Freemantle

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Saturday the 28th, the day after we returned from the big road trip, Susan had to work for the afternoon. She drove me down to Fremantle, which is the working port, Prth is actually a few miles upriver. I wandered a bit, watching a wedding party get assembled, studying a 'for hire' portable brick oven, and visited the train station. Then, it began to rain so I sought out an indoor (kind of) activity. Inspired by what sense of the macabre I know not, I took a tour of the Fremantle gaol, which operated from the late 1850's (the convicts had to build it before they could live in it, after all) until 1991. Not much changed in 100 years to be honest. It was all very dark. I did take quite a few pictures, but am only putting a picture of the gate on the blog.



Tuesday May 1st Susan and I went back to Fremantle. We visited the Maritime Museum. They have a series of welcome walls, celebrating immigration, with the names, ships and year of immigration of people. More sculpture, one of 'lost children'. A chapter of history of which I was ignorant was that tens of thousands of British children taken into foster care were shipped out to Australia and Canada, many without their family's knowledge or permission, and told that they were orphans and their families were dead. It didn't seem a surprising Dickensian story, until I learned that it continued until the 1950's.



It was a brilliant sunny day, so we strolled around the oldest part of town near the Round House. So many old buildings have been so beautifully preserved. Norte Dame university has taken over many of them. Apparently, one can take a tour on Fridays at 11 by appointment and learn about the histories of both the university and the heritage buildings. Maybe next time....



On the way home we drove along the river and enjoyed the sunset views. Saw a rowing team silhouetted against the sky. Perth is a beautiful city.

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