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FREMANTLE STUDIES DAY 2022
Sullivan Hall, 2 Nannine Avenue, White Gum Valley, Fremantle, 6162
30th October 1.00-4.00 pm
We will be presenting four speakers delivering a diverse range of papers:
Dr Dorothy Erickson, Fremantle Artists
Bob Gordon, Music in Fremantle
James Paratore, History of Commercial Fishers who have lost their lives
Joseph London, The Orange People
It’s an interesting line-up so put the date in your diary. The event will start at 1.00 pm.
From Kristi McNulty, in the Spring 2022 newsletter:
Fremantle Studies Day 2022 – Sunday 30th October
The highlight of the year’s events, Fremantle Studies Day, was held this year at the popular
community facility Sullivan Hall in White Gum Valley. What would an event be without a few hiccups, but eventually the issues with the hot water and the microphone were sorted and the 26th Studies Day was underway, the speakers and their topics diverse and thought-provoking.
The first paper of the day was: What Is The Fremantle Sound? Bob Gordon has worked in the
local music industry for three decades as a journalist for publications such as The Guardian,
Rolling Stone, West Australian, X-Press, writing countless reviews, press releases and articles.
He has worked in publicity and PR for events such as the Perth International Arts Festival,
Hidden Treasures Fremantle, Blues at Bridgetown, and hosted many live music events and interviews. He is well-placed to discuss and define the Fremantle Sound.
What qualifies as a Freo band? Bob and some of his friends in the music industry pondered this over. One name kept cropping up as an essentially Fremantle band: Cinema Prague, but they defied category, didn’t have one sound, they had many – jazz, rock, punk, speed metal, pop, funk, blues, reggae, hip hop. Too diverse to harbour a single essence and this can be said about much of the music that comes out of Fremantle.
Bob suggests that there is no such thing as a ‘Fremantle sound’, that the people who propose
that there are scenes or sounds in a certain region, aren’t from that locality. He quotes from
Nicholas Allbrook from Fremantle band Pond:
“The experience of a city or community varies so much that it can never be defined while it is still occurring. When it’s actually happening, a ‘scene’ is not really a ‘scene’ – it’s completely intangible and only coagulates into a definitive and convenient ball when history puts it in a cage, when someone from the outside looks in and decides there’s something shared between a bunch of vaguely artistic fools.”
And the late Paul McCarthy: “And the musos go from one thing to another ignoring the
genres…but the community they play to remains fairly constant.”
Bob wound up his paper rejecting the notion that Fremantle can be typecast as either a sound
or a scene. Scenes come and go…it’s about community and in Fremantle that is about open
hearts, open minds, and communicativeness.
The second paper: Fremantle through Artists’ Eyes and Artefacts, was presented by Dr Dorothy Erickson, a West Australian artist-jeweller who has exhibited her work internationally since 1979. Dorothy has authored five books on art, design and history and is the first recipient of the Ron and Dianne Davidson Scholarship.
Her paper examined pictorial representations of Fremantle from the 17th Century Dutch explorers to the beginning of the 20th century. Works by recognised artists sat alongside impressions sketched in personal diaries to illustrate the dramatic changes to the landscape over that period, from sand and swamp to a busy port city.
Dorothy’s research explored such collections as the Art Gallery of WA, the WA Museum, and the Mitchell Library in NSW among others, unearthing all sorts of previously unknown treasures. Many of the works she presented have rarely been seen.
Paintings were by artists such as watercolourist and architect Thomas ‘Satan’ Browne, watercolourist and businessman John de Mansfield Absolon, Harbour Master Commander Charles Russell, artist and civil servant Herbert Gibbs, artist and graphic designer
Miguel McKinlay and illustrator and art teacher Julian Ashton.
But also included were works by women, art being a suitable and respectable occupation at the time for the wives of gentlemen.
After an enjoyable afternoon tea ,those attending settled to hear the next two presentations.
The first was from Jan Rodda, a long-term resident of Fremantle. She shared her memories of growing up and living in Fremantle. Jan lived in various places as she grew up but particularly enjoyed the time spent in Yilgarn Street in White Gum Valley where her dad had a bakery. Jan talked about going to the pictures at the Oriana Theatre and holidays in the family’s beach shack at Coogee Beach. She recalled various jobs she had as a teenager including at Pellews and Culleys.
Perhaps the most important part of her presentation was a discussion on the changes which have occurred so rapidly since the 1950s and 1960s.
She talked about the demolition of the Fremantle Silos and the scope of development occurring in Fremantle at the moment and how it is disproportional with the existing buildings. Jan discussed this in the context of the proposed hotel on the Spicer site in William Street. She also talked about the ever-growing stacks of containers on the north wharf which dominate the landscape. Jan argued that we lived in an age of consumerism with resultant waste and need for ever larger landfill sites.
Jan’s talk certainly gave the audience much to think about in terms of the future of Fremantle and the planet, as well as rekindling fond memories of Fremantle in earlier days.
The final paper: WA Fishers Lost at Sea by James Paratore looked at the loss of fisher people in Fremantle right back to the early days of white settlement in Fremantle. James also indicated that Aboriginal people fished the area prior to white settlement and probably also lost their lives whilst fishing in the area. He provided a long list of stories of the storms and accidents which took people’s lives. Often the bodies were never found which must have been very difficult for the families of the lost souls.
It is obvious that James is passionate about researching and preserving the story of the WA Fishing Industry and he currently leads a small team of dedicated volunteers to research, document and collate the lives of all WA Fishers' lost at sea. Their ultimate aim is to build a memorial to recognise these tragedies as a final resting place for those who died. He holds hope that through storytelling, the Fishing Industry and its importance for the wider community can be celebrated and cherished for future generations.
Though it was sad to listen to it is worthy research which will help families who have lost loved ones whilst fishing for a living in times which were much more dangerous than today.
It was a wonderful day and thank you to all speakers and attendees for supporting our 2022
Studies Day.
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 13 August, 2022 and hosted at freotopia.org/fhs/fs/fsday/fsday2022.html (it was last updated on 17 October, 2023). The donated data is also preserved in the Internet Archive's collection.