Fremantle Studies No. 11, 2022

This volume was launched by mayor Hannah Fitzhardinge at the AGM Tuesday 26 July.

Fraser, Jane 2022, 'Four decades of Fremantle Press', Fremantle Studies, 11: 1-12. [presented Fremantle Studies Day 2017]

Graham, Allen 2022, 'The Fremantle hotel trade during World War 1', Fremantle Studies, 11: 13-27. [presented Fremantle Studies Day 2018]

Hart, Sheridan, 2022, 'Fremantle Arts Centre: contemporary programming in a historical site', Fremantle Studies, 11: 28-40. [presented Fremantle Studies Day 2017]

McKeough, Michelle 2022, 'Repatriation: a debt of gratitude', Studies in Western Australian History, 32: 39-49; Fremantle Studies, 11: 23-27. [presented Fremantle Studies Day 2018]

Meston, Natasha 2022, 'The City of Fremantle Symphony Orchestra: a history', Fremantle Studies, 11: 55-80. [presented Fremantle Studies Day 2017]

Pratt, Baden 2022, 'Hell for leather: North Fremantle Football Club and the Great War', Fremantle Studies, 11: 81-93. [presented Fremantle Studies Day 2018]

Reece, Bob 2022, '"Working class" organisations in late 19th Century Fremantle', Fremantle Studies, 11: 28-40. [presented Fremantle Studies Day 2017]

Straw, Leigh 2022, 'The suffering begins: returned soldiers, families and the aftermath of World War 1 in Western Australia', Fremantle Studies, 11: 81-93. [presented Fremantle Studies Day 2018]

Introduction

Welcome to Volume 11 of Fremantle History Society’s Fremantle Studies. The volume contains papers from Fremantle Studies Days in 2017 and 2018.

As expected, this publication adds new and valuable information on Fremantle’s past. Both years were based on themes: in 2017 the topic was Fremantle cultural institutions.

'"Working class" organisations in Fremantle in the late nineteenth century', by Bob Reece, provides an insight into the early institutions which served to educate the working class in the late nineteenth century through access to literature and the opportunity to attend regular talks from experts in a wide range of topics. Bob's research included the Working Mans Association and the early Fremantle Literary Institute.

Sheridan Hart's 'Fremantle Arts Centre: contemporary programming in a historical site' provides an interesting insight into the connection between heritage and art by discussing various exhibitions which have been produced at the Fremantle Arts Centre. Sheridan considers that intelligent and insightful interpretation of heritage sites is essential in ensuring the sites remain relevant and valued in society.

'Four decades of Fremantle Press', by Jane Fraser, currently CEO of Fremantle Press. Jane discusses the history of Fremantle Press from its early beginnings as Fremantle Arts Centre Press and over time reimagining itself to become a unique publishing house with a commitment to publishing Western Australian authors. Fremantle Press has introduced many new successful Western Australian authors over the years including Elizabeth Jolley, Sally Morgan, Philip Salom, Craig Silvey and Kim Scott to name just a few.

Natasha Metson won the Fremantle History Society Scholarship in 2017. Her paper, 'The amateurs of Perth: Fremantle Symphony Orchestra', provides an insight on the evolution of the orchestra from its early beginnings in Melville to its success as a musical institution in Fremantle. Natasha’s passion for the orchestra is evident in the enthusiastic way she analyses both the benefits of the orchestra to the audience as well as the benefits and support individuals gain from being a committed musician with the orchestra.

The 2018 Studies Day provided an emotional program relating to the aftermath at the end of the World War I. The four speakers describe the personal, social and economic impacts of the war to the history of Fremantle.

Leigh Straw’s paper, 'The suffering begins: returned soldiers, families and the aftermath of World War I in Western Australia', tells in detail the effects of the war on individuals and families. The statistics in terms of the soldiers who went to war are distressing with close to 60,000 not returning. Of the 23,700 soldiers who returned to Western Australia, many struggled to create a semblance of civilian life amidst their ongoing trauma of war. The examples of the after effects on the soldiers and their families is explained using her research through soldiers war records and Trove to bring to life many of the tragedies and pain which families experienced, including an ancestor in Leigh’s family.

'The Fremantle hotel trade during World War One', by Allen Graham, is more about the social and economic impact of life in Fremantle during the war. As Australia’s only substantial port on the western seaboard it was the last part of Australia that many departing troops saw and the first that many maimed and wounded saw on their return to Australia. The people of Fremantle were, therefore, greatly impacted by the war, but perhaps no business class suffered as much from the war as Fremantle’s publicans, for at the outbreak of war the Commonwealth Government had enacted the War Precautions Act which amongst other things allowed the government to “either prohibit or restrict the sale of liquor in any licensing district” or the “power ... to alter the closing time for hotels.” Allen pointed out that Fremantle publicans lost trade due to this legislation being enforced and many travelled on to Perth where the restrictions were less severe.

Baden Pratt’s, 'Hell for leather: North Fremantle Football Club and the Great War', is an emotive paper recounting the effect of the war on the club. The statistics relating to the football club are distressing: 43 players and officials walked off the North Fremantle Oval to volunteer to serve Australia - 12 died, 22 returned limbless, shell-shocked or brain impaired from gas attacks and the remaining 8 all received bullet wounds. So many enlisted in 1915 the team had to forfeit the final five games of the 1915 league season. Apart from the devastating effect on the soldiers and their family and friends it also had ramifications on the future of the North Fremantle Football Club in the Western Australian Football League and resulted in them being left out of the competition. Eventually they became part of the Amateur Football League where they still compete today. It is an moving story about the players and the history of the club.

Michelle McKeough’s paper, 'Repatriation: A Debt of Gratitude', describes the return of wounded soldiers from 1915, bringing home to their communities the real impact of their ‘first physical and emotional experience of modern warfare’. The repatriation of these men asserted itself as one of the most important social and civil concerns of the post-war period. The response of governments; local, state and federal to the issue of repatriation was founded on a prevailing sense of gratitude. Michelle’s paper explains in real terms how government departments and community organisations worked together to provide social, economic and health support for the soldiers and their families. It highlights issues which faced the Fremantle community for some time after the end of the war.

We thank the contributors who have given of their time, knowledge and expertise to produce significant papers relating to the history of Fremantle. Thank you to Shelley Campbell who prepared the index and Ian Chambers for his skills and patience during the laying out of Volume 11. Anne Brake, Heather Campbell, Pam Harris, and Jude Robison undertook the editing.

We commend it to you.

Contributors

Jane Fraser

Jane Fraser joined Fremantle Press in 2008 as a non-fiction publisher and has been its chief executive since 2010 with a portfolio that includes sales and custom publishing. She began her career in educational publishing in Sydney over 25 years ago before moving into editorial trade publishing. Jane spent five years in San Francisco heading up the editorial office of an international book packaging and co-editions publishing company. During this time she further developed her interest and expertise in the production of large-format photographic books, including landscape photography, art, history, cooking, gardening and natural history titles. For a decade prior to joining Fremantle Press, Jane worked in the corporate communications sector, expanding her business skills working with large international companies.

Allen Graham

Allen, who is the current President of the Fremantle History Society, is a long standing member of the Society and a lifelong resident of Fremantle, having been born and raised in Beaconsfield. Allen was a Councillor with the City of Fremantle during the heady days of the America Cup, serving on the Fremantle Council between 1985 and 1990. Allen has been researching and writing about Fremantle’s history for over thirty-five years with a particular focus on Fremantle’s hotels. He has won the City of Fremantle’s unpublished history award on three occasions and two of those essays have since been published in Fremantle Studies.

Sheridan Hart

Dr Sheridan Hart (née Coleman), is an artist and arts writer from Perth, Western Australia. She has been manager of front-of-house at Fremantle Arts Centre since 2011 where she also conducts research and works on editorial, exhibition and administrative projects for the Centre’s varied programs. Sheridan holds a PhD in contemporary art theory, with a particular focus on landscape art, museum archive organisation and small-scale community groups. She has written for Artlink, Art Guide, Art Monthly and IMPRINT and shown her artwork at Turner Galleries, Paper Mountain and John Curtin Gallery.

Michelle McKeough

Dr Michelle McKeough is an historian working in Western Australian history. Michelle is a contributing author of Voices of the West End (Fremantle: Maritime Museum of W.A, 2012) and author of Rescues, Rogues and Rough Seas: 150 Years of Water Police in Western Australia (Fremantle: W.A Water Police, 2000). Michelle’s doctoral thesis (Murdoch University, 2016) examined three times of crisis in Fremantle during the twentieth century: The Bubonic Plague; The Great War; and the Depression Era. She is currently writing a history of the pandemic of Bubonic Plague experienced in Western Australia between 1900 and 1906, which is due for publication later in 2022.

Natasha Meston

Natasha Milosevic Meston completed her degree in History at the University of Western Australia in 2016. Her Honours thesis concerned the fields of gender, biography and Australian history. Natasha was the Fremantle History Scholar for 2017. Her work has since been published in History Australia, Limina: A Journal of Historical and Cultural Studies, and Damsel magazine. Natasha is currently working for the Australian Government, living in Canberra, and playing with the Australian Wind Symphony.

Baden Pratt

Baden Pratt lives in Fremantle and is a life member and former president of the North Fremantle Football Club. He is currently studying History at Notre Dame University (Fremantle). Two of his four published books, The Mighty Maggies of Gilbert Fraser Reserve, and Hell for Leather: The Forgotten Footballers of North Fremantle, trace the history of the football club. He is a former City of Fremantle Councillor, former president of the Fremantle Society, and has been a working journalist for 60 years.

Bob Reece

Bob Reece is Professor Emeritus in History at Murdoch University where he lectured from 1978 until 2010, apart from three years as Keith Cameron Professor of Australian History at University College Dublin. Widely published in Aboriginal history and Irish convicts in Australia, he has also written extensively on the history of Sarawak (Malaysia).

Leigh Straw

Dr Leigh Straw is the Deputy Head of the National School of Arts and Sciences at the University of Notre Dame Australia. She is a Senior Lecturer in History and teaches across the History program, specialising in Australian history, modem U.S history and crime studies. Leigh was the 2018 joint winner of the Margaret Medcalf Award for Excellence in Research and Referencing using the State Archives Collection (this was for the book After the War: Returned Servicemen and the Mental and Physical Scars of World War I, published by UWA Publishing). She is the author of a number of true crime and social history books including her most recent publication The Petticoat Parade: Marie Monnier and the Roe Street Brothels (Fremantle Press, 2021).

Freotopia

This page incorporates material from Garry Gillard's Freotopia website, that he started in 2014 and the contents of which he donated to Wikimedia Australia in 2024. The content was originally created on 17 September, 2021 and hosted at freotopia.org/fhs/fs/11/index.html (it was last updated on 30 October, 2023). The donated data is also preserved in the Internet Archive's collection.