The Fremantle Society is a community-based culture and heritage advocacy group in

Fremantle, Western Australia Fremantle () () is a port city in Western Australia, located at the mouth of the Swan River in the metropolitan area of Perth, the state capital. Fremantle Harbour serves as the port of Perth. The Western Australian vernacular diminutive for ...

. It was formed in 1972 to prevent demolition of historic buildings in Fremantle and to assist in their development. As the significance of Fremantle's built heritage came to be more widely recognised and respected (by the

City A city is a human settlement of notable size.Goodall, B. (1987) ''The Penguin Dictionary of Human Geography''. London: Penguin.Kuper, A. and Kuper, J., eds (1996) ''The Social Science Encyclopedia''. 2nd edition. London: Routledge. It can be def ...

, and property owners), the focus of the Fremantle Society has evolved to include more of the

cultural heritage Cultural heritage is the heritage of tangible and intangible heritage assets of a group or society that is inherited from past generations. Not all heritages of past generations are "heritage"; rather, heritage is a product of selection by soci ...

of the area. Various projects over time have highlighted Fremantle heritage, as well as advocating consideration of heritage in planning schemes. When the City's precinct system was established in the 1990s to provide interaction between the City and groups of residents, the Society became the "umbrella" precinct of the other eleven precincts. It has remained such, and is the only one not defined by geographical boundaries (the others are mostly representative of a suburb). The work of precinct groups can be supported by financial assistance from the City of up to $850 per year (as long as this is not used to support government election campaigning). The overall nature of the Society's work is ongoing due to the inherent pressures from developers and others. ''Fighting for Fremantle'', a history of the Society by Ron and Dianne Davidson, was published by

Fremantle Press Fremantle Press (formerly known as Fremantle Arts Centre Press) is an independent publisher in Western Australia. Fremantle Press was established by the Fremantle Arts Centre in 1976. It focuses on publishing Western Australian writers and writin ...

in 2010. It was launched by the Premier of

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...

Colin Barnett Colin James Barnett (born 15 July 1950) is a former Australian politician who was the 29th Premier of Western Australia. He concurrently served as the state's Treasurer at several points during his tenure and had previously held various other po ...

, in Victoria Hall.

Campaigns

The Society has led campaigns to prevent the loss of many significant buildings in Fremantle; not all have been successful. Some examples include: * The

Oriana Cinema The Oriana Cinema was an art deco cinema and theatre built in 1938 in Fremantle, Western Australia and demolished in the early 1970s. History In 1937, a local company, Hoyts (Fremantle) Pty Ltd (formed by local businessmen and Hoyts Theatres L ...

, an

art deco Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...

building on the corner of High and Queen Streets (demolished in 1972) *

Fremantle Markets The Fremantle Markets is a public market located on the corner of South Terrace and Henderson Street, Fremantle, Western Australia. Built in 1897, it houses over 150 shops for craftspeople, fashion designers, and merchants in the historic Hal ...

* The proposed widening of

High Street High Street is a common street name for the primary business street of a city, town, or village, especially in the United Kingdom and Commonwealth. It implies that it is the focal point for business, especially shopping. It is also a metonym fo ...

and demolition of all buildings along the south side of the road *

Fremantle Prison Fremantle Prison, sometimes referred to as Fremantle Gaol or Fremantle Jail, is a former Australian prison and World Heritage Site in Fremantle, Western Australia. The site includes the prison cellblocks, gatehouse, perimeter walls, cottage ...

* Victoria Quay development, which in 2014 was still under discussion Other projects have also been undertaken, such as the 1978–80 photographic survey of almost every building in Fremantle, and the

Freopedia Freopedia began as a project to install QRpedia codes at sites around Fremantle, Western Australia to link people to articles on Wikipedia. It has since evolved into a WikiTown project aiming to build comprehensive coverage of Fremantle on Wikipe ...

wikitown project. The group received assistance in the 1970s in the form of

green ban A green ban is a form of strike action, usually taken by a trade union or other organised labour group, which is conducted for environmentalist or conservationist purposes. They were mainly done in Australia in the 1970s, led by the Builders Labo ...

s organised by the

Builders Labourers Federation The Builders Labourers Federation (BLF) was an Australian trade union that existed from 1911 until 1972, and from 1976 until 1986, when it was permanently deregistered in various Australian states by the federal Hawke Labor government and some ...

References

External links

* * * Organisations based in Western Australia Clubs and societies in Australia Culture in Perth, Western Australia Fremantle 1972 establishments in Australia Green bans {{Australia-org-stub