Fremantle - just stroll around and other Fremantle, Australia Things to Do Tips

Although Fremantle lies almost 20 km’s from Perth, it seems more or less a suburb of its 'big brother'. On our way to ‘Freo’ we passed lots of houses, shops, offices before reaching the railway/bus station. Behind the railway station is a huge car park.

We started our stroll around the town along Market Street - opposite the railway station - together with the Mall one of the most important shopping streets. But to be honest the shops are not too fancy, most of them are lovely old fashioned. High Street, towards the Round House has a couple of interesting galleries and a nice shop with aboriginal art and crafts.

We visited during a weekend and could see the Fremantle Markets, located in an old Victorian building from 1897. More than 100 stalls in this indoor market are selling (almost) everything you can imagine; from jewellery and clothes till fish, fruit and vegetables.
Another market is the so called ‘E shed markets’, located behind the railway station at the Victoria Quay. A little bit smaller and more oriented towards tourists with souvenir and gift stalls.
Both markets are open on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

Along High Street and some side roads we found a lot of perfectly restored Victorian buildings. Most of the restorations took place on the occasion of America’s Cup sailing regatta in 1987. Just ‘around the corner’ lies magnificent Esplanade Hotel on Marine Terrace to end your Fremantle stroll.

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Directions: Downtown Fremantle
Website: www.fremantlewesternaustralia.com
Other Contact: www.freofocus.com

… of course on the famous Cappuccino Strip.
Fremantle’s most well known and busiest street is without any doubt South Terrace, or better Cappuccino Strip as it is called. Both sides of the street are lined with numerous café’s and restaurants. It is a coming and going of locals and tourists, who are ‘fighting’ to get a seat on one of the terraces.

We were lucky and had a table at ‘the Merchant’ having a cappuccino with a perfect raspberry cake. Enjoying our drink we could also watch the vibrant city life of Freo.

During one of the evenings we had also a pizza on a terrace at the Cappuccino Strip, but to be honest it was not too pleasant sitting in the exhaust fumes of a never ending flow of cars ands buses.

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Address: South Terrace, Fremantle
Website: www.fremantlewesternaustralia.com

The Round House is located at the end of High Street, with its restored Victorian buildings. It is the oldest building in Western Australia, built in 1831 as a ‘gaol’ (kind of a jail). From the central courtyard in the middle of the twelf sides building we had easy access to the old cells. They looked very very basic and it must have been like hell being imprisoned here in that days.

Just outside the building is the Signal Station. We were just too late to see the dropping of the time ball and to hear the sound signal of the gun (every day at 1 pm).

The Round House stands on a little cliff between the sea and the city (beneath the building is a tunnel which gave whalers from Fremantle access to the beach in older days). From here we had great views over the harbour and the Indian Ocean and on the other side of the town with High Street just in front.

Opening hours: daily from 10.30 am till 3.30 pm (except Good Friday and Christmas Day)
Admission fee by ‘gold coin’ donation.
There are volunteers on duty for more information and to show you around.

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Address: Arthur Head, at the end of High Street
Directions: In walkable distance of the railway/bus station. Otherwise you can take a free CAT bus to the Round House.
Website: www.fremantlewesternaustralia.com

On our way south from Fremantle to Rockingham we passed the ugliest landscape we had seen in Australia. Trees and bushes were dry and almost brown (suppose they had a lack of water). But even worse were the plants and the refinery, which caused a unnatural scenery.

In Rockingham it was much better, but we were in a hurry to catch the last ferry of the day to Penguin Island, which left the jetty at Mersey Point at 3.00 pm. In about five minutes we crossed the canal to the island.

We had just one hour for our visit and started with the Penguin Experience Discovery Centre. Still in time to see the feeding of some young Little Penguins (the smallest penguins in the world). Nice to see how lovingly the rangers treated these cute animals in this rehabilitation centre.

We followed the boardwalks and came to a look out with a view of a breeding colony of Pelicans, before we reached the beach. On our way back we saw just one wild Little Penguin just outside a burrow.

It is also possible to make a so called Penguin & Sea Lion Cruise in the waters of the Shoalwater Islands Marine Park.

Penguin Island Ferry & Cruises:
Opening hours: September 1 till June, ferry's depart hourly from 9.00 am till 3.00 pm; the last ferry from Penguin Island departs at 4.00 pm.
Admission: Ferry and discovery centre AUD 15,50 for adults.

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Phone: (618) 9591 1333
Address: Mersey Point, Rockingham
Directions: About 40 km's south of Fremantle along Rockingham Road.
Website: www.penguinisland.com.au
Other Contact: info@rockinghamwildencounters.co

Although it is possible to fly to Rottnest Island, we decided to catch the ferry from Fremantle. The ferries of Rottnest Express leave from Victoria Quay (C Shed), just behind the railway/bus station, with a huge car park.

We were rather early for our 9.30 am crossing, not having made any reservations because we had been waiting for some good weather. We bought our tickets from the ticket booth and had to decide on the same moment which ferry we wanted to go back in the afternoon.

It turned out that a lot of people had the same idea for a day trip to ‘Rotto’ on that sunny Sunday. At least the catamaran was filled with a couple of hundreds of people and it was more or less impossible to go outside and we didn’t see too much during the crossing of about 25 minutes.

Schedule: in January there are 6 crossings from Fremantle
Fare: a return ticket costs AUD 51,- for an adult (January 2007)
(for details and packages see website)

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Phone: 08 9335 6406
Address: Rottnest Express,'C' Shed Victoria Quay,Fremantle
Website: www.rottnestexpress.com.au
Other Contact: bookings@rottnestexpress.com.au

Rottnest Island - or just ‘Rotto’ – is situated in the Indian Ocean just 19km’s west of the harbour of Fremantle and can be reached by a fast ferry in just 25 minutes.

The island itself is 11 km’s long, 4,5 km’s at the widest point - just 20 metres at the most narrow point and measures 1.900 hectares.

Ferries arrive at the main jetty in Thomson Bay - or ‘the Settlement’ as the locals say. When leaving the pier you will find the yellow building of the Visitor Information Centre. Just behind this building is the shopping area of the island with a general store, bottle shop, post office and an ATM.

Nearby are also Rottnest Museum and the Salt Store, both with information about the history of the island.

Café’s, restaurants, hotels and other accommodations can also be found in and around Thomson Bay. It is also starting point for the Bayseeker, jump-on jump-off, bus. Otherwise you will have to rent a bicycle from Rottnest Bike Hire.

Tours are offered as well: bus, train, kayak and boat tours. It is also possible to make guided walking tours.

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Website: www.rottnestisland.com

Being 'Dutchies' it was a great opportunity for us to make a bike trip at the other end of the world on Rottnest Island. I’m absolutely convinced it is by far the best way to discover this beautiful island. We could go and stop where we wanted, doing it on our own pace and we even did some swimming from one of the beaches.
Besides it is the only properly way to reach the most western point of ‘Rotto’.

We went (of course) around the whole island and together with some detours we biked about 30 km’s, which took 2.5 à 3 hours (without stops). The roads were excellent for biking, although on some spots a little bit hilly and on the way out we had the wind against us. If you are not an experienced biker don’t underestimate the whole trip and better make somewhere a short cut.

Where to rent
We rented our bikes from the ferry company Rottnest Express, because they were saying “hiring a bike prior to arriving on the island would save time and hassle”. But after disembarking it turned out we had to wait on our bikes till all other (private) bikes were unloaded and we were among the latest to arrive on the island.
Next time I would definitively rent a bike from Rottnest Bike Hire (tel: (08) 9292 5105). They even offer recovery and repair service anywhere on the island.
Rental price for a geared bike for one day (January 2007): Rottnest Bike Hire AUD 23,- / Rottnest Express AUD 24,-

Packing list
- a cap (a helmet is compulsory to wear, we were a little bit cheeky and just worn our caps, because it was so hot and Rottnest Island is super safe to bike).
- sun tan 30 + / lip balm
- sun glasses
- swimsuit
- spare memory on your digital camera (or plenty of films)
- water, water and water

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Website: www.rottnestisland.com/en/Getting+around+Rottnest/Rottnest+Bike+Hire/default.htm
Other Contact: www.rottnestexpress.com.au

Just after disembarking from the ferry we were taken completely by surprise of the beauty of Rottnest Island. Crystal clear blue sea, white yachts in the harbour of Thomson Bay, beaches with almost white sands and green trees around the low buildings of ‘the Settlement’. We were entering an Australian paradise !!

And cycling around the island we discovered more of these fantastic beaches, sometimes with dunes and on other places with rugged rocks. But always with all these different turquoise colours of the Indian Ocean.
Bays, coves and viewing points have pretty names like Henrietta Rocks, Parker Point, Little Salmon Bay, cathedral Rocks or Catherine Bay. Everywhere yachts and sailing boats were anchored and people were swimming and snorkelling.

Further away on the island we saw less visitors and when we took a swim at Salmon Bay we were just the two of us on a marvellous beach: white sand, crystal clear water, some wind, white-headed waves.

We finished were we started; on the terrace of the Dome Café, having a fresh orange juice and a piece of cake, while overlooking the harbour of Thomson Bay, before we had to leave this paradise-like island.

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Website: www.rottnestisland.com

In the older days Rottnest Island was used for gathering and processing salt from the salt lakes. The Salt Store (nowadays an art gallery) in Thomson Bay was originally used to store the salt, before transporting to Fremantle.

The salt lakes on Rottnest Island can be found on the north eastern part of the island and cover about 10 % of the island. When biking on the island we passed a couple of the salt lakes. We found most impressive Lake Baghdad with some remarkable red ‘flowers’ along the borders and some more or less red algae in the water.
Lake Herschel had some white foam along the shoreline, due to the salt in the water.
These salt lakes are even on walkable distance of Thomson Bay.

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Website: www.rottnestisland.com

Although there should live a couple of thousands of these marsupials on Rottnest Island, we just saw four of these cute animals in and around Thomson Bay Settlement. A couple of my fellow countrymen named these animals in the 17th century ‘rats’. But as a matter of fact they are a (smaller) kind of a kangaroo; the aboriginals called them ‘quak-a’: nowadays well known as ‘quokka’.

They were hopping around on their big hind legs searching for food and not afraid at all. These quokka’s near the houses and shops seemed rather tame and we could come very close to take some pictures.
I’m sure you may see these ‘famous’ Rottnest animals, at least around Thomson Bay Settlement.

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Website: www.rottnestisland.com