By the numbers
23,723 steps
17.86 kms
I woke up at 530am in the West Coast and it was actually 3 hours difference in the East as they are ahead of WA. I did have a pretty good sleep, but I thought it was best to get up and get ready to go out. I had no idea where I should go as I was looking at the Shipwreck museum, but that didn’t open until 930am. Some of the cafes didn’t open until 7am and I was starting to get pecking and wanted a coffee.
Taking a wander after getting ready and filling up my water bottle as I knew I would need it along the way, as you never know it might get pretty hot out there. For some reason, I thought the Freo Markets were open as I could hear music. It was actually the gym across the road at the Fremantle oval. The markets are only open over the weekend, so it was bad luck for me. I found a cafe that was open well before 7am and I ended up with a coffee and a Spinach and Ricotta roll. Something different for breakfast, and then I was off. It was interesting seeing the city with very few people out and about as it was quiet at 7am. I did see a few homeless that were on the park benches and I even found John Curtin the statue ex Prime Minister during World War 2. Walking towards the Basilica that was nearby and it was in the direction I was heading in, I found the Proclamation Tree that had been planted in 1890 and part of the creation of the Western Australian government. It was still going well.
I was wanting to find where the ferry wharf was so that I would know where to catch them the next day as I have a day trip planned for Rottnest. I did start walking the wrong way as I thought there was a under pass, but I was actually walking towards North Fremantle and didn’t want to do that. Turning around I made it past the Fremantle train station, where nearby I could cross the railway lines. I have no idea if they actually go any further apart from freight maybe. From there I was able to walk to South Mole lighthouse, where the wind had picked up and was trying to blow me away. There was defensive positions from WW2, but nothing about what was there. By this time I looked at how far I had walked and it was around 7kms and that was around 8am in the morning. I still wanted the Shipwrecks museum and that was where I was heading. Though I ended up finding the roundhouse, which is a historic building that wasn’t round and where executions took place. Below that was a tunnel that had been made by the Whalers that was basically a short cut. I soon found what I had come looking for early in the morning and that was the Bon Scott statue on the Fremantle wharf area. I will eventually get to the cemetery.
At this time I had decided to rest my feet for a couple of minutes and that was not long before the WA Shipwreck Museum opened up for the day. The museum was actually free, so I was more than happy to enter the museum. There was a reason for my visit as I knew they had objects from the infamous Batavia wreck, where the people on board mutinied around the 1600s and the ship was wrecked. People were on several islands for a while until a rescue ship came along and they became aware mutineers wanted to take the ship. That ended badly for the mutineers. Part of the ship’s hull including other objects like cannons were salvaged later on in the 1900s. There had been quite a few Dutch shipwrecks on the Western Australian coast including one that had hit the coast and artifacts had been embedded in the cliffs over time as the area had been smashed constantly by the surf. It was interesting to see the remains of silver ware that had been recovered, coins discovered on multiple wrecks that were basically clues to the origins of the ship, whole smoking pipes that had survived under water. Even an engine from the SS Xantho that had been cleaned up and was still working after 100 or so years under water. The WA museum had become experts of that sort of preservation of metals I think it was. To the point where other countries learnt their techniques for similar projects. A gallery about the Dutch explorers like Hartog and the mystery of a southern continent that had been spoken about. In one part of the gallery was part of the Catalina aircraft that had been shot down by the Japanese in Broome during World War 2. The museum I found was interesting to spend a few hours.
Once I left the museum, I headed back to the hostel for a rest before I would go out again for a tunnel tour in the Fremantle prison. That was an interesting tour as we were collected from the front gate by a guide. I found the courtyard was free to visit, but any part of the prison behind the gates entry was through a tour only. I was doing the tunnels tour that took you under Fremantle prison. The tunnels were originally about the water supply where convicts would pump water and dig the tunnels. They actually ran under the streets outside the prison. All limestone so it was a soft rock. We had to leave out phones and wallets in a locker, put on gumboots, safety harness, hard hat before climbing down ladders to the tunnels. It wasn’t that bad. It did get really warm down there with the humidity. We followed some of the tunnels on foot, turned the lights out to show how dark it got and had a look at the reflection in the water. Then we got into the boat to paddle around the tunnel like in a theme park. All it lacked were glow worms. I had the guide as my buddy so I didn’t actually have to do anything in the boat as I was up the front with him. We got to see cockroaches hanging out down there along with small mushrooms. You knew you were under the streets as there were tree roots hanging down. They even had navigation by touch as the lights were off and you had to move the boat by touching the walls in full darkness. That was fun. Though with hands in the water it was nice and cool. After the boat trip we were going back up the ladders with our harnesses holding onto the ladder. I would say with the boat ride, I was pretty relaxed and ready to go for a wander afterwards. The Prison waws closed for the day so we basically walked out.
Silly me decided I wanted to go looking for the early cemetery in Fremantle that was now a primary school. I would not have done that if school was still in. It was actually near the hospital and the Fremantle Prison actually backs onto the hospital so it was pretty close. While the cemetery had been resumed and all that after it closed, there were headstones placed back there like a display and had info on what children and adults died from as examples to teach the kids. It had taken a little bit of searching online to find where it actually was. Around a 10 min walk from where I am staying. After that I ended up at the nearby Monument reserve that was to do with the WW1 war memorial as every city and town seem to have. It was windy and early evening, but I did get some pretty good views from there. I was pretty worn out by then as I headed back to get food from the IGA again. I did find they had a roast meal, which would be better and cheaper than going to a restaurant. Maybe to save money, I should just do that. I ended up with a pork roast.
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