Fremantle
Hmm, I totally forgot to write about my visit to Fremantle before I went to Rottnest Island, so I've whipped this up and will post about the island a bit later (patience! I insist on chronological order in this blog! Horse pictures soooon).
On January 18th, I finally made it out to the port city of Fremantle, which is well-known for it's great old buildings (Tanya, you would NEVER run out of photoshoot locations here!), delicious eats, and easygoing lifestyle. It takes about half an hour to get there from Perth central on the train, and then I decided to take a free bus up to the historic Fremantle Prison for a tour. "The prison was built by convict labour in the 1850s, and transferred to the colonial government in 1886 for use as a gaol for locally-sentenced prisoners. It closed as a prison in 1991 and reopened as a historic site." (source) The prison held up to 300 inmates, including up to 60 women at one time.
"The Prison was built with running water to each cell. However the basins were removed by the 1860s because of foul smells that came back up the pipes, being before ‘s' bend technology was introduced to stop this. The poor quality of fittings meant there was a lot of water leaking, leaving puddles and attracting insects, which increased the need to remove the basins. They were never replaced. Toilets were never installed in cells and prisoners continued to use buckets for their needs until the Prison closed in 1991." (source)
A typical cell, 7 feet by 4 feet (1.2 x 2.1 m).
Yes, they looked like this right up until it closed in 1991!
(although some walls were knocked down between cells, but there are still two inmates in the space)
The kitchen (imagine preparing meals three times a day for 300 people in this!).
Some naughty kid on a school trip wrote fast food on the menu
(HJ is for Hungry Jacks, their version of Burger King, and Mackers = McDonalds)
No jumping out the windows here, even if you DO get the bars off.
"Painting or drawing on walls was originally forbidden; however, this rule
was relaxed in special cases where art was found to calm violent prisoners,
and was relaxed generally towards the end of the life of the facility." (source)
The church.
View from the second floor.
Hmm, reminds me of a hostel!
Mmm, ok, maybe hostels aren't SO bad.
Look how thin that mattress is!
A posh cell.
Prisoners could buy extras like TVs.
Originally, there were NO beds -- just hammocks.
Solitary confinement for the very naughty.
There was NOTHING in these cells.
The gallows.
Eric Edgar Cooke "was the last person to be hanged at Fremantle Prison, on 26 October 1964." (source)
After the tour, I wandered back down to the town centre,
and found the Fremantle Markets, which were closed.
At first this building reminded me of La Bella Note in Lethbridge, even though it's not a fire hall.
But I soon forgot about that when I saw THIS, which REALLY reminds me of La Bella Note!
I never did try fish and chips in Australia (sorry mum).
I thought I should take a picture of an Aussie ute (utility truck)...
or a "cruck" as I call it, since it is so obviously a cross between a car and a truck!
Juanita says they're all about the "cool" factor and people rarely actually put anything in the back, haha.
I then walked along the boardwalk to a cafe area and starting
to feel peckish, I bought a delicious gelato ice cream.
I sat and watched the gorgeous light filtering through the clouds as the sun started to set.
For all the talk about "no walking on the tracks!", there is a pedestrian crossing right across them here.
Despite it being sunny out, it suddenly started to rain, resulting in the dark appearance of this photo.
The Fremantle train station.
This was scratched into the window of the bathroom
(I'm sure I looked quite odd taking pictures in the bathroom)
The sunset was fantastic and I considered staying to photograph it WITHOUT industrial buildings in front,
but I decided I should get going home, and the last light was just fading when I got back to Stirling.
On January 18th, I finally made it out to the port city of Fremantle, which is well-known for it's great old buildings (Tanya, you would NEVER run out of photoshoot locations here!), delicious eats, and easygoing lifestyle. It takes about half an hour to get there from Perth central on the train, and then I decided to take a free bus up to the historic Fremantle Prison for a tour. "The prison was built by convict labour in the 1850s, and transferred to the colonial government in 1886 for use as a gaol for locally-sentenced prisoners. It closed as a prison in 1991 and reopened as a historic site." (source) The prison held up to 300 inmates, including up to 60 women at one time.
"The Prison was built with running water to each cell. However the basins were removed by the 1860s because of foul smells that came back up the pipes, being before ‘s' bend technology was introduced to stop this. The poor quality of fittings meant there was a lot of water leaking, leaving puddles and attracting insects, which increased the need to remove the basins. They were never replaced. Toilets were never installed in cells and prisoners continued to use buckets for their needs until the Prison closed in 1991." (source)
A typical cell, 7 feet by 4 feet (1.2 x 2.1 m).
Yes, they looked like this right up until it closed in 1991!
(although some walls were knocked down between cells, but there are still two inmates in the space)
The kitchen (imagine preparing meals three times a day for 300 people in this!).
Some naughty kid on a school trip wrote fast food on the menu
(HJ is for Hungry Jacks, their version of Burger King, and Mackers = McDonalds)
No jumping out the windows here, even if you DO get the bars off.
"Painting or drawing on walls was originally forbidden; however, this rule
was relaxed in special cases where art was found to calm violent prisoners,
and was relaxed generally towards the end of the life of the facility." (source)
The church.
View from the second floor.
Hmm, reminds me of a hostel!
Mmm, ok, maybe hostels aren't SO bad.
Look how thin that mattress is!
A posh cell.
Prisoners could buy extras like TVs.
Originally, there were NO beds -- just hammocks.
Solitary confinement for the very naughty.
There was NOTHING in these cells.
The gallows.
Eric Edgar Cooke "was the last person to be hanged at Fremantle Prison, on 26 October 1964." (source)
After the tour, I wandered back down to the town centre,
and found the Fremantle Markets, which were closed.
At first this building reminded me of La Bella Note in Lethbridge, even though it's not a fire hall.
But I soon forgot about that when I saw THIS, which REALLY reminds me of La Bella Note!
I never did try fish and chips in Australia (sorry mum).
I thought I should take a picture of an Aussie ute (utility truck)...
or a "cruck" as I call it, since it is so obviously a cross between a car and a truck!
Juanita says they're all about the "cool" factor and people rarely actually put anything in the back, haha.
I then walked along the boardwalk to a cafe area and starting
to feel peckish, I bought a delicious gelato ice cream.
I sat and watched the gorgeous light filtering through the clouds as the sun started to set.
For all the talk about "no walking on the tracks!", there is a pedestrian crossing right across them here.
Despite it being sunny out, it suddenly started to rain, resulting in the dark appearance of this photo.
The Fremantle train station.
This was scratched into the window of the bathroom
(I'm sure I looked quite odd taking pictures in the bathroom)
The sunset was fantastic and I considered staying to photograph it WITHOUT industrial buildings in front,
but I decided I should get going home, and the last light was just fading when I got back to Stirling.