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
@BenState "SORTA remember freo LIKE this" not exactly like this. But I remember when my pram used to hook to the back of the MTT bus. Mum and I used to go to the Commonwealth Bank. She worked at the WA bait supply in packenham st
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.
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.
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 👍
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
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 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.
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
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.
Thanks for uploading this great video. I’d go down to Fremantle once a month on a Sunday in the 1970’s and early 80’s with my parents for the Swap Meet in the multi-storey car park near the town hall and this is exactly as I remember it. I remember Freo being renovated in the mid-80’s for the America’s Cup defence and it was a hive of activity and a fun place to be. I started working at Customs House on the corner of Henry and Philimore in 1990 and have fond memories of many years of hard work on the wharfs then some leisurely lunches at some of the pubs. The West End was a pretty wild place and I was disappointed to see Notre Dame University take over so much of the area and take away the soul but I reckon it probably is a thriving place again now full of good food and great coffee. I live interstate and haven’t been back to Freo since 2011. I miss the place.
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.
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.
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.🙂
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...
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.
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.
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
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.
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 😕
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.
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!
@@Sparky_D I wish I was successful enough to have a valid opinion on that one. I loved Freo before it got Yuppified. But ''getting lucky'' wasn't a common occurrence for me. I was shy. And (probably sharing more than readers want), 1990s, I started new thyroid meds that acted like speed or cocaine. I was revved up. Greatly. So, really needing to have that happy ending, I went to 'tellas. Even Quasimodo could have scored at Tarantellas, and I did. But, a week or so later, I did have to get myself to the doctor's. Luckily, the treatment banished it forever. And her? Didn't know where she lived and pretty sure she gave me a false name. As my friends said, serves you right for stooping to 'tella's.
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.
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.
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.
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?
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 🤪)
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
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 😢.
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.
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.
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"!
I feel so passionate about Fremantle.. very emotional to watch this :'( xx
We lost a lot.
It's a dump full of derros and junkies now. It's empty by 8 pm, but at least the Orange people are gone!
@@Allangulon lol ...100 per cent
Same
My home town. I would have been in year 2 when this video was shot. Fremantle is now nothing more than a communist crap hole. RIP Fremantle.
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 yes I remember Charlie Carters & no relative of Fred 🙂
@@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
I'm amazed a lot of the buildings are still there. As soon as i saw the carpark complex, i knew exactly where they are.
i was born 1980 and i sorta remember freo like this. great video. freo my spiritual home
you remember freo when you were 2?
@BenState "SORTA remember freo LIKE this" not exactly like this. But I remember when my pram used to hook to the back of the MTT bus. Mum and I used to go to the Commonwealth Bank. She worked at the WA bait supply in packenham st
I'd love to go back to that time... i was 15.. great times then
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.
The 15yr old boy was convicted of murder REALLY ? And just how do you know that for a fact ! 🧐
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.
I saw Grease and Croc Dundee at the Port Cinema. Used to go to coles after school to buy chips and smokes before getting bus home.
@@AussieTVMusic Omg yes! Thanks for the memory. Did I watch Alien there? And the Coles cafeteria section.
No Servos after noon on Saturday, either. You had to find a roster.
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 😊
Do you remember any of the owners of those 2 Hotels at the time?
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.
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 👍
5 years before.
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.
Your flat is now $450 a week to rent ! 😲
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.
@@jasminejones9937 3 years later it's probably closer to $1k per week
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
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 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.
I remember buying fish and ships at Woolworths :)
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.
It was very nice. It's sadly been ruined like Perth.
@@amelyntan6704 Gotten worse no doubt. A city like this is suppose to improve as time goes along.Sadly it hasn't !
@@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
@@amelyntan6704 we could have demolished the west end in the 1970's but we didnt
@@amelyntan6704 What a load of crap.
I like the blokes self-deprecating honesty.
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.
Videos like this are amazing. Please never remove this, I fact we need people to re-post it just in case otherwise history will be forever lost.
Great to see old footage like this, not much has changed.
A lot more traffic unfortunately.
A lot has changed. The wokification for a start.
I was 12 back then and lived there :) great memories of a better, simpler time.....
I was one year old when this was recorded... I certainly didn't expect that people were still cruising the streets on horses!
Thanks for uploading this great video. I’d go down to Fremantle once a month on a Sunday in the 1970’s and early 80’s with my parents for the Swap Meet in the multi-storey car park near the town hall and this is exactly as I remember it. I remember Freo being renovated in the mid-80’s for the America’s Cup defence and it was a hive of activity and a fun place to be. I started working at Customs House on the corner of Henry and Philimore in 1990 and have fond memories of many years of hard work on the wharfs then some leisurely lunches at some of the pubs. The West End was a pretty wild place and I was disappointed to see Notre Dame University take over so much of the area and take away the soul but I reckon it probably is a thriving place again now full of good food and great coffee. I live interstate and haven’t been back to Freo since 2011. I miss the place.
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.
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.
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.🙂
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...
I worked as a cop on the beat too during the cup. I think we know each other :)
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.
me and a mate used to call Freo a "one horse town" because of this horse
pre norfolk. wow. and a pond in front of town hall!. amazing video
Love the drive by Kingswoods, Datsuns, Toranas, Mini moke.... never see anymore..
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.
Thank you for uploading this! 🥰
please take us back to those days....
I learned a lot from this. Also seeing all those great Aussie cars, I realise what we've lost. Also astounded at how little traffic was around.
It was a Sunday and all the shops were shut. Only a few cafes and restaurants were open
Delightful. Thanks.
Rather than subject my horse to that indignity we’re creeping down a back alley here.
amazing - I love this video, historic and a step back in time.. mesmerizing... a time capsule on film... loved it
Very cool. I was only 1 when this was filmed but not much has changed really so I know his route exactly
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
Great Views of heritage buildings and many Vintage Holdens too, along the way.
I was 6 and frequenting the markets during 1982. Always had a toffee apple and stones ginger beer on a Saturday. Awesome memories.
Must have been so great to live in the 80's, there's a young person doing that job and he probably doesn't need a special license just to do it.
He needed a licence from the City.
This is 1982 not 1882.
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.
Wonderful tour. Thank you for posting this. So many memories ignited.
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 😕
I was 19 and working at JW Bateman stores shown in the last few minutes of the video. Great memories of Freo from that time.
40 years next year. please recreate the same tour for those to watch in 2062
Sunday traffic is too heavy these days is no such thing as a day of rest
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
You wouldn't recognize it during the America's Cup. Place was going off. It was like being at one long party.
@@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.
I love the history and information in the video great tour
So fabulous and cool. I just love Freo !!!
Thanks for the film. Yet to finish it, but appreciated.
It really doesn't look much different today!
Except its full of traffic now!
It's much busier now
Great sharing . Its a wonderful footage .
Ronald Bon would love the liquor merchant, a man after my own heart. Good o'l Bon. Thank you .
Thanks heaps for posting this, I live here and found this to be very interesting.
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.
One year before the Americas Cup win...everything changed for Freo after that. It was the second 'gold rush'.
Couldn't agree more.
The story of C Y O'Connors end is so sad. He only needed to wait anothe day or so and could have enjoyed the success of his engineering masterpiece.
i used to live in the warden house all the way at the end up against the old police station in 03/04... looks a bit different now to back then.
It was looking a quite and beautiful area
HAPPY BIRTHDAY RAY AND BEV SMITH ..great memories of days in Hammy hill..see my message under F for Frederick
Wow, Amazing to see
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
Wow...i was 15...😳
i remember going on one of these in freo in 91- 92
Crap upload of a wonderful film.
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!
must have been shot on a Sunday? its very quiet. Never that quiet anymore
We sold paradise so that our elites could benefit from high house prices.
It was always quiet but busy with the italians especially on a sunday
HZ taxi. Good 2c the old cars. Well done Thnx
So many brothels back in the day.
I remember tarantelas nightclub, where your feet would stick to the ground and the boilers were on the prowl.
@@_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!
@@indiathylane2158 so Freo girls haven't changed then!
@@Sparky_D I wish I was successful enough to have a valid opinion on that one. I loved Freo before it got Yuppified. But ''getting lucky'' wasn't a common occurrence for me. I was shy.
And (probably sharing more than readers want), 1990s, I started new thyroid meds that acted like speed or cocaine. I was revved up. Greatly.
So, really needing to have that happy ending, I went to 'tellas.
Even Quasimodo could have scored at Tarantellas, and I did.
But, a week or so later, I did have to get myself to the doctor's. Luckily, the treatment banished it forever. And her? Didn't know where she lived and pretty sure she gave me a false name.
As my friends said, serves you right for stooping to 'tella's.
wow, theres practically nobody around!
Nothing much has changed 😂
Yep that's the way it was
At.least you could get a parking spot back then....but you couldn't find a proper cappuccino, unlike now.
outstanding
The trains are a runnin' now
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.
Vacant block of land in the West End! So rare.
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.
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.
Yeah it can't change much as it's all been heritage listed. Been basically the same since about early 80s
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?
The Batavia. Still there.
!!!!!💓💓💓💓💓💓
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,.
oh sorry to hear that. What has happened to Fremantle? (I was there in the 90s...)
@@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.
@@RainbowCharade
It's full of derros and junkies, it's empty by 7pm weekdays and the lockdown killed what was left!
@@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 🤪)
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
Roma restaurant: mixed seafood entree and fillet mignion and spaghetti main who remembers the Q???
Always a building being tuck pointed in freo 😂Never ending job that one seems to be
39 years later full of homeless people
Wow look it it now buzzing with traffic
Does anyone remember Dominic's, best Italian restaurant ever, arancini cost 80 cents.
it all looks so clean and quite, not like the filth that is freo today haha
a great place, once.
i moved to Freio in 75 and now I don't go to Freo at all. It's changed too much, Not for the best unfortunately.
Ah cheer up! It's still pretty great. Better than the rest of Perth for sure.
agreed.. I used to love Freo but I won't go there now..
@@Annie1962 why not? What's happened?
@@RainbowCharade It's not that bad, I reckon. Good for a bike ride around on a Sunday. Plenty of shade and/or shelter from the rain.
So few people and cars.
I am about to leave for freo in an hour or so.
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 😢.
Why everyone didn't ride these
Hey you, you're finally awake..
Where are all the people ?
There weren't Many lol
@@kezi7043 must of been during Covid lock downs
@@paula-yr7pp 😆
Population was much smaller & everything closed early back then
W,hen life was normal
How to totally stuff up a fantastic country and State well done "Growth" Politicians are to blame for this100%
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.
What?
he got one thing wrong.. the 15 year old boy was hung for murder. His name was John Gaven. They say in the end he was probably innocent.
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.
Unfortunately, many of these old buildings are only facades, with the original insides ripped out. Take a closer look next time you walk past one.
No they aren't. They are whole buildings. Insides are obviously different now. Facade just is the front.
I hate what its become.... 😐
it's shocking, council mismanagement has driven regular business away
@@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.
At least it is busy again.
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"!
Grown up in Freo 80s were the best times in Freo cheap fuel and food no bloody wars or optics back then