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Pumping Station
31 May 2022: Neglected Fremantle 2
The Fremantle Society believes Fremantle is a great place that is being neglected in basic ways as pointed out in Neglected Fremantle, which we posted yesterday.
The Fremantle Society continues to put forward many good plans and ideas, but won't shy away from tackling the problems that council and media won't face.
The photo above is the modern reverse view of the 1940s one printed yesterday. It highlights the significance of the location, the sublime Royal Doulton Memorial, and the historic pumping station.
But when Neglected Fremantle was posted on Facebook, one councillor and the former mayor were quick to pass the buck to the State Government, when all these issues BEGIN with good local leadership and advocacy.
Good that one councillor has reached out for a discussion - an excuse for another cup of good Fremantle coffee.
Amazingly, the burying of an axe in the windscreen of a police car in broad daylight did not concern several commentators, who attacked the Fremantle Society for wanting higher standards.
We are told that $270 million was spent in and around King's Square to 'revitalise' Fremantle. Yes, FOMO there has 400 security cameras. But the 7-11 store on the other edge of King's Square (where 4 street lights aren't working) closed because of endless crime and anti social behaviour.
Has the 'revitalisation' worked? Council staff, after weeks of asking, cannot even tell the Fremantle Society if they have met the targets set for the expenditure of millions of ratepayer dollars 10 years ago.
The Fremantle Society today received the letter below which was written by an East Fremantle resident to the council. It is not from someone trying to denigrate Fremantle for the sake of it, or to score cheap political points. It is a heartfelt plea from someone with a lifetime association with the place, who just wants to see it improve:
My name is --- and my husband is --- we live in East Fremantle and have a family history in the area that dates back over 130 years.
We grew up visiting and loving Fremantle and up until around ten years ago were always proud to take our friends and guests to Fremantle.
All that has changed.
Recently we had overseas guests with us and left Pizza Bella Roma at around 9.30 (just as the tone of Freo changes with the night club set arriving). As we walked along the street we were confronted by a man being chased by five policemen. He had been flashing, down the road. In the melee one person was pushed over and received a broken hip. Our friend was thrown to the ground and cracked her head so hard on the pavement she required hospitalisation.
We have since attempted to visit Freo, once to Kathmandu in the middle of the day and needed to cross St Johns Square but couldn’t because of a bottle throwing gang of ----- youth.
The next visit early one morning we were confronted as we attempted to go to an ATM across from Target by a homeless man hurling abuse and urinating in full public view on the doorstep at 8.30am.
This weekend friends, including a recent cancer survivor, went to The Joy Kitchen by car, left around 9.30 and were chased to their car by a group of abusive ------- youth.
These are just our stories but they are multiplied across our friends and neighbours.
This morning we had a police car on a truck drive past our home, obviously the one the axe went through !
Surely, after a police car was burnt last year and now this, the Council will actually participate in a cleanup literally of Fremantle. It is dirty smelly and lawless when in fact it should be a drawcard for the State. Whatever is going on has become the complete dismantlement of Fremantle as a destination.
It happened in NYC until a zero tolerance approach was taken. It can be done - start by washing Fremantle so it no longer smells in many places like a public toilet. Work to find appropriate accommodation for the ever increasing level of homelessness and sort out the grunge art programs that have destroyed historic public buildings.
Fremantle is a gift to protect. Please start respecting what you have been given the care of, and stand up on these fundamental issues. Otherwise many areas will simply become ghettos !
Published by The Fremantle Society
photo by John Dowson
29 May 2022: Neglected Fremantle 2022
You are looking at a magnificent photograph that you are unlikely to have seen before (just posted by Sue Fury in her excellent Old Perth in Her Former Glory).
The image was taken around 80 years ago from the Fremantle railway station looking over the Victorian Gardens (which should be reinstated), past the famous ginger beer stall that was Kakulas family's first commercial enterprise after they arrived in Australia 101 years ago in 1921. Some Fremantle residents remember it as Tinny Thomas' ginger beer stall where a scoop of ice cream turned your drink into a Spider.
The pumping station in the middle became a much needed toilet block, but it was closed 20 years ago and council have totally ignored this important heritage building right at the entry to Fremantle as you get off the train.
It should be restored and used as a bike rental shop so tourists can cycle around town, or better still redone as the toilet block it was, something Fremantle needs as every second new development now seems to be another alcohol venue.
It is truly shocking that Fremantle Council continues to allow this building to deteriorate on such a prominent site.
Note the trams delivering people right to the station - No serious effort has been made by Fremantle Council to reinstate light rail in Fremantle.
Note Uglieland in Pioneer Park on the right, now a degraded public space with a derelict heritage building, a crumbling wishing well, and an incongruous large dog statue.
Note the well dressed people, who dressed up to visit Fremantle, instead of the shabby, disrespectful and lazy habit today of dressing down.
Just 100 metres from this site last year a police car was set on fire in the street.
Just 200 metres from this site yesterday, one of the 'well dressed' Fremantle visitors buried an axe in the windscreen of a marked police vehicle in broad daylight.
These astonishing events cannot be swept under the carpet as council continues to ignore anti social behaviour and crime.
The Fremantle Society does not wish to talk Fremantle down, but these problems have not been effectively addressed, and also the attractions of Fremantle, like its heritage, are being ignored.
A senior police officer who has worked in Fremantle told the Fremantle Society yesterday he no longer brings his family to Fremantle as he feels it is not safe.
Get your mayor and councillors to earn their money and do something to address these issues and their lack of pride in our city. Their mediocrity is not enough.
Contact them on: members@fremantle.wa.gov.au
John Dowson
President
The Fremantle Society
0409 223622
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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 8 June, 2023 and hosted at freotopia.org/society/campaign/pumpingstation.html (it was last updated on 11 May, 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.