TASHY TRAVELS

Every Sunday, I am going to upload a post about the different countries I have visited and/or lived in since 2002.

I can assure you of some interesting stories.

AUSTRALIA 2 - PART TWO

And now to Fremantle, where we had decided to make our base. You may remember that our first stay was in the backpackers opposite the port. A busy, working port, as you can see from the photo. However, it was in this area that, in 1829, Captain Charles Fremantle, yes, you’ve guessed, landed. He then took possession of the whole of the west side of Australia for England. This type of thing happened rather a lot in olden times. It wasn’t his to take possession of, it belonged to the various tribes that lived there, just as the East Coast had belonged to the tribes living over there. Being a modest sort of bloke, when he landed, he called the place Fremantle. It was on the mouth of a great river and this would be very useful to the settlers, just as it had been to the aboriginal people, who had lived there for all those thousands of years.

The settlers who followed a few days after Captain Fremantle, moved up this river, which they called the Swan River. No, there wasn’t a modest Captain Swan around, it was because of the black swans that you can see here. The river will not have looked that different from today. It will have been clear and wide, although there will have been no bridges or houses to be seen, and the settlers will have felt quite happy to try to make their home there. At first, they made friends with the Aboriginals, who showed them how to make fire. The British boat capsized when arriving and all their matches got wet. The Aboriginals, yes the ones the British thought were backward and stupid, showed them how to make fire using two sticks.

And so Fremantle, and the surrounding area, began a new phase in its history. About two months after we arrived in 2004, there was a very special ceremony to which we were invited. It was to celebrate the fact that it was 75 years since Fremantle had officially been granted city status. The celebration was also extra special because it was 175 years since the first European settlers arrived in Australia, also in June. The whole event was devised by the Mayor of Fremantle, Peter Tagliaferri and Neville Collard who was an aboriginal elder from the Nyungar people, who lived in this area before the European settlers arrived. The celebration was called Gnulluk Koorliny Ballaga, which, in the Nyungar language, means Let’s Walk Together. It was their combined way of saying that these two peoples, who had first met some 175 years ago, should now try to progress as one, leaving behind the differences, problems and misunderstandings of the past.

The celebrations started off with some aboriginal music played on an instrument called the didgeridoo and I will have a whole blog about the didgeridoo later. After this, aboriginal elders from the local community and dignitaries from the settlers’ community met up and exchanged token gifts. In the aboriginal language of the Nyungar tribe these dignitaries are called birdiyias, or elders.

Then a group of young dancers performed some aboriginal dances. It was good to see that their culture still exists and even better to see it performed by young people. Aboriginal dances are very symbolic and used as a way of telling stories. One dance showed them cutting down a tree to find food inside it and then discovering a stinging bee inside the bark. Another of the dances had them mimicking the movements of the kangaroo.

Various speeches were made by the Governor-General of Western Australia, the Mayor of Fremantle and the aboriginal elder. After this, the dancers re-enacted the very first meeting between their ancestors and the white soldiers. A young pupil from one of the local schools joined in as the white soldier. Jokingly, I asked him later, how it felt to be the first white man to settle in Western Australia and he said, ‘good, I suppose I’m the governor now’. The event finished with everyone mixing together and we were able to taste some traditional aboriginal food, kangaroo and damper, which is, I think, a form of bread. Then, in the pouring rain, after all I was there and it always rains in May, everyone went home or off to further celebrations. By the way, I noted that the Governor-General said how pleased everyone must be that it was raining. This is not something we hear in Europe too often but in Australia drought is a major problem.

We had actually arrived in Fremantle on Easter Saturday, late in the afternoon, if you remember. It was then that I realised that some parts of Australia were still a bit behind how we now behave in England. No large shops opened again until Easter Tuesday. We ate very sparingly for two days. When I was young, shops didn’t open on a Sunday and often closed at lunch-time on a Wednesday. Talking of being in a different time, we went down to the port on another day and saw these two vessels leaving. The replica sailing ship was being used to give kids a ‘Duke of Edinburgh award’ type adventure, I think, and it sailed out of the harbour directly behind a modern container ship.

It was called the Leeuwin II and was a 3-masted barquentine. It was, and maybe still is, Western Australia’s own Tall Ship and run by the Leeuwin Ocean Adventure Foundation. Their mission was to challenge and inspire the education and development of youth and the wider community, in terms of leadership, team skills, community spirit and environmental awareness. They set out to do this by running voyage programs aboard the ship. The voyages ranged between 3 hours and, more usually, several days; the maximum being around 10 to 12. They sailed along the coast of Western Australia and up as far as the Northern Territory. They had a regular crew of six, a volunteer crew of seven and 40 participants. Most of the people who go on these trips have never experienced life on board a ship, let alone one where they are vital to the actual running of the ship. It looked a fascinating way to try something new yet old, learn about working with others and also find out more about the environment. I note that I wrote then that we thought we might like to join them for a voyage, although it did say that if you were over 50, you need a form signed by your doctor. My notes read, ‘Now, where is my doctor? Should I have a form to do my project too? Should I have a doctor.?’

We had also decided that we would now include a section on our website relating to attractions in each area we visited. I said that we were doing it for accommodation that helped us out but we added restaurants and attractions. In return for a free meal or admission, we would give them a write-up in a special part of our site that I had titled travomation. I like inventing words. It meant more work but was a way of us gaining more experiences without spending more money.

While we were walking around the port area one day we saw a sign saying Motor Museum. It was housed in what I assumed was one of the old cargo sheds. Container ships don’t need to unload their cargo; the containers go straight onto a waiting lorry. But loose cargo, as in the old days, would be held in sheds to keep it dry. These unused sheds were now available for people to develop for other purposes. On the other side to the motor museum, sheds were being used as cafés, restaurants and shops.

We had made an appointment to visit the Museum, partly because I like cars and partly because it looked interesting. It was owned by a guy called Peter Briggs and he had an amazing collection both there and also some more in a place called York, about 60 kms from Perth. There were unusual cars, F1 racing cars plus all sorts of models from various years. One of the most fascinating was a strange little two-tube car, built by an Italian racing driver called Piero Taruffi, and designed solely for speed. It was built sometime in the 1950s. In those days people were trying to set speed records and this car achieved a one way speed of 313 kilometres per hour. For the size engine it had (1720cc Maserati for those of you that care) this was a world record at the time.

After four weeks at the backpackers, we realised that we were not going to be able to operate in that environment. It was great for meetings, being central to Fremantle and next to the railway station but phone calls were a nightmare and, at that time, we hadn’t got a mobile phone. We saw an advert for a room to rent in a family house, met the lady who advertised it and moved there, where we stayed for another two months. It meant we had to travel a bit to get into Fremantle, usually by bus, but, according to my notes, we used the CAT bus. Unfortunately, apart from remembering they were very efficient, I can’t remember much about them. I don’t even remember what CAT stood for although I would guess community and travel come into it.

We also walked around quite a lot and this let me see more about residential areas of Fremantle. I think, at this point, I have to tell you that Fremantle, both locally and around Australia, is known as Freo. Now you know this, it saves me 6 letters each time I type it. The streets are similar to those in England with houses on each side, gardens, cars parked etc, so, apart from the fact that it was winter, sunny and 20°C, it could have been England except I suddenly noticed an olive tree. Obviously I may have led a very sheltered life in the UK and I may have missed the large number of olive trees growing at the side of the streets in all the places I have lived, but I don’t think this is such a frequent occurrence. We are a little short on the olive tree orchards. Another time we were taken quadding, another new word and I saw orange trees and grapefruit trees and mulberry bushes. There is also a lemon tree (very pretty and the lemon flower is sweet) in the garden next door to the house where we are staying. All of this was quite unusual for me and there are, what I would consider, exotic fruits growing all over Australia. On our visit the previous year we came across the custard apple. We were finding out so many things in such a short space of time.

It is a well-known fact that the Australians love their barbecues. The weather is so good why wouldn’t you want to eat outsides. In nearly all the green, open spaces in Freo, there are public barbecues. You just put a coin in the slot and it all heats up and off you go. Once you have used it, you are politely asked to clean it up and it is ready for the next person. It’s so easy that you can even read the newspaper while your food is cooking. Or am I reading the instructions? You will never know.

By now I was falling completely in love with Freo. Unlike Perth, Freo was a real community. Perth is the big city of Western Australia, modern, clean and well able to cope with more growth if necessary; Freo is the little multi-cultural relation, who has no problem in knowing its own identity. It has an easy going feel to it and the city has many distinct areas. It has, like many places in Australia, a mixture of many cultures and nationalities and these have been added to the first inhabitants and owners of this land. In fact, many of the new migrants who have arrived over the last 50 years will have first landed from ships which docked at Fremantle port, although nowadays they are more likely to land at the airport in Perth.

But Freo doesn’t just have this busy, working port. It has a harbour too. The main harbour is both a working harbour and a recreational one. Fishing boats merge with large yachts. It has been there for many years.

In fact, shortly before we arrived, a new memorial was opened to the fishermen and those who have lost their lives in that industry. The picture above, and the one to the left, show this memorial and the very beautiful sculptures that have been placed there, along with a list of names of those who had perished at sea, all on a purpose built jetty within the main fishing harbour.

Around this harbour you can find many restaurants and cafés and the whole area has a fantastic feel to it as you can sit out in the open and enjoy a meal while watching the boats arrive and leave. If you have your own boat, you can sail in, pop across, buy your lunch, sit back and enjoy life. It is a scene and a setting that has built upon a part of Fremantle, the harbour, which has existed for many years.

But in 1984, Fremantle began to construct a completely new harbour, further out into the Indian Ocean. It was called the challenge harbour. It was built for a special reason that, for a few weeks in 1987, made Fremantle the centre of world attention and brought thousands of people to the city and, indeed, was a major reason that many developments and improvements happened. The reason; The Americas Cup. The Americas Cup is a yacht race. It was first held in 1851 and an American boat challenged 16 English yachts for a Cup commissioned by the Queen of England, Victoria. The race took place around the Isle of Wight, off the coast of Southern England, and the American boat won. There is a quote that the Queen, who often lived on the Isle, asked who won. When being told America, she asked who was second and was told, ‘Your Majesty, there is no second’. I don’t think she was that amused.

This was also bad news for all the other nations as, for the next 132 years, America won every time and the others had to make do with the non-existent second place. However, in 1983, off the coast of New York, Australia, with the yacht Australia II, succeeded in becoming the first to beat the Americans and take the trophy home to Australia. The yacht was raced under the banner of the Royal Perth Yacht Club, I think, and so the next series of races, Australia’s defence, would take place on Australian soil or, to be more precise, water. Fremantle was chosen and the whole area began to prepare for the event scheduled, to be held in 1987. Today Challenge Harbour is a very peaceful, tranquil area, far removed from the time it hosted the Cup. Now recreational yachts line the moorings and the houses built to host teams, press or whatever in 1987 have become holiday homes in the Marina Village

Sad to say, Australia lost the defence and the Cup returned to America, who have since lost it to New Zealand a couple of times and the latest series of races resulted in a Swiss victory (this was written from my notes in 2004). For those of you with geographical knowledge, this was quite unique because Switzerland has no coastline at all so to win an ocean yacht race is a bit like Egypt winning a snow-balling competition. The yacht, Australia II was housed in the Maritime Museum which looks a little bit like Sydney Opera House on a smaller scale. Later, when I tell about my time in New Zealand, you may join me crewing one of the yachts which won the cup for them.

After we had been in Fremantle for a while, we discovered it had a university. Normally these are quite large and fairly difficult to hide. You can build a park around the buildings, stick in a few trees but sooner or later somebody notices the buildings and all the students going in and out and the secret comes out. However, we had been in Fremantle for over six weeks, before we found the University of Notre Dame. By the way, Notre Dame is French for Our Lady. Further language lessons will be available as time passes or, tempus fugit, as we say. You can see straight away that I am a Latin scholar, although learning the vocative case (look it up then) for the word for a table always puzzled me, until I joined Mensa. Still, these Roman emperors used to talk to strange things. The University was founded in 1990, is a private Catholic University and the first students were admitted in 1992. Presumably they took even longer to find it than we did, spending all of two years searching around Fremantle.

But now, the moment for which you have been waiting; still remembering father. Yesterday, I promised to take you down the road toward the Roundhouse. The Roundhouse is the oldest public building in Western Australia, having been built around 1830, 1831. In its earliest existence it was a gaol and subsequently was used as a wheat store house, then a women’s prison and, at one time, a private residence. It was built on Arthur’s Head; there were other parts they could have used but there you are. This was actually the site where the first European settlers, who later set up the Swan River colony a little bit inland, landed way back in 1829. In 1900 A Time Ball and Gun were built next to the roundhouse. This provided a daily time check so that ships in the harbour could accurately set their clocks or chronometers as they were called. Originally just a gun was used but, following my earlier language classes we are now heading to our science lesson, there is obviously a time delay in hearing the gun shot if you are some distance away. Light or vision travels faster than sound. So, they introduced the time ball and sailors could climb the rigging on their ships and use a telescope to see exactly when the ball dropped. It was actually released by an electric impulse from an observatory in Perth and at the same time the cannon would fire. In 1937, this was changed and a radio signal was used.

However, on March 27 1998, the ball and gun signal was re-established, to celebrate the sixth birthday of one of my sons. Maybe. Next to the Roundhouse are four cottages which were built to house the pilots who used to guide the ships into the port and, maybe, up the river. The nearest one to the roundhouse is now a restaurant and at one stage, I think, was a courthouse. It was here that we had one of our first sponsored lunches and, just to make your mouth water, I will tell you what we shared because it is in my notes. We had Steak Benedict, which was steak served on field mushrooms and topped with a poached egg and hollandaise sauce and Aqua Pasa, which was prawns, calamari and barramundi, tossed with cherry tomatoes and asparagus and glazed with basil chardonnay. You can taste it can’t you?

Finally, in today’s rather long epistle, I came across this photo. I know this gate was near the roundhouse and my notes say that it was once used to transport whale carcasses up from the beach but I have no notes about a whaling industry in Freo. Once all these blogs are posted, I will have several things to google, but not yet.

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