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The History of Fremantle: The Front Gate of Australia, 1829-1929
By J. K. HITCHCOCK
Also the
History of the Harbour
By J. W. B. STEVENS
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[COPYRIGHT]
Published by authority of FREMANTLE. CITY COUNCIL
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Publishers' Note.
The committee entrusted with the task of publishing the History of Fremantle have been compelled to reject much valuable material through lack of space. An obvious difficulty in the path of the historian of this period arises from the nature of the subject, embracing as it does such a variety of independent - not to say incongruous - topics, that it is no easy matter to preserve anything like unity of interest in the story.
We are not sufficiently far away from the period of the narrative to secure the historian from the charge of undue prejudice or partiality. Yet Mr. Hitchcock is deserving of much commendation for the sobriety of his judgments, and for the skill he has shown in arranging his complicated story. With unwearied assiduity he devoted himself to the examination of many manuscripts, and became possessed of such a collection of authentic materials for the narrative, that the reader will be brought into a sort of personal acquaintance with events recorded. To the eye of the critic, there may seem some incongruity in a plan which combines objects so dissimilar as those embraced by the present History. The philosophical and biographical sides perhaps match indifferently the historical factors of the work, but without this mixture the narrative would lose much of its charm, and the personal touch which is one of its most pleasing features.
To Mr. Stevens also, the Committee desire to express grateful thanks. His handling of the Fremantle Harbour section is masterly, and the wealth of information provided adds greatly to the value of the narrative.
To those others who have assisted, viz., J. J. Mahood, G. L. Sutton, F. Hollis and M. J. L. Uren, the Committee recognise their indebtedness. Fremantle:
THE S. H. LAMB PRINTING HOUSE 1929
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Preface.
From the readers of these memoirs the writer asks an indulgent hearing; firstly, because he is fully aware of their literary demerits, and secondly, because of the indifferent state of his health during most of the time that he was engaged in their preparation.
It was with considerable diffidence that he undertook the task of compiling a ”History of Fremantle,” because he recognised that there were others far better qualified to do justice to the theme.
Although the writer has lived through three-fourths of the period covered by this ”History of Fremantle,” and most of the facts herein recorded are matters of personal recollection, there are episodes and facts that had to be gleaned from various sources. It is fitting that the authorities consulted should be acknowledged. Condensed in some cases, and amplified in others, the information afforded by the following has been availed of:- Kimberley's ”History of Western Australia,” ”Twentieth Century Impressions of Western Australia,” Dr. Battye's ”History of Western Australia,” the Official Year Book of Western Australia, newspaper contributions by Mr. Julien Strong, many records of his father's work in the colony possessed by Mr. H. Flindell, the Fremantle number of the ”Western Mail,” and information supplied by Messrs. Foxworthy, Plint and Raymond - Secretaries, respectively, of the Fremantle Building Society, Chamber of Commerce, and Literary Institute.
The account of the wreck of the Rockingham was first related to the writer in 1873 by the late T. W. Mews, Senr., who then resided in Henry Street, and who was one of the passengers on that ill-fated vessel. His narrative agreed substantially with an article that appeared some years ago in the ”Fremantle Herald,” and the particulars therein given have been quoted in a condensed form.
In conclusion, the author trusts that his efforts will at least result in dissipating some of the mist that surrounds the hazy past - a mist which would have been less dense if early residents, who once possessed old diaries and letters, had realised how greatly such mementoes of the past would have been prized by future generations, had taken pains to preserve them.
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J.K.H. STATE CENTENARY YEAR
1929
District Members of Parliament
FEDERAL
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES:
Mr. J. CURTIN.
STATE
LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY:
Fremantle: Mr. J. B. SLEEMAN.
South Fremantle: Mr. ALEX McCALLUM (Minister for Works)
North-East Fremantle: Mr. FRANK ROWE.
LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL:
West Province: Mr. W. H. KITSON (Honorary Minister).
Mr. E. H. GRAY.
Mr. G. FRASER.
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CHAPTER I.
Foundation of Fremantle.
Captain Fremantle’s Arrival - Foundation Day Events - Pioneers' Privations - Early Chroniclers' Impressions - The Years that Followed.
The succession of events that might be said to constitute a modest history of Fremantle has not been without romantic interludes. Little incidents though they might have been, they lived in the memory of the oldest residents and were recounted to later arrivals with evident pride. Volumes could be filled with the narratives of the pioneers, but in this retrospect it is proposed to record only the most important points in the story of the growth and progress of the town and the port.
There is romance for those who seek it in the rapid growth that followed the gold discoveries of the early nineties, and there was romance in the dreamy town which for more than sixty years before that decade slumbered peacefully by the placid waters of the Indian Ocean,”the world forgetting and by the world forgot."
Foundation of the Town
There are few in Fremantle to-day who could recall the town of fifty years ago. So strong was the infusion of new blood during the early years of the gold rush, and so many of the pioneers have passed away, that, to those who remain, the town of those bygone days belonged to a different age as it belonged to a different century.
It is natural enough that little of the old town has survived. There would be little of it that would be tolerated to-day, and it is scarcely a matter for regret that the new has almost obliterated the old. For many, however, it is not a matter for great rejoicing to see ancient landmarks disappear under the juggernaut of progress.
As is generally known, Fremantle derived its name from Captain Charles H. Fremantle, of H.M.S. Challenger, which anchored off Garden Island on April 25, 1829, three years after Major Lockyer had founded the settlement at Albany. Captain Fremantle landed on Arthur’s Head, and on May 2 took formal possession in the name of His Majesty King George IV. The exact spot where he landed was indicated in a despatch to the Admiralty dated October 8, 1829, wherein he said that:-
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"The landing took place in a little bay close to the mouth of the river, to the southward of it, being the only landing in that neighbourhood where boats could go with security, the bar at the entrance of the river generally being impassable.”
No doubt that little bay would have been the indentation in the shore between Arthur's Head and the little promontory (Anglesea Point) from which the Long jetty was later constructed. The landing would have been made somewhere near the western end of where later a tunnel was made through the rocky head, and it was there that the first jetty was situated.
Foundation Day has always been observed on June 1, although it was on June 2, 1829, that Captain James Stirling, with Surveyor-General Roe and the first contingent of 68 settlers, arrived at Fremantle in the transport Parmelia. The Parmelia grounded on a bank that still bears her name, but was floated off the next day and the Governor and his fellow settlers landed on Garden Island. On June 18 Lieutenant-Governor Stirling landed on Rous Head, and it was from there that his first proclamation annexing the colony to the British Empire was made. A detachment of the 63rd Regiment from H.M.S. Sulphur had landed the previous day to be in readiness for the ceremony.
In the possession of a member of the Historical Society of Western Australia is a picture depicting the landing, painted from a sketch made on the spot by Jane Eliza Currie, the wife of Captain Mark John Currie, who was present at the function.
Early Hardships
The first arrivals suffered many hardships amid heart-breaking surroundings. It was chronicled that:-
"When Fremantle was first occupied, the land was separated from Arthur's Head by a chain of pools, and the all-pervading sandiness of the long stretch of low-lying coast reduced the ardour of the bravest of the pioneer band. They arrived in the depth of winter; few or no tents had been provided for their accommodation, and no sort of cover had been prepared on shore. The weather, even for winter, being unusually severe, the unfortunate women and children were exposed to the most harassing privations and had frequently to sleep under umbrellas as the only covering from the deluges of driving rain that swept up from the Indian Ocean. Champagne cases, pianos and even carriages were later used in improvising temporary dwellings. Only with the greatest difficulty could those unfortunate people, unused as they were to rough colonial life, light fires for cooking purposes.”(In those days lucifer matches were unknown.)
The settlers appeared to have faced the situation with courage and determination, for in January, 1833, a visitor from Van Dieman's Land thus recorded his impressions of the infant town:-
“Fremantle's appearance is certainly a bed of sand, but in most parts of the townsite, upon several allotments, is found a
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vein of sandstone about two feet from the surface, sufficient in quantity to build a cottage on each and to wall the land. I was astounded-as, doubtless, all those who visited that settlement have been - that the same bed of sand will produce vegetables such as cabbages, carrots, turnips, onions, potatoes, and peas, than which nothing could be finer. There is scarcely an allotment in Fremantle fenced in and inhabited that has not a well of excellent fresh water."
In his diary (1834), George Fletcher Moore gave a less flattering description of the town, which, he said, was
"a bare, barren-looking district, the shrubs cut for firewood, the herbage trodden bare, a few wooden houses among ragged-looking tents and contrivances for habitation, one poor hotel and one poor public house into which everyone crowded. The colonists are a cheerless, dissatisfied people with gloomy looks, who plod through sand from hut to hut to drink grog and grumble out their discontent to each other."
Moore must have been in a cynical mood when he wrote in that strain, because the subsequent progress of the town proved that the pioneers, who laid its foundations, were anything but the drunken lot of grumblers he made them out to be.
Signs of Progress
By 1842 the town was well laid out and contained two hotels, Government, buildings and three or four stores. The landing place was at the western end of the tunnel which had been pierced through Arthur's Head to connect High Street with the then existing jetty. From then until after the arrival of the first batch of convicts in 1850, apparently the town did not make very rapid progress, for a writer of that period wrote that-
“Fremantle was a small, insignificant place, scarce worthy of the name of town."
Apparently High Street had a few respectable-looking houses as well as one or two hotels of fair proportions, but what is now the centre of the town had only a few stringy-bark cottages dotted here and there. The writer said that
“It was indeed a dismal spot. North and south, as far as the eye could see, there was nothing but miserable sand covered by stunted bushes."
The institution of the convict system inspired the struggling settlers with fresh courage and gave a great impetus to Fremantle. Later a serious setback was experienced by the exodus of a number of desirable colonists who were attracted to the newly-discovered Victorian goldfields. The discovery of gold in Western Australia resulted in the return of many who had been attracted to Victoria, and with them came thousands of new settlers eager to make their fortunes on the Golden Mile. Some attained that ambition, but the majority gained
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little money from their prospecting; many established businesses in Fremantle, Perth and the new settled districts. Fremantle's share of those boom days was a large one, and the ”Roaring Nineties,” as they were called, ushered in a period of prosperity for the town. That prosperity was interfered with by the removal of the railway workshops from Fremantle to Midland Junction, and from 1901 to 1911 business in Fremantle was in the doldrums. A recovery was delayed by the economic results of the Great War, but when the world's markets again became dependable, Fremantle began to take on the guise of a huge warehouse for the stowage of the State's primary products for export and the merchandise brought from other countries and other States for consumption within Western Australia. In that guise the town has again found prosperity.
CHAPTER 11.
State's Pilgrim Fathers.
1829-1830
Parmelia's Pioneers - Colony's First Babies - First Town Allotments Sold - Distinguished Early Settlers - Shipping Arrivals - Peel's Expedition.
To reflect the true nature of the progress of the town, the growth through the years should be set down chronologically, and, so far as possible, without destroying the continuity of the relation of certain events, that has been done in the pages that follow.
Parmelia Migrants
The transport Parmelia arrived at Fremantle on June 2, 1829, and as a matter of historical interest the official list of passengers is given hereunder, the ages of junior members being shown in parentheses:-