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Cabin Tea Rooms
121 High Street/renumbered 99 High Street/Lot 418, 1913-1937.
Cabin Tearooms staff on a day off
Factories for Australia
FREMANTLE MAN'S VENTURE
After a successful business visit to America, Mr. F. T. Farrelly, proprietor of the Cabin Tearooms, Fremantle, returned to this state by the R.M.S. Orama on Monday.
During an interview today, Mr. Farrelly said that he had completed the purchase of an ice cream confection, known as 'Icy Pi,' which he had been importing from an American manufacturing firm under oppressive expenditure. During the past summer season, in Fremantle and Cottesloe alone nearly 100,000 cartons of the products had been sold and the demand for the confection had induced him to visit the manufacturers. He had been received cordially and had secured machinery for the making of the product and had also been granted the sole Australian rights. The machinery was within a fortnight of Fremantle, and he proposed to proceed with the establishment of a factory immediately.
While returning to this State he had made tentative arrangements for the opening of factories in Sydney and Melbourne. What was more gratifying to him now was that under the new tariff the ice cream confection would probably have been banned as a luxury and his supply would have been cut off.
An outstanding impression gained during his visit to America was the lack of knowledge of Australia. Most absurd questions were asked concerning the country, but there was no doubt that a friendly feeling existed for the Australians. Depression could be noticed in most of the countries he visited, including England and America. In America the citizens did not talk depression like the pessimists in other cities, and the most dreaded phrase in America today was 'inferiority complex' and that amounted to a state of mind which the American would not entertain. In passing through the Eastern States he gained the opinion that the depression there appeared to be, in proportion, a great deal worse than in this State. (Daily News', Wednesday 7 May 1930, p. 19.
CABIN TEA ROOMS GRAND RE-OPENING
Next Monday will see the Cabin Tearooms re-opened. This large cafe has for many years been quite a social centre in the town, and its closing during rebuilding has created a gap. However, Monday will see the big tea-shop aglitter, and Mr. F. Farrelly, the well-known proprietor, has determined to mark the occasion not only by magnificent decorations and furnishings, but is marking prices down 20 per cent The afternoon tea that once cost ninepence or tenpence will now be back to the pre-war price of sixpence; three-course meals and grills from 1/3. In addition to these price reductions, the firm will specialise in home-cooked cakes and pastries and home-cooked meats. (The Advertiser, Fremantle, Thursday 3 September 1931: 1)
At the Cabin tearooms, owned by Mrs Evans and her son, service was given in a ‘homely atmosphere, and wages were good.’ 22 Little opprobrium was levelled at waitresses. Patsy Brown 1999, 'She eateth not the bread of idleness: women and work in Fremantle 1900-1940', Fremantle Studies, 1: 12-24.
References and Links
Florence Barrett, manager
This page incorporates material from Garry Gillard's Freotopia website, that he started in 2014 and the contents of which he donated to Wikimedia Australia in 2024. The content was originally created on 22 April, 2020 and hosted at freotopia.org/buildings/cabintearooms.html (it was last updated on 19 March, 2024), and has been edited since it was imported here (see page history). The donated data is also preserved in the Internet Archive's collection.