Parks/esplanade.html
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Esplanade Park
Esplanade Park aka 'Fremantle Esplanade' is on reclaimed land on Marine Terrace (formerly Fitzgerald Terrace) opposite the Esplanade Hotel. It is to be distinguished from Fremantle Park (on Ellen Street) and Fremantle Oval (now on Parry Street). It was established in the earliest years of the twentieth century, with the first Norfolk pines planted 1908.
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Fremantle City Library Local History Collection ' c. 1905 photo no. 577A: Fremantle Esplanade was formed from seven and a half acres of land reclaimed from South Bay. Sand was trucked from the Robb Jetty dunes and spoil from Ellen and East Street cuttings used to fill the area. The Fremantle Municipal Council spent 1000 pounds levelling, manuring and planting couch grass. The band stand rotunda was used by some famous touring brass bands. The picket fence has long since been removed. Note Long Jetty, used as a promenade, in the top right.
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Fremantle City Library Local History Collection 1912 photo no. 1230A. The bandstand was built in 1906 after a competition organised by Council to beautify the Esplanade was won by an architect Mr J McNeece who was awarded 209 pounds and fifteen shillings. The opening took place on the 3rd or 4th of April 1906. The Esplanade Hotel is in the centre background with Daniel Scott's warehouses (c1850) next to it. They were used to house convicts before the Prison was built. On the corner of Marine Terrace and Essex Street is the Manning flat roofed house, built before 1880 and demolished April 1985. In front of the Hotel is the Hector McDonald drinking fountain, erected c1907 by public subscription to the memory of "Fighting Mac" who died in 1903.
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Photo 1906 courtesy Fremantle City Library Local History Collection image no. 698: Strolling crowds at the Esplanade Reserve with the bandstand in the background. The Esplanade, approximately six acres, was reclaimed from the sea 1902/1903 and vested in the Fremantle Municipal Council in 1904.
References and Links
David Hutchison's Walk 3: The Esplanade and Boat Harbours, Fremantle Walks.
Wikipedia page
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 21 July, 2015 and hosted at freotopia.org/parks/esplanade.html (it was last updated on 14 March, 2024). The donated data is also preserved in the Internet Archive's collection.