Great video thank you! Shows how quiet Freo was on a weekend just a year or 2 before the America's Cup was won and how it transformed the place. These days it's thriving. Love him or hate him, Bondy did that 👍
Not much chance of driving a horse and cart around Freo today. The 15 year old boy mentioned who was hanged at the Round House was actually convicted of murder. Wonderful to see that this footage has survived.
In 1982 I was in year 10 at Hammy High. Used to catch the 120 into Freo to the Port cinema and visit the magical markets. I'd hold my breath as I walked through the fresh seafood cnr entrance. I forgot about the town centre fountain. So nice to be reminded how sparse Freo was. No trade on Sunday. How simple the Esplanade looked before its America Cup makeover. Nice journey back in time.
Born in Fremantle Hospital 1959, both my parents worked at Mills& Wares my mum n dad grew up in the same street, Jenkins st. South Fremantle.They both went to Beaconsfield school, couldn't stand each other as school kids but fell in love in their teenage years. As a 16 year old I worked at Robb's Jetty meat works. I now live interstate but Freo wiil always be home. This vid brought back a lot of memories, whoever took the time to film and post it on you tube,I owe you beer. Cheers.
I was born 1959 too! & spent my younger years in Fremantle, I went to South Fremantle primary school, my parents did the 'modern' thing & built a house in Kardinya, wish they had stayed in Fremantle, all my kids love the 'vibe' & the prices of houses have gone up enormously!!
@@annasenior6969 Hey Anna nice to read your story 👍 59 was a great year was it not lol. I now live in South Australia but am hoping to get back to Freo sometime to rekindle some great memories. I went to East Hamilton Hill Primary and Hamilton Hill High. Besides working at Robb's Jetty I also worked at Myers Fremantle when 18. My favourite footballer was Fred Senior who played for South Fremantle any relation to you? Do you remember Charlie Carter's? Those were the days!!Life was soo simple back then.👍
@@jeffe6338 yep, great year ☺️ omg I went to Hami High as well, we must know eachother! My maiden name was Faliti How did you end up in South Australia? What is your name? We were in the same classes! Did you know the school no longer exists? It's been all torn down & the site is being redeveloped
@@jeffe6338 I moved up in the world & worked at Irene Whites Boutique in Booragoon Garden City during Years 11 & 12 school holidays & Saturday mornings when all stores closed at midday 😎 How long did you go there at High School? I was one of the Italians, the school was full of us & Croatians back then, my best friends were Zivanna Kursar, Deloras Capellucci & Sharon Samulraj
Mills and Wares made the best biscuits! As a teenager of the 70's I loved my occasional visits to Freo. I remember far more business premises and specialty shops. You could have a cheap 'day out' in Fremantle back then and return home on the old rattler train without being attacked by a knife gang. It couldn't be allowed to continue.
I lived in Freo in the late 80s had two bedroom flat up behind the prison $65 a week with panoramic view of Freo and rotto loved it . This was definitely Sunday rest and relaxation hit the pub or beach at lunch time.
Probably Sat after 12am, back then it was a dead town after shops had to close. Took a yacht race and years of fighting the government for alfresco dining.. omg that took decades 🙄, they crap arguments to the reasons why you had to eat inside back in those days. Same with longer opening hours. I used to live there a year after this video. Interesting to see the open roads still being used for traffic and no trees.
@@stephenpavy2501 Nah, it was pretty unhygienic to eat outside. Flies were the main issue. Glad it changed, but their reasons why not were valid. All the cup did was start the Yuppification process. Freo was such a blue-collar workers town. Rough around the edges but cheap and friendly. I prefer that to $9 loaves of bread & $21 hamburgers now.
I grew up in Fremantle in 1982 I just got my drivers license this video has bought back a Lot of memories but Fremantle has not changed much since 1982
I remember the R&I bank on Queen st, the Gas and Coke Company with the silver globe outside, VoxAdeons? Later Archie Martin’s, Pellews, Woolworths, High street tram lines where the pedestrian mall now is, Culleys, Jean Machine, Shepherds news agency, Mays jewellers, Bairds, the Oriana cinema, the Princess cinema, the library on South terrace near or under one of the Italian cafes. So many great memories of a place we long to have back. A simpler time. Thank you for posting.
such a fantastic video and historic footage. I live in Fremantle now and there is so much restoration and change happening - some good some not so good. I've lived in the Fremantle area most of my life, sometimes it is sad to see the deterioration of this lovely little town. I think this horse & cart tour is so much nicer than the corny fake tram they currently use for tours.
This bought warm memories of pre America's cup Fremantle flooding back! My mum was born in the family home on south Terrace and my dad comes from Nornalup down south. I used to float my horses down to South Beach and ride in the surf there and relax on the grass before we went home. Fremantle will always have a place in my heart. Freo markets eh....I remember the boys from the South Freo footy club singing Joe Cockers "you are so beautiful" to me from the balcony of that lovely old hotel down from the markets as I walked down high Street....made my heart sing too. Wonderful memories of working at the Cleopatra Hotel and the Orient across the road, in the west end just up from the whaling tunnel, good times. I too, owe the uploader a beer 😊
Oh so your family were the elite of Fremantle well lucky you ! Im British but raised in Zambia NOT of elite parents ( my dad was a boilermaker) we migrated to WA when I was 12 but Fremantle can't compare to my childhood in Zambia which was paradise compared to Fremantle...then again we weren't the elite in Fremantle 🙄
@@kezi7043 yes the owners were the Dennis Horgen Group...they were going to turn the old hotels into Catholic University student accommodation. I'm pretty sure that was the plan 😊
@@jasminejones9937 how the hell did you read me as saying my family was the elite of Fremantle? Mum was born in Fremantle and was a housewife and mother to me and my brother. My dad was an accountant who was born in Nornalup down south...a very long way from Fremantle. He did happen to be the president of south Fremantle footy club back in the day but so what. I reckon you have a complex or something. How the fuck you read me being a barmaid in Fremantle all those years ago and taking my horses to south Beach when I first got my licence as me being some kinda Fremantle elite is quite bizarre ...you need to lighten up. Fucking strange people.
Wow...brings back so many great memories. I even remember this guy because I took my kids on one of his tours. I arrived in Fremantle by boat when I was 7 and instantly fell in love with Freo and still do. It hasn’t changed too much but thank goodness the train now runs and the station was restored. Having the Americas cup in Freo put it on the world map. It will always have a special place in my heart. Thank you for the upload.
I've been after a pic of the secondhand bookshop at the corner of South and High Streets in the early 80s, and there it is in this video! I used to go there after school and on weekends for a browse, and it's great to see it here.
I grew up in Fremantle and it was fantastic. We used to go down to AP's near the railway station every morning before school. I remember when space invaders first came out, there was a line around the corner to play. Gotta mention the KISS pinball, that was my favourite. Ended up being a policeman on the beat there for the America Cup, It was great. Football, meatpies, kangaroo's and Holden cars. Happy Daze...
This was amazing to see. I grew up in Midland, born in 87, so I never had a chance to see Fremantle like this. I live in Freo now and it's great to see a little glimpse of what it used to be
@@AussieTVMusic was there really a steam train that ran down to Coogee during the cup? I read that somewhere when I was curious about the train platforms that used to be along south Fremantle. The Americas cup is one of the reasons that my parents emigrated here from Ireland
@@ww6156 Yeah they made a station at Mews road and had the train run down there. I worked in Mews road at the time. I can see why your parents moved here as it was pretty alluring.
Excellent footage, thank you. While arguments can be made for and against on Fremantle's past and present, there is no doubt in my mind that Fremantle is truly one of the great towns of Australia.
@@paulkazakoff9231 It was always doomed. Climate change is making the hot cities unbearable overall. If you want to see a city that's supposed to improve, go to Hobart. It actually reminds me of Freo in the 80's in some ways
Wonderful to see. Cops left you alone unless tyres were really bald or blown muffler really loud. Then the Yuppies arrived and we started to see Audis & BMWs. Then SUVs. Blocking the narrow south Freo streets. Worst example was some rich tosser arriving in his f'ing HumVee! Turned into some very tight lane, Wesley Street, I think, and scraped cars. Not a light scratch, either. Severe damage. His solution to being jammed? Too arrogant & stupid to reverse out, only damaging the cars he'd already hit. No, went forward, dragging cars with him. I remember the TV News got onto it, and the w4nker was unrepentant. Cited laws he made up on the spot, like you can only park on one side. Which I think was all locals could do, there was only room to park one side. But refused to take responsibility and discussed counter-suing the owners of the damaged cars.
Good video of Freo and, given this is a horse drawn carriage, the driver missed an historic brick horse watering trough while he was touring down Phillimore Street.🙂
When times where better, im glad this man thought to record this it is a good part of history, i was born in 96 this was amazing to see really wish time didnt change
Worked in Fremantle in the mid seventies, in the Wool Stores, first at Elders, then IWD at the wharf then at Swan Woolstores, drank in the pubs, she was a rough place at times.
I worked at IWD in season. I was glad when it was over because it was hard yakka. The old codgers there who did nothing but use wool hooks all day impressed me, altho their hands became lobster claws from it. One bloke had a stubby holder around his tea cup just so his fingers could grasp it. Another was 76 and still labouring all day because he felt it demeaning to take the age pension. If I hit 76, I won't be too proud to take it.
@@Gough-jf9zf It was always fun during school holidays in season when all the Uni kids came to work, useless as, the reason everyone worked so hard was to keep their jobs during off season, I ended up going north to Pt Hedland for 8 plus years. Throwing a wool bale around like a shopping bag was a real art, I enjoyed the work and the men, I remember one guy who use to drink heavily and was bet he couldnt down a bottle of Scotch at the pub and this was at lunchtime, he took the bet, but never got to go back to work, ever, he use to worked at the Elders Store.
@@jamesmatheson5115 Elders was gone by my time. Soon it was that shopping centre. Not sure I could have hacked it as a school boy. Nor in Hedland. I don't take heat. Yeah, the uni students, worrying over a blister and not knowing how to change a battery in the fork lifts. Good blokes, old enough to remember going hungry in the depression. I never learned the art, of doing it smoothly an neatly.
@@Gough-jf9zf I use to get stuck showing the newbies how to unload a truck, just the Truckie and me, unloading a full truck, was easy if you had a good truckie who knew what he was doing, I was only 20 myself when a started and only stayed in them for 18 months, but the older guys taught you how to work and to take pride in what you were doing. It stayed with me for the rest of my working life.
@@jamesmatheson5115 Some of the older blokes had done many simple jobs, dogman, tallyman, wharfie. But there was an art to it, far more complex than you imagine, and yeah, they took great pride in their work. My fave part of Freo was the Myuna flats in North Freo. Built on a clifftop overlooking the Swan, ocean views the other direction. Built originally as welfare housing, would you believe? HomesWest tenants were gone when I moved in, but private tenants still only paid $70/week. Water views out both sides. Heaven.
Fremantle has a piece of my heart. I grew up there in Stevens Street. My family had an old people’s home. Thank you for the memories. Just love watching your video. Cheers.
Fantastic movie, brings back memories, born and bred in Freo. Grandfather born above Roma Restaurant, mother born number 1 Norfolk Street. Sadly Freo has been in decline since the early 2000’s 😕
Yes the 80s were good. Even in the 1970s to 1980s Friday nights in Fremantle the sidewalks were chock full of people and it was usual to recognize many faces... the large shopping centers that opened inland then gradually began to suck the lifeblood out of the port town. Pellews haberdashery and most of the larger retailers, packed up and left. From 1979-1983 the Fremantle train service was shut down. The Cup in 1983 temporarily injected some life back in the place. The outside parking contractors engaged by a Council that didn’t know and couldn’t care, living and breathing red tape, who issued fines for even a minute’s expired meter, were the kiss of death for the place. They recently relaxed the rules but it was too little, too late. Folks found there was more to offer further inland. A visit to the failed Woolstores shopping center on Cantonment Street or Westgate Mall opposite (if you dare) is a testament to the collapse of retail. It seems that the harbor side venues, bouquet theatres, pubs and eateries at the wharf and along the Esplanade and South St are all that is holding the place together commercially. Opinions?
@@edithflood631 100% agree, got attacked outside Westgate mall 5 years ago by a homeless man that was merry and dancing one minute, pissed with a bottle trying to smash people up the next. I just go to the pharmacy and Kakulas Sisters and get out, never pay for parking because I'm there less than 15 mins anyway. Why bother with Freo (unless its for dinner, even then) feeling uncomfortable around disorderly people when you can just go to Garbos instead? I drive through the Cap Strip often and its dead, I think even Dome is closing. At Woolstores its just Coles. I'm 29 and just cbf dealing with it, council doesn't seem to care, got one parking ticket because I was busting and had to stop (so 5 mins). Bugger em.
If I recall, 4 pubs in South Freo back then, none of them yuppified or selling boutique beers. Proper pubs. And almost any day you felt like, one of them would have a band. Tuesday night, you felt like music, if the first pub didn't have it, the next pub had a band playing. Not terrific, not terrible band. Watchable. Worth the walk. Worth the $3, $4.
Really enjoyed watching this footage, from the time just prior to the Amerca's Cup -fuelled revitalisation in the mid 80s, the decision to reinstate the rail line and its subsequent electrification, the takeover of the West End by the Catholic Church and its Notre Dame University, and the recent Kings Square redevelopment. Interesting to hear of certain plans, and in hindsight, knowing which came to be and which never proceeded. Cars were still king then, but have we done enough to keep cars out? Fremantle remains the best place in greater Perth to visit for mine, despite its overdue need of further improvement.
i am sending this to Ray and Bev Smith twins born and live still in the FREO/Hamilton Hill area.They are celebrating their 72/3rd ? birthdays on 22nd Nov 2021. Ray and Bev are real dinkum old time Aussies-full of great yarns of the people and times they lived. Ray Smith was a well known horseman in the area. Between the two of them- the twins provide a feast--Bev peeling the spuds, pumpkin, and other veges...Ray cooking up a great roast Lamb ..including ..mashed spuds and roasted. .lashings of Gravy... they are kind and generous and will always pull up a chair for a stranger. Happy birthday dear friends-II wish I could visit you but the BASTARDS have shut WA off and I cant fly from WA USA. .see ya next year for a stones green ginger wine.ooroo Julie-Anne
Pre the America's Cup win in 1983 which changed the fortunes of Freo. forever.... Fremantle was transformed in preparation for hosting the 1986/87 America's Cup... challenging to park a car near the Espy. after '85ish let alone pull up on a bloody horse!
@@_desertwalker_ And if you were drunk enough to go home with somebody from 'telas, you'd _better_ wear a condom! If you didn't, get down to the clinic! Also, check the woman you're leaving with really is a woman!
Wow this video was created 3 years before I was born. Amazing to see what it looked like. Very flat buildings colourless buildings. No cars almost anywhere. Looks just like another industrial zone really. To what it is now. Too many people. Way to many people.
My uncle visited in the 40's with the Navy and thought was terrible place. My family emigrated here in 1970 and don't understand what he was talking about. Love Fremantle and the West. Still here.
Would have been quiet and depressing. Blackouts mandated during WW2 most pubs shut. The concept of eating out at night had not arrived in Australia then, so nothing to do. And Freo went thru a lot of booms and busts. Your uncle could have hit a bust.
Does anyone know what ever happened to the that old dark ship wreck that was in the maritime museum? I don't even know what ship it was.i just remember touching it as a kid and thinking about how much time it's been around for. It has kind of a waxy, dark feel to it.like it was slightly water logged with rot. I've always wondered what happened to that ship.where did they take it?
Its kinda crazy seeing the differences but also how similar it is as someone born after this time, although I must say besides the increased traffic I much prefer the current area around the freo markets.
Much better nowadays, not such a ghost town as it was back then. In another few decades it might actually rival places like Randwick and Bondi. Fremantle needs more people and buildings, although it already has alot of charm
Fremantle was a dive then.... given some much needed improvement when the Americas Cup came here in 1987 but unfortunately is back to being an even worse dump than before,.
@@RainbowCharade It's been taken over by hippies and greenies. They voted in one of the few Greens mayors Brad Pettit in... and he has turned it into a hell hole. His policies such as cancelling the Australia Day celebration out of wokeness... has turned people off completely. All the restaurants are shutting down turning it slowly into a ghost town and unfortunately it's now full of meth heads and drunks.
@@frankmat I'd have to agree. These days I only go down there just after New Years Day as there are sufficient numbers of people around to feel safe. But each year I notice more vacant shops and more drug affected people in the main cafe strip. Mayor Pettit isn't bothered.
@@frankmat Sadly you're right Fremantle has turned into a shithole. I was a teenager in the 80s and it had a better vibe when the hippies were there than it does now with all the zombies ( meth heads 🤪)
Yeah, sorry about the let down mate. Freos not half the town it used to be. The damn town council is bleeding the place dry, lots of empty stores everywhere. At least the mainstreet is still alive with enough activity. If the council keeps pushing uncoordinated privatisation of town services to the cheapest contractors...more historic businesses will leave town 😢.
Well into the 80s they were trying to hang a 16 year old girl. Her crime (guilty in court) was shooting a cop. Her real crime, the one bringing out the hatred, the one they tried to return the death penalty for, was being black. WA was a fascist state.
@@chrisandwillhobbies Greedy businesses, too. Over-charging, shoddy service, crappy food. Opportunistic traders would buy their way in for whatever trend was big in _that_ year. Flood the market with over-priced... that year's tend, in competition with 5 others selling the same. Not room enough in Freo for 6 stores all mirrroring each other's product, so, crash!, three would go broke, owing their suppliers, their landlords & their workers money & disappear. Shops would be empty, then next year's fad would arrive, cycle repeats. Greedy commerce forced a lot of bad things to come in.
Council members all lean left,very left . You get what you vote for, my favourite quote from Osho (The Bargwan) democracy is good for people but the people are retarded.
Yeah when ALL of the pubs had early opening, the old men would sit at the bar talking to there mates drinking their ponys. When a bacon n eggs snags hash browns mushrooms and tomato's cost $3.50. When TV shows like All in the Family, Love Thy Neighbour, Paul Hogan Show,On the Buses, Benny Hill Show all we're made for people to laugh n have a good cack ya dacks moment. Nobody took offense, so why oh why have we been made to toe the global BS line. Everyone who contributed to changing the Australian way of life.Go n get stuffed.
Charlie Court closed the train line in 1979 so that Servetus St and onward could be fortified and widened to allow for tanks and other armaments from Campbell Barracks to get down to the naval base. This was at the height of Russian Communist paranoia.
Tommy Dadour brought them back. A hard working community-based MP. In parliament, Tommy, a Liberal, publicly peed all over Court the First. Metaphorically speaking. Got the Freo train-line reopened, rode in the driver's cab in the first train on the reopened line. Got out (Claremont?) to a hero's welcome. Well done. Loyal to his party to the end, but in my presence called Court the First a c--t.
@@indiathylane2158 Yeah, King Charlie of WA. So many people hold up and glorify these "Statesmen" but never realise that they sold out their state to the ruling elite. Santos give away over half the states gas for free, pay bugger-all tax for it and still get subsides from the Govt (tax payers money). Oh, and yeah, the locals have to pay the highest price per-cap in the world to use "their own gas"!
