Cam and Lib With Us

Our week trying to be locals in Fremantle

Almost everything that we learned as backpackers staying in Fremantle

Fremantle, also fondly known by the Aussies (who can’t resist the opportunity to shorten a word that isn’t even that long in the first place) as Freo, was always described to us as some kind of hippy town. It’s often referred to as the coolest place in Western Australia (not much competition admittedly) if not the whole of Australia. This may be a bit of a stretch and gives you a not insignificant amount of false hope for this town. What you will find is lots of cool little independent shops and bars but also lots of not-so-cool, not-so-independent places that can very quickly burst the little bubble of cool hippy-ness that you’ve put yourself in. As ever, unfortunately, it has also become a popular tourist destination which always seems to disrupt the unique vibe of anywhere that’s meant to be cool.

Google will have you believing everyone thinks of Freo for its Victorian architecture and history, as both a port town and British penal colony. I’m sure the high-minded amongst you probably do but this is definitely not what you’ll actually hear people talking about. However, they definitely should! The fantastic Victorian architecture, with its intricate facades and quietly ostentatious verandas, is as well preserved as it is under appreciated by the streams of tourists visiting the town. It’s genuinely very enjoyable to simply wander around the streets and take in the unique beauty of the buildings that surround you. We managed to spend almost a whole day doing just that and thoroughly enjoyed it. These charming buildings of the Australian gold boom era will have you feeling so immersed you’ll find yourself suddenly looking down at your phone thinking “what is this space-age contraption and how did it end up in my hand?”

If you’re going to Freo for a lovely sprawling beach, which is to be expected in Australia, you’re going to find yourself disappointed as all you really get is a large port in Freo itself. The port can be pretty cool as long as you don’t look in the direction of the countless, bafflingly enormous cargo ships. We enjoyed a rather relaxing afternoon wandering down the nice part of the dock admiring the fancy boats. If you choose to do this be sure to wander in the direction of Little Creatures Brewery, something of an icon in Perth and a must-visit when in Freo. The Brewery offers tours for those who are interested as well as a huge bar serving some of the best beer we’ve had alongside pizza that hopefully tastes as good as it smelled (we were too cheap to try any, having already stretched our backpacker budget to enjoy a beer). If this wasn’t enough to distract you from the lack of a big beautiful beach you can still visit Bathers Beach, Freo’s small but endearing beach, or travel a little south to the imaginatively named South Beach or hop on the train for a quick trip to Cottesloe, a strong favourite in the area. 

Similarly, if you had heard about the famed Cappuccino Strip and are going to try the amazing coffee you will also find yourself a little disappointed. We were thoroughly underwhelmed by the coffee shops on this street we’d heard so much about. Once again, do not worry! As with the beaches, there are some very very good cafes to be found if you venture a little further. During our stay in Freo we spent a fantastic morning in a little cafe called Flora and Fauna. Intending to head out and utilise some free cafe WiFi to sort some admin over a coffee we stumbled onto this place and were obviously hugely disappointed to find, once we’d ordered and set up in a table by the window, that they didn’t have any WiFi and we would just have to enjoy ourselves instead (it was a real, real shame). Freo, so we hear, is also full of fantastic restaurants. If your budget allows (ours unfortunately didn’t) we heartily recommend just getting out and trying as many restaurants as you can while you’re there. What we did manage to sample a little of was the bars. We obviously couldn’t not visit the National Hotel and we managed to try a few other places as well, although not as many as we would have liked. All in all we left Freo thoroughly impressed with what it had to offer but feeling as though we definitely hadn’t done it justice. There are so many cool bars and restaurants to try you could probably never feel like you’d done it all but it’s certainly worth giving it a go anyway. And, of course, you should definitely not pass up on a trip to Rottnest if you can! 

You should also try to get yourself down to the markets, we could not recommend this strongly enough. Open on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays the Freo markets are an absolute treat for the eyes and the tastebuds. The array of fresh fruit and veg was nothing short of stunning and, of course, the opportunity to try a giant spring roll couldn’t be passed up either. If you visit at the end of the day, so we hear, you might even be able to pick yourself up a crate of discounted mystery veg big enough to keep your fridge stocked until the next weekend.

Something that struck us, which is always quite telling about a place, is that Freo was just really busy. Every single day. Which isn’t a bad thing at all. We never complain about a place where you can find a lively bar on any given day. We simply just weren’t expecting it, from what we’d seen of Perth up to that point (which, admittedly, wasn’t all that much). Crawling with tourists, locals, and backpackers alike, there was a very distinctive buzz to the place that made us feel as though we were in the middle of it all. A very intoxicating feeling that can tire you out very quickly but leaves you wanting more as soon as you’re gone.

Ultimately, we think what we’re trying to get at here is that you should definitely add Freo to your list of places to visit. While it wasn’t much like what we had expected from what we’d previously heard about the place, it still had a very distinctive and enticing atmosphere that we haven’t been able to get out of our heads. We’d love to be able to go without the weight of our backpacker budget to slow us down and try out as many of the amazing bars and restaurants as we could so please, if you’re able to, go and do it for us and let us know what it was like. Just be careful when crossing the road, for some reason people like to take their loud cars down to Freo and rev their engines up and down the high street. We thought there was some kind of car show on but it turns out this is a regular thing (our local Aussie friend told us they were all bogans trying to prove something, we couldn’t possibly comment…)