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East Fremantle
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The Town of East Fremantle (1897) is bounded by East, Marmion, and Petra Streets and the Swan River, and was divided into four wards, each of which is of some historical importance. (From October 2023, the ward divisions will no longer apply in council elections.) Both Canning and Stirling Highways run through the suburb, and in fact cross each other inside it.
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.
Hitchcock:
Before becoming a municipality, East Fremantle, like the Melville Road Board district, formed part of the Fremantle Road Board. It was anxious to become incorporated with the Fremantle municipality, but as overtures in that direction were repeatedly rejected by Fremantle, it constituted itself a separate municipality in 1897. Prior to becoming a municipality, East Fremantle possessed a separate Board of Health acting independently of the Fremantle Road Board. That was formed to enable the residents to cope with the nuisance arising from the old slaughterhouse which was located in the centre of Plympton. Hitchcock: 94. (The slaughterhouse, Herbert Baker's butchery, was where Glasson Park is now, on Hubble, George, and Glyde Streets.)
East Fremantle Oval Precinct Project plan, May 2022.
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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 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/index.html (it was last updated on 20 September, 2023), and has been edited since it was imported here (see page history). The donated data is also preserved in the Internet Archive's collection.