Fremantle
A gold-rush port left intact, with its listed prison and a weekend market.
Duration
4 hrs – 7 hrs
Best time
At the weekend, for the market
Open
Every day
Entry price
Free
Fremantle was built by the gold rush of the 1890s, and the money stopped abruptly: the town could not afford to modernise, and that is what saved its Victorian streets whole. It is one of the best-preserved nineteenth-century port towns in the world.
The prison, built from 1851 to 1859 by the convicts themselves, operated until 1991 and is World Heritage listed. The covered weekend market dates from 1897, and South Terrace, known as the Cappuccino Strip, was built by post-war Italian immigration.
Getting there
Thirty minutes by train from Perth on the Fremantle line, or the boat down the Swan River. All on foot from the station.
Hours
The market runs Friday to Sunday
What to bring
- Headlamp
Rules on site
The market only opens Friday to Sunday. The prison tunnel tour, below the water table, is done by boat and must be booked: it is not for the claustrophobic.
