Fremantle History Centre

The new location of the Fremantle History Centre on the ground floor of the civic building was officially opened with an afternoon tea at at 3PM on Thursday 18 April 2024.

May 2014 - December 2017

The Fremantle History Centre was closed by the City of Fremantle in December 2017 when the building in which it was housed, the 1974 Civic Centre building next to the Town Hall, was about to demolished. One of the two staff members was sacked with a few weeks notice. The other has since retired.

Having begun its existence as the Local History Collection of the Fremantle City Library, from 2014 the Fremantle History Centre had its own dedicated space in a purpose-built extension at the eastern end of the main library, with a staff of two, reception desk, book stacks - some open and some locked, a map collection, and compactor stacks for collections of ephemera and unique research materials such as rate books etcetera, and a large collection of images, mainly photographs — most of the hundreds of images on this site were obtained courtesy of the Fremantle History Centre. It was the most important organisation as far as not only the creator of this website is concerned but for anyone with any degree of interest in Fremantle's history.

Update 2021: Walyalup Civic Centre is now open (December 2021), and an open-plan library is in the basement, below the water table. What could be said to be the 'History Centre' is an open section on the eastern side containing shelving for the collection of books and reports, and drawers for maps and other documents. The centrepiece is a table containing a large touchscreen on which can be displayed digitised maps etc.

Update 2023. The touchscreen failed and was removed. All that is left of the 'History Centre' is one wall of bookcases which are not only locked (and the staff in the library don't have a key) but also the glass windows have somehow been made opaque so that it's not actually possible to see what is in the book collection. (Why?!) The rest of the collection is in Canning Vale or whichever industrial storage suburb it is that the City of Fremantle stores its unwanted history.

Valuing History

Pam Harris, former history librarian, Fremantle City Library
Fremantle Herald, 3 March 2023

PAM HARRIS retired as the librarian at the Fremantle History Centre in Fremantle Library in December 2018 after working there since September 2007.

SINCE retiring in December 2018 I have watched with interest the opening of the new Walyalup Civic Centre and Fremantle Library, with special interest in the Fremantle History Centre.

Given that it was a large part of my life for over 11 years it was distressing to see what has happened to the centre in the new space.

Firstly, let’s start at the beginning.

Part of Fremantle’s charm and importance is its history and heritage and this has been reflected in what is arguably, the largest local history collection in the state.

It was also one of the first to start collecting.

In the 1950s city librarian John Birch (1958-1971) started collecting newspaper clippings and filing them by subject for future reference.

Later city librarian Betty McGeever (1972-2005) continued to collect Fremantle’s history and was responsible for appointing the first local history librarian Larraine Stevens in 1974.

From this beginning Ms Stevens (1974-1998) went on to create a very comprehensive collection including all aspects of Fremantle’s history.

That’s now demonstrated by a large collection of photographs, books, maps, plans, ephemera, subject files, biographical files and over 1000 hours of oral histories.

The community owes a large debt to Ms Stevens for her determination and tenacity to develop the amazing collection which was readily available to the public.

When the new library was being planned, library manager Julie Caddy (2005-2017) asked staff to indicate their requirements in the new library.

An extensive list was developed for the history centre including a larger climatically controlled archive room, room for map cabinets and architectural plans, several compactus as well as working space to work with large materials.

It is evident that none of this was taken on board as when the first set of plans for the library was revealed the space allocated for the history centre is what you see today.

Largely dependent on digital materials with little room for physical items apart from books which are locked in cupboards, certainly no space to lay out large maps or photographs, or comfortable study areas.

The world is becoming digital but not all formats can be digitised and it takes time, funding, appropriate software and staff to make digital materials available online.

Prior to the impending demolition of the Fremantle council building in December 2017, I was responsible for the collection; it was very difficult to dismantle and pack this amazing collection.

Even more difficult was the fact that I could see that the new library was not being designed to accommodate the huge collection which had been housed in a purpose-built extension to the library in the early 90s with federal funding.

The area included a climatically controlled archive room, three compactus as well as a large reading room with the ability and space to look at photographs, maps and plans to your heart’s delight with the assistance of staff.

The very openness of the new area is also not conducive to the use of historic material, some of which is quite valuable and irreplaceable.

Now most of the collection is still offsite and there is very little room to continue to collect Fremantle’s history.

Furthermore, the amount of physical materials is growing with continual donations of items such as Fremantle community archives which have been collected for years by various organisations in the community.

It is difficult to accept that an effective space for the collection has been reduced to such a small area with no room to process, store or view physical materials.

Any researcher/historian will tell you that whilst digital material is quick and easy to access it doesn’t compare with looking at original materials which has levels of detail not always captured in the digitisation process.

I recently visited the new Visitor Centre and was amazed at the space available to staff and visitors and it was virtually empty.

Tourism is a large part of Fremantle’s economy but it should be recognised that this is largely because of Fremantle’s amazing history and heritage.

Finally, history is important for communities. The History Councils of New South Wales, South Australia, Victoria and Western Australia have jointly adopted a statement about the Value of History. The following extract from the statement says it all:

“The study of the past and telling its stories are critical to our sense of belonging, to our communities and to our shared future.”

File:Freotopia people img dowsonjohn.jpg

Broke… woke

John Dowson, President, The Fremantle Society
Fremantle Herald, Letters, 10 March 2023

THE Herald has detailed the shabby interior of the Fremantle Town Hall and the ‘distressing’ state of the new Fremantle Local History Centre in major front page stories.

How is it possible, after over-spending by $20 million on the $63 million new admin building which incorporates these two facilities, that such important city centre assets are in such dire straits?

The Town Hall should be an income earner for the ratepayer as a stunning premier venue with its gorgeous decoration and wonderful acoustics.

It should be hosting events and weddings, with Victoria Hall acting as an overflow.

But the Town Hall interior will need $5 million to restore, and Victoria Hall around $1 million.

Yet there is no money left (except for ideological programs like promoting the Voice to Parliament), and the $960,000 promised annual income council said it would get from renting part of their new admin building so far has raised around $38,000, while the loan cost borne by ratepayers each year is $1.2 million.

The Fremantle Society took Crs Camarda and Vujcic and experts through the Town Hall.

It needs urgent works to make it more usable – like connecting the air conditioning from the new building.

It needs the sort of grant Perth got from the WA government to restore His Majesty’s.

The Fremantle Society visited the newly extended Albany Local History Centre (pictured) where a large new light and airy space houses 2,500 items for people to access immediately.

Fremantle needs to stop its cancel culture and give us back what we used to have – the best Local History Library in the state.

But the council seems broke and woke – focused on selling off its few remaining assets, including Victoria Hall, which the community needs as a cultural and performing arts space.

The sale of Quarry Street and Point Street have been poorly handled, and next to go will be the Leisure Centre Car Park, further adding to car parking woes.

The verdict is in about the success of the King’s Square Business Plan.

Three Labor heavyweights don’t like it.

Carmen Lawrence says it “will blight Fremantle for the next 100 years.”

Former Fremantle MP John Troy says it is simply a transfer of public assets to private developers.

Former Fremantle MP David Parker says it is a sterile development devoid of its magnificent trees, with FOMO not just being a failure, but an “aesthetic and safety disaster”.

But we need the city centre to work.

The Herald has shone a bright light on the needs of the Local History Centre and Town Hall interior. The community now needs to take a blowtorch to those councillors responsible, and get some action.

John Dowson President
The Fremantle Society

‘Tis but a shadow

Betty McGeever, former head librarian, Fremantle City Library
Fremantle Herald, 8 April 2023, pp. 10, 12.

I SWORE I wouldn't, but the regrets expressed by Pam Harris and John Dowson for the demotion of the local history service in Fremantle library have led me to hit the keyboard ("History centre 'distressing', Herald, March 4, 2023).

Having nurtured its growth as library manager from the mid-70s until my retirement in 2005, I too am saddened by the reduction of space, of visibility of its rich resources and of on-the-floor service.

After some ad hoc collecting by John Birch in his office in the South Terrace building, we moved to the civic building in 1974, and local history was allocated a three-drawer filing cabinet in the workroom.

When legendary local history librarian Larraine Stevens was appointed a few years later, that is what she inherited.

Throughout the 1980s it had a modest dedicated public space, of about 20sqm, and we committed to a comprehensive program of collecting, organising for maximum accessibility (by detailed indexing and by exposure) and giving accurate and immediate response to all queries.

Community response was enthusiastic.

By 1991 demand was such that the then very supportive council approved a staff increase so customers had the services of two full-time professional librarians.

That year they satisfied over 1800 queries, that's about seven a day; some were quick and easy, some could take a day's research and retrieval.

Almost all would get on-the-spot help from the professional staff and the comprehensive onsite collection.

Success led to space problems and in 1994 we opened a federally-funded, purpose-built extension of 163sqm.

It got lots of publicity, was well-known, the whole collection was more easily accessible, and usage surged.

Users included journalists, planning officers and real estate agents who needed quick access.

Others were authors who would spend days in there.

Who could forget Ron Davidson, or David Hutchison, with masses of material, newspaper clippings, research notes, journal articles spread before them?

They and many others produced works of excellence about Fremantle.

Or Helen Kirkbride of the Fremantle Press going through the indexed photographs choosing the best for a forthcoming book ?

But most users were the wonderful diverse Fremantle residents, seeking information about their family, or house, or school, or shipping history.

Or simply sitting in the quiet and welcoming space reading about some aspect of Fremantle's history.

As a result of such usage we acquired much more unique material, as donors with a sense of community trusted us to value it and make it available.

Local shipping tragic Bruce Farrington donated his amazing collection of port photographs, over 1000; I assume they are now stored offsite and can be browsed online.

But how does a walk-in customer even know they exist?

We hosted school classes, primary and secondary, and architecture students from Curtin, and could give them a taste of the whole collection.

We had oral history classes in there.

Fremantle City Library was often chosen by conference organisers for visiting overseas and interstate librarians to showcase the range of services that a relatively small local government authority could provide.

Of course that included Fre-info, well used, accurate and up-to-date community information service, now closed (and no you cannot get everything on the net; also some people need the help of skilled and knowledgeable staff).

Visibility is the best promotion.

Thank you John Dowson for the photo of the facility in Albany.

I note that the visitor centre is getting lots of queries.

It has street frontage, banners outside proclaiming its presence and friendly staff to greet you.

There is no external indication of our library whatsoever.

Take a look at Cambridge proudly labelling its library, even though clearly visible on the street.

I want to emphasise that I am in no way criticising the current local history librarian.

But I cannot see how one person (and not housed in the library; why?) can manage to proactively collect, organise and give the public the service they deserve.

The initiative to use volunteers will surely attract some quality recruits, but why is council not employing needed library staff?

Would council recruit volunteers to help with staffing shortfalls in its infrastructure or finance or PR departments?

Many people worked hard over decades to build a loved and respected local history service and now, the collection - and staff - is largely hidden away; we are back to something like the 20sqm of the 1980s, and staffing has been halved.

The community deserves better.

And yes, for me, it's a bit personal, and very disappointing.

Former History Centre—Call to arms!

Kristi McNulty
[[../fhs/newsletter/2023-04.pdf|Fremantle History Society Newsletter]], April 2023

Former History Centre Librarian Pam Harris, former City Librarian Betty McGeever and Fremantle Society President John Dowson, have all written publicly to express their dismay and disappointment at the new Fremantle History Centre. The History Centre Librarian is pushing for extended space that is more functional and may be used more effectively as what we have now is unworkable, but he needs our support.

Early November 2021 Fremantle Council was preparing for the opening of the brand new, stateof-the-art library and one of the exciting opportunities we had to look
forward to was “A larger and better equipped Fremantle Local History Centre…taking pride of place in the library. It will include digital, interactive screens as well as a vast stock of biographical files, newspapers, council minutes and agendas, publications, maps and plans.”

The library itself is an attractive space and I am told it is a pleasant place to work in and serves its various functions well. The same cannot be said about the History Centre and one wonders if anybody was listening when staff were asked to list their requirements as plans for the new building were being drawn up. Not only were future requirements ignored, resources and workable space are now a fraction of what had been available in the old library. The bulk of what is arguably the most extensive history collection in the state, was sent to an off-site storage facility and is still there 16 months later.

We do at least have the book collection housed in glass cupboards, but also a lot of small locked cupboards and drawers that were never purpose-built for anything and a faulty interactive screen, a folly never requested by staff and since removed, the cost of which would have gone a long way towards digitising all those materials not yet scanned.

Not that digitisation should be seen as an alternative to using the original resources. Certainly, it provides a convenient means of accessing a wide range of material very quickly, and is an effective means of preserving fragile items, but any researcher will tell you that it just doesn’t compare to having the original documents available to study. Keyword searching completely eliminates any chance of serendipitous discovery made while flicking through hundreds of photographs stacked in a drawer, poring over maps or plans from a cabinet or reading through dozens of biographical or property files.
These resources may still all be requested by appointment from the Librarian but when he does not even have a working space allocated within the History Centre area, it would seem that general enquiries are being actively discouraged and only the most determined and thoroughly organised researcher with plenty of time on their hands will be able to make any use of this unique and wonderful collection.

The Fremantle History Collection exists as an ongoing record of people, businesses, organisations and events in Fremantle. Since its inception in the 1950s it was intended to be a community resource, freely available to anyone who wished to know more about Fremantle and its history. It was run by a dedicated succession of librarians who continued to build up the collection and endeavored to find answers to the many queries that constantly flowed in. I am not sure what the visitor statistics have been since the new library opened but I wonder how they would compare with the figures from ten years ago.

The History Council of Western Australia, along with New South Wales, South Australia and Victoria, has adopted a statement about the value of history, and the following extract sums up that importance well:
“History supports a sense of community identity and place; and that in turn promotes social cohesion, individual and collective wellbeing, and resilience… [It] is the foundation for future generations. It is crucial to our future because it explains our shared past.”

The Fremantle History Centre needs its own secure dedicated space, big enough to house the collection in its entirety, spacious enough so that researchers and staff are able to spread out and work comfortably, and then room to allow for future growth. This collection belongs to the people, it belongs to us and it needs to be accessible to us. If you feel concerned about its future, as I do, get in touch with your council representatives, write to the Mayor, send a letter to the Herald.

References:
City of Fremantle, News and Media, 03 November 2021
History Council of WA, Value of History Statement
Harris, P. Valuing History. Fremantle Herald 04.03.2023

Please see the following letter from Fremantle History Society President, Allen Graham, sent to the Mayor and Councillors of Fremantle, voicing the concerns of the Fremantle History Society.

The Mayor and Councillors
City of Fremantle

Dear Hannah,

I am sending this letter to you and which I ask you to please forward onto the Councillors to let them know of the Fremantle History Society’s strong support for a dedicated working space for the Fremantle History Collection. Even though I am sending this message in my role as the President of the Fremantle History Society, I am also referencing my own personal experience and connection with the History Centre which extends back over forty years.

In the 1980s, well before people had the benefit of the internet and google, the Fremantle Library had the best history centre in the state which at that time was curated by Larraine Stevens, with Betty McGeever as the City Librarian. Even though the space was tight, researchers like me could go into that room, spread out any maps, photographs or books that they required and to have Larraine available to provide any assistance you needed.

Unfortunately, the City has lost that resource since the new Civic Centre was built and it is the strongly held opinion of the Fremantle History Society that the city is poorer for it.

Having just recently had the occasion to request some books from behind the current locked bookcases of what is kindly called the Fremantle History Collection, it hit me just how hard it now is to be a researcher on any aspect of Fremantle history, whether it be on a house, a person, a building or an organisation and this will inevitably dry up the research and discovery of Fremantle history. This in turn will lead to fewer books and essays being published about Fremantle and that will be a great shame, for any history on Fremantle is a history of the state. Consequently, the whole of Western Australia (particularly as we get closer to the 200th anniversary of the state) will be poorer for the loss of that written history.

While many people think that Fremantle is the Cappuccino Strip with its coffee shops and bars, it is its history and heritage that gives Fremantle its identity and puts it on the places-to-visit list of international travellers. A tourist can get a coffee anywhere. Every city has their coffee shops and bars, but there is only one Fremantle with its unique history and heritage and the city needs to invest in those two pillars for the real riches of the town are revealed through its history. Thus, it is important that the city reinstate a dedicated history centre where the researchers of the future can continue to mine the rich history of Fremantle.

Yours faithfully
Allen Graham
President
Fremantle History Society

Steve Grant, Fremantle Herald, 18 August 2023

Cold shower for hot library plan

FREMANTLE councillors have put the brakes on library staff who were all geared up to expand the city's Local History Centre into the Walyalup Civic Centre's underused Wanjoo (welcome) Lounge.
The bid for the space comes after a long and concerted campaign from former librarians, researchers and the Fremantle Society who say the centre's current space is cramped and the city's extensive archives mostly locked away and difficult to access.
Councillors had put $24,000 aside in this year's budget to give the history centre a better exhibition space, but when they heard staff were hot to go with the Wanjoo Lounge plans at an informal meeting, they ordered cold showers.
Mayor Hannah Fitzhardinge says it was a question of the original intent for the lounge.
"That space was original designed to be a space mat could be booked and used by the community; it can be entered from the outside and the building doesn't need to be opened.
"We probably haven't trialled it as that effectively yet," Ms Fitzhardinge said."
The mayor said Covid had curtailed bookings for the lounge, but demand had been increasing recently.
Asked if the money for the exhibition space was an acknowledgement the civic centre's design was flawed -as argued by historians since the plans were first revealed, Ms Fitzhardinge said it was more about getting to know the building after moving in.
Renovate
"They say when you move into a new house, you shouldn't renovate for at least a years until you've worked out what it's like to live there.
"And I think we have been working out how the different spaces down in the library function."
She said the Fremantle Visitor Centre, put into the civic centre when a cafe fell through, had also prompted the council to bolster the history centre.
"One of the things we've really noticed is lots of people coming through again, post-Covid, and there's such an interest in the history of Fremantle.
"One of the things I think we maybe don't acknowledge, is that the local history centre does - and can do more of - is engage with both locals and visitor about their stories or questions about Fremantle."
Ms Fitzhardinge said the council would do a needs analysis for an appropriate space for the centre, saying they had to balance accessibility with security.
But Fremantle Society president John Dowson says councillors were "meddling" by pulling the pin on the librarians' plans.
"The $63 million administration building has been finished for close to two years," he said.
"Despite $7 million in fees being paid to architects Kerry Hill, the resultant Local History Centre underground is totally inadequate.
"A much better solution is awaiting on the ground floor where the current Remembrance Day exhibition is being held.
"Adjacent to that space is an area formerly set aside for an over 55s lounge, but which ended up as the King's Square Deadbeats Drop-in Lounge. The Local History Centre could get going now, and we need it now, but interference from some councillors means that council will now try to make some money for a period of months by seeing if they can rent any of it out. What?"

References and Links

Harris, Pam 2018, '[[../fhs/fs/10/Harris.html|From card catalogue to eBooks: a history of Fremantle City Library, 1851-2016]]', paper presented to the Fremantle [[../fhs/index.html|History Society]] on its [[../fhs/fs/fsday/fsday2016.html|Studies Day 2016]], published two years later in [[../fhs/fs/10/index.html|Fremantle Studies, no. 10.]]

Harris, Pam 2023, [[../books/harris.html|'Valuing History']], Fremantle Herald, 3 March.

McGeever, Betty 2023, [[../books/mcgeever.html|Tis but a shadow']], Fremantle Herald, 8 April, pp. 10, 12.

See also the Fremantle Society post of 1 August 2023: Where the Hell is Our Local History Centre?