This page is a record of a written work relating to Fremantle.
- Part of:
- Title: Freo-OH! Autumn 2025
- Authors:
- Published: June 2025 Fremantle City Council (Fremantle)
- Reference URL: https://www.fremantle.wa.gov.au/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/CoF-FRE-OH-Mag-Winter-Issue-23-2025-V2.pdf
- Tags: Buffalo Club
- Authority control:
HANGING OUT IN THE BUFF
It’s been a Fremantle working- class institution for decades, and patroned by multiple generations, but just a few years ago its future wasn’t looking so bright. Then came the “young” people.
If you’re going to step inside the Buffalo Club on High Street in the West End, then you need to show respect.
To the club’s history, its regulars, the older patrons and especially the toilets.
Buffalo Club regular Bruce, who’s been coming since 1987, isn’t too happy about recent graffiti in the toilets.
“We’re not a night club,” he grumbled while sitting with his friend Tina at the bar during Stubbie Club on a Saturday.
“We’re a social club that’s for the community.”
Unfortunately, the community hadn’t been turning up like they used to.
Membership and patron numbers were so low that the club, established in 1938, was looking unsustainable.
Then came the “young” people (those in their mid 30s and 40s) about four years ago.
Buffalo Club vice-convenor Anna Farrant was one of those who joined the club and became determined to get the “old girl” back on her feet. She’s also not too impressed with the graffiti that they all had to clean up.
Anna said the membership has now grown from about 90 in 2021 to nearly 1000 today. “That’s the level of community interest and engagement and commitment to this wonderfully eccentric space,” she said.
The Buffalo Club, a working-class haven and fixture of the Fremantle community for so many decades, is still herself to the core but now has new offerings.
There’s live music from Freo bands and international acts, yoga upstairs in the time- capsule 1970s function room, stand-up comedy nights, life drawing classes, art exhibitions, electronic music nights, free meals for those in need, and more.
It’s a place for the young and old, the non- binary, the occasional Japanese punk band, the darts players, the snooker lovers, the artists, the ex-wharfies, fishers, people experiencing homelessness and those who love to prop up a bar and share, or not share, their wisdom. There’s also a unisex bathroom.
That respect you show when you walk through the doors extends pretty far these days. Anna said the regulars, many of whom had been there since the 60s and 70s, had welcomed the new arrivals.
“We’ve had some really great and spirited conversations over the years about how things are changing in the club,” she said.
“But I think there was an understanding that it was a necessary evolution.
“We didn’t want to turn it into a nameless city bar. We wanted to keep it how it was, but we needed to make some changes to save it.” Former bookie and Buffalo Club member Michael “Mickey” Sheehy said the club had a rich history but without the industries that Fremantle once had it didn’t have the same regular turnover of new members.
He said he first pulled up a stool at the bar in 1970 when he was 18 while working in the wool sheds on Marine Terrace.
“It was five deep (at the bar) and every nationality came here and not one person cared where you were from or your history,” he said.
“You could be on the run from Melbourne, you could have a warrant on yourself from Queensland and no one cared.
“You turned up here, you behaved, and you did behave because you wanted to come back.”
At the other end of the bar, Tina Bond recalled learning that lesson in 1985 on her first day at the club when her cheeky remark, “Doesn’t anybody smile around here?”, nearly got her barred for life.
“I loved the old people and listening to their stories, and every time you see them, they get bigger and bigger,” she said with a laugh. “But you love their passion.”
The “Buff” as it stands is a drawcard for the young.
Cousins Clem and Marshall Hutchinson said it reminded them of similar clubs in their native New Zealand and Canada respectively.
“I love the old style of the place,” Clem said. “I love having a chat with the older guys.” It’s also the staff that has kept the Buffalo Club going through the good and tough times.
Duty manager Vicki Roberts has been doing it for 40 years. She said the patrons and members felt like family and she was grateful for the new generation for helping the club.
“Volunteer-wise they put in all their time,” she said.
“They are cleaning things, doing things, running around, a lot of behind-the-scenes stuff that they do, bands, bookings and things like that. “Now I’m confident because the younger people have stepped up.”
Anna said that with the increased number of volunteers and the experience of the regulars they had been able to upgrade the electrics, fix damaged ceilings, restore wooden flooring, paint, work on the rich history of the building and its members, and bring in much-needed revenue from gigs, events and activities.
“I think the club is Fremantle to its bones,” she said.
“As the world has changed around it, it’s remained what it is, which I think is an inherently Fremantle structure, where all kinds of different people have, and will, walk through the doors to continue that legacy.”
VISIT FREOBUFFCLUB.ORG