plans to sell the port, saying it would drag the port city into an economic malaise it may never recover from.

Dr Pettitt said he expected to be savaged by critics who would be happy to see the Fremantle container port go entirely and just be a “port that does tourist, navy, and novelty ships”.

“In this scenario Fremantle would continue as a container port but with containers limited to a long-term cap of between 500,000 and 800,000 per year [it is at around 740,000 now],” he said.

“This cap means it would be possible to confine the port operations to the North Quay side of the port and liberate the South Quay from port operations and finally reconnect Fremantle to its waterfront. A capped Fremantle port and a second harbour doesn’t have to mean the end of the working port in Fremantle.”

Dr Pettitt said he didn’t want to see the waterfront project turned into another touristy, soulless Darling Harbour-style project.

“The port gives Fremantle a key part of its sea-salty soul and we should do all we can to keep that,” he said.

“With a bit of creativity and good planning we can have the best of both worlds: a bigger Fremantle CBD that is better connected to its unique waterfront and a continuing working port which provides an important economic and cultural backdrop to Fremantle.”

“The City of Fremantle is currently getting some economic modelling done on this to present to the Department of Treasury who are looking at the Fremantle Port sale.”

Fremantle Ports and Treasury Mike Nahan have been contacted for comment.

The West: Pedal Power to the People

Andrea Burns has written a great cycling article in The West today. I particularly appreciated this comment: