Wednesday, June 27, 2018

(Backup) June 27: “Do You Want to go for a Little Ride...”

...”I’m just taking Jared to Fremantle for his painting class.” Sure, I’ll go for a ride. So begins another unplanned, but full, day of sightseeing. 

After dropping Jared at his painting class, Cathie says we could just have a little tour around to things we haven’t seen in Freo yet. We tried to get up to this tower thing, but we decided maybe the public isn’t allowed up there. Okay...moving on. We drove by Arthur’s grandparents house in North Fremantle. One of the houses is still there.

Then Cathie decided we would go up to the Fremantle War Memorial. On the way up the driveway, I saw a flock of Rainbow Lorikeets. I got out and tried to sneak up on them for some photos. I came up behind a tree. This one poked his head around the tree.

Oh...hello

We continued up to the Memorial. Arthur’s uncles are on the plaques of the Memorial.

The War Memorial

As we were walking back to the car, I could see an even larger flock of Rainbow Lorikeets. Again, I snuck up on them. Here’s more photos.



Aren’t they the coolest!!!

We left the Memorial, and Cathie says, “ Oh, we’ll just go have a look around at the prison.” As we are walking up to the entrance, I notice a tour about to commence. I say, “We could just catch up to that tour.” But, you have to have a ticket. The guy at the entrance asks if we would like to do the “Behind Bars” tour. Cathie and I look at each other, and decide we might as well, since we’re here. Cathie has a BOGO voucher, so we only have to pay for one ticket. The guy takes us to catch up to the tour. 

Entrance to the Fremantle Prison.

The prison was built by the convicts in the 1800s. It eventually became a regular prison for all criminals. It was in operation until as late as 1991. In 1992, it opened for tours.

Original cell block building (the sections were called Divisions) As you can see, it was a rainy gloomy day...perfect for a prison tour.

The red building was the women’s building. Most of the women were imprisoned for things such as drunkenness, prostitution, and loitering.

The Division 1 prison yard

Aboriginal art on the wall of the yard. It was a crime to write or paint or deface the walls in any manner, but when the prison was going to be shut down, they let the prisoners paint on the walls.

The gallows. Those on Death Row were hanged for their crimes.

A convict cell from the 1800s

A cell from the 1960s to 1991

The prisoner who did these paintings behaved much better when he was allowed to paint.

Aboriginal art

The New Division (this was where Death Row inmates were housed)

One of the gun towers (there were 6)

After the prison tour, we went to pick up Jared. We went past Clancy’s, a fish and chips restaurant. Cathie said they have great gluten free options, so we decided we would go there for dinner (as I’m finishing eating a spinach and cheese pie and an almond croissant I had bought earlier...no worries, I can always eat). After getting Jared, we decided to give the food I had eaten some time to settle by going to the National Hotel (a Historical landmark) for some cider (plus, it was too early for dinner anyway). The hotel had burned many years ago. It has been refurbished, salvaging as much of the original building as possible.

The fish and chips were quite good (okay, I wasn’t terribly hungry, but like I said, I can always eat). So, our little ride to drop off Jared turned into 7 hours of sightseeing in Freo. This unplanned, fly by the seat of our pants, method of sightseeing works out pretty good!


















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