Fremantle Prison (entrance), Fremantle Art Center, WA Shipwrecks Museum, Esplanade Park
Heading over to West Australia, I thought I’d spend a few days in the center of Perth, but due to issues with booking accommodations I have found myself a bit further away, in Fremantle.
The sun was out, the place was quiet, and I smiled to myself just walking around and enjoying the hot weather. After a brief stop at the information center, I made my way toward what seemed to be the biggest attraction in the area, Fremantle Prison. There were different tours available to go on, and without booking any of them I could not go past the main gate.
What I could do was just wander around the entrance, which didn’t offer a lot compared to the rest of the prison, but it had enough to hold my interest. The first building I went into was, as far as I could understand, an overview of the prison and its story.
There were some exhibits on display as well as some pictures, and at the back end there was a little fenced area around some stairs which I think used to lead to an old bath. In addition to that there are also signs that provided the background information, from the early days of the area when the prison wasn’t even built all the way to the end of its operation. It was a story about the prison and some of the events that happened in it, the convicts and guards who populated the prison, and the town around it.
The second room I went into was an old visitor center, where the convicts could meet with their friends and family. It was pretty similar to prison visitor centers that I’ve seen in some movies and tv shows, although perhaps a bit smaller and more basic. There were more signs in this little building, telling more stories about the history of the prison and the life of the convicts.
The last building I could get into was an Art gallery of sorts. Apparently, some of the prisoners acquired artistics skills during their stay in Fremantle prison, and some of their work was on display. There wasn’t much in terms of signs and explanations, so I wasn’t sure what was made at what time, and I was a bit confused by it. It didn’t take longer to have a look around, and with that, not wanting to do any of the tours, I left the prison.
As it wasn’t far away, I headed over to the Fremantle Art Center. After a little bit of walking through the city I arrived at the art center, which was smaller than I thought it would be. There was also a little garden which was a nice place to sit down for a while, relax, and have something to eat.
At the time I was there, the gallery hosted a collection of art pieces revolving around fabrics. While I could appreciate the use of fabrics to create artistic displays, I didn’t see anything that made me feel impressed. It didn’t take long to get through it all, and before I left the gallery I came across an interactive piece, where people were encouraged to add more fabrics and make it an art display of the public, and not just of one specific artist. After adding my own piece to it I didn’t see any reason to stick around and went on my way.
Since according to Google the nearby Army Museum was closed, I walked back through the city to the WA Shipwrecks Museum. In contrast to the Fremantle Art Center, this museum was bigger than I expected. There were a few anchors outside the museum, although I didn’t know if they were real or replicas.
Getting inside the museum, I was surprised by the amount of items on display. For the most part, it seemed to be old containers of food and drink, but also quite a few ships parts which were salvaged from the ocean. There were several collections in the room, each of them had an explanation about the exhibits and their history.
From the main entrance area there were a couple of other rooms to see. Each of them told a different story, of the ships that were wrecked, the crew on board those ships, what those ships carried and where they were heading. There was also part of a ship’s haul on display, and a skeleton.
After taking a look around and trying to read about the stories behind the items on display (as again, some of them were behind glass and were difficult to read), I made my way up the stairs to the second floor of the museum. There were more displays there, of containers, ships parts, and money. There were more stories about different ships, and there was also a nice view of the ground floor.
While there was variety among the displays, to me it was more about the different stories that they told, and those stories are what made me stick around the museum and learn more about different parts of history.
Nearby the museum was Esplanade Park, so I went over to see if I could find anything interesting. Unfortunately, that answer to that was no. The park was pretty basic, some grass and trees, and a little Ferris Wheel, but not much more than that. I took a quick look around and left the area.
This unexpected stop at Fremantle turned out to be quite nice overall. Even without going for any of the paid attractions, I still enjoyed the day, and the hot sun made it all even better.