Perth's bohemian port — where Fremantle sits at the mouth of the Swan River 20 km south of Perth and operates like a completely distinct city: a preserved Victorian port town with the most intact 19th-century streetscape in Western Australia, the Fremantle Markets (1897 building, 160 stalls, Saturday and Sunday trading) are the oldest continuously operating public market in Australia, the Cappuccino Strip (South Terrace) is the Mediterranean-Australian café culture that inspired Perth's whole café scene, the Fremantle Prison (1851 limestone convict prison, still with original cells, UNESCO World Heritage) operated continuously until 1991, and the Fremantle Doctor is the afternoon sea breeze that cools all of Perth every summer afternoon
Fremantle (35,000 permanent residents; 200,000 with surrounding suburbs) is a port city at the mouth of the Swan River in Western Australia — 20 km south of Perth city centre and connected by both commuter rail (30 minutes) and ferry. Fremantle was established as a convict settlement in 1829 and its economic role as the port of entry for Western Australia means the city has a much higher density of 19th-century limestone buildings than any other WA city. After the 1987 America's Cup defence (the first America's Cup held in the Southern Hemisphere), Fremantle was extensively redeveloped into t…
The Fremantle area was the traditional territory of the Whadjuk Noongar people, who called the Swan River mouth area Manjaree. Captain Charles Fremantle (of HMS Challenger) formally claimed Western Australia for Britain on May 2, 1829 — four weeks before the Swan River Colony officially began. The convict establishment (1850–1868) used convict labour to build the city's limestone buildings including the Round House (1831, the oldest existing building in Western Australia), the Fremantle Prison (1851), and many warehouses along the port. The Fremantle Prison (now UNESCO World Heritage as part…