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Freotopia > East Fremantle > wards
East Fremantle Wards
img/eastmap1901.jpgThe Town of East Fremantle (1897) is bounded by East, Marmion, and Petra Streets and the Swan River, and is divided into four wards, each of which is of some historical importance. Both Canning and Stirling Highways run through the suburb, and in fact cross each other inside it.
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Plympton and Richmond were the two original components of Fremantle's 'East Ward' in 1892, at which time Fremantle had had a Municipal Council and Mayor since 1883. However, the two areas were not administered directly by the Municipality, but by the Fremantle Road Board, despite the fact that residents had petitioned the Premier (John Forrest) to become part of Fremantle. So, a few years later, they resolved instead to ask to become a separate municipality, and this was brought in effect in 1897. Click/tap the map. >
Plympton
Plympton was the earliest area of development in East Fremantle. It was originally mainly property owned by the family of William Pearse between East and Silas Sts (Lee: 127) up to Canning Road. The current Tradewinds Hotel was formerly the Plympton Hotel (1898). The George St Precinct is in Plympton. When the Pearse estate was subdivided, many of the new streets were given Pearse family names. Plympton is a village in Devon on the Plym River between Plymouth and Dartmoor, but I do not yet know of any connexion between the village and an EF residen —though W.S. Pearse must be the most likely candidate. Plympton is the southwest ward, containing the Town Hall (1899) and former (originally Plympton) Post Office (1898).
Woodside
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Woodside was the name of the house and also the estate which was the property of William Dalgety Moore, and occupied the land between what are now Allen and Petra Sts. Woodside is now the name of the SE ward, and contains the site of the former Woodside Hospital at 18 Dalgety St (which was the Moore house), the East Fremantle Football Club, and the former 'Richmond' Raceway.
The map (Battye) shows the positions of the Plympton and Richmond localities in 1901. Click/tap for a larger version. >
Richmond
Richmond is the central ward, containing Richmond Primary School (1921), at 37 Windsor Rd, and the former Kaleeya Hospital, cnr Staton and Wolsely Rds. The ward is bounded by Canning Highway, Preston Point Rd, Fraser St, and Petra St. Richmond School is the only primary school in the Town of East Fremantle; East Fremantle Primary School is in the City of Fremantle, being on the southern side of Marmion Steet.
The Richmond locality was probably so named because Walter Easton owned the land there and came from Surrey. He named his own property Windsor, which is very close to Surrey. Walter Easton was a chemist and teacher who arrived in 1857 to serve as schoolmaster to prisoners in the Fremantle Prison. (Lee: 117) There is now a Windsor Road in Richmond. Easton family names (Walter, Gill, Stratford, Morgan [renamed Osborne Street]) were given to streets in the Windsor Estate when it was subdivided.
There were other entities known as Richmond not far away. The Richmond (later Bridge) Hotel was on the Canning Road (Canning Highway) and Richmond House, that of William Temple Graham, was on Beach Street. The Richmond Raceway was in East Fremantle, but on the other (south) side of the Canning Road (Highway) from the Richmond locality. Where it was is now a housing estate in the Woodside ward.
Jack Lee:
ORIGIN OF “RICHMOND”?
When Richmond School authorities produced their booklet about the school to celebrate its 50th anniversary in 1971, research was conducted into the origin of the name Richmond. One clue unearthed was that in March, 1830, Capt W.T. Graham arrived in Fremantle and occupied a home called Richmond House. Capt Graham, who presumably had some medical knowledge, was the Coroner of Fremantle and, it is recorded, was a very unpopular man. It is not known whether that was due to his position or his personality — and it could have been both.
A more likely explanation is that the area was named after the town of Richmond in Surrey (England) where the progenitor of the Easton family and all its branches in WA was a teacher before emigrating to Australia in 1857 to become schoolmaster to the convicts in Fremantle Gaol. Walter Easton was one of the biggest landowners in the East Fremantle area; he called his estate Windsor and established the vineyard and Windsor Cellars on the property.
It would have been natural for him to give the name of Richmond to the hill and the surrounding district, just as it was natural for his successors to give Easton family names — such as Walter, Gill, Stratford and Morgan (later Osborne) — to the streets in the Windsor Estate. Page 117.
GG:
I might that add that there is a song that was well-known at the end of 18C, 'The lass of Richmond Hill', with words by Leonard McNally (1752-1820). The fact that the original of this Richmond was in Yorkshire need not have had any effect on the coupling of 'hill' with 'Richmond', which may have helped suggest a name for the hill north of Plympton.
Preston Point ward
Preston Point is the name of the northern ward, and has almost all of the river foreshore and the yacht clubs etc. It is north of Fraser Street and west of Preston Point Road. William Preston was 2nd lieutenant on Capt Stirling's ship HMS Success (in 1827) and 1st lieutenant on the third ship to arrive in the Colony, HMS Sulphur, in June 1829.
References and links
Charlesworth, Helene 1997, Small but Strong: a Pictorial History of the Town of East Fremantle 1897-1997, Town of East Fremantle.
Ewers, John K. 1971, The Western Gateway: A History of Fremantle, Fremantle City Council, with UWAP, rev. ed. [1st ed. 1948].
Hitchcock, JK 1929, The History of Fremantle, The Front Gate of Australia 1829-1929, Fremantle City Council.
Lee, Jack 1979, This is East Fremantle (The story of a town and its people), East Fremantle Town Council.
East Fremantle council
East Fremantle election/councillors../council/east.html
East Fremantle Heritage pages.
East Fremantle Heritage Trail.
Museum of Perth's Streets of East Freo website.
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 31 October, 2014 and hosted at freotopia.org/eastfremantle/eastwards.html (it was last updated on 21 April, 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.