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Town Hall
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12 March 2023: Where are our Local History Centre and restored Town Hall?
17 February 2023: Fix Our Beautiful Town Hall Now!
7 February 2023: Shocking Neglect of "Perth's finest heritage building"
2 March 2022: Why is Council Tone Deaf to Good Music Facilities?
Last week the Fremantle Society in print broke the story of the scrapping of the proposed film studios on Victoria Quay, after campaigning for a better location from day one.
But its not just FILM in Fremantle that suffers from immature planning.
Classical music, which has a proud history all the way back to 1829, survives today in wonderful groups like the Fremantle Chamber Orchestra.
However, the lack of interest and support from Fremantle Council is a travesty. The best venue in town - the Fremantle Town Hall - has had no money spent on its amazing interior since the America's Cup.
The Fremantle Society asked the Fremantle Chamber Orchestra's (FCO) inspiring leader Hans Hug to explain the problems.
Hans Hug:
Fremantle has really not enough performance spaces. Victoria Hall is beautiful, with great acoustics but too small for FCO (even without COVID and distancing rules). FCO loves Fremantle Town Hall and we consider it our home because of (and this is most important as we don’t use amplification) the great acoustics, atmosphere, stature and size. FCO welcomes the City’s support by extending “subsidised use”, meaning FCO doesn’t pay any rent for the Fremantle Town Hall.
I checked out all venues I know in Fremantle and with the exception of the churches (also no A/C and heating but good acoustics) there is really no space for concerts, the size FCO and other groups could perform in. John Curtin’s theatre is new, flash with A/C and a good size with just under 500 seats but the acoustics are too dry and live music needs (expensive) amplification.
NDA has the Drill Hall but the ambience, stature and crucially acoustics are not the same as in the town hall. FCO was the first to perform at the Naval Store. It’s a good size with reasonably good acoustics and the noise intrusion isn’t as bad as in B Shed. There are no chairs however and hiring them is quite expensive. B Shed is in a great location but with disturbing noise intrusion and exposed to the elements without chairs, it’s not really suitable for classical music. St Patricks has good acoustics and a good size and FCO has performed there many times while the town hall was unavailable. St John’s has lovely acoustics too but is just not quite big enough. It’s very suitable for chamber music.
The Fremantle Town Hall used to have A/C until about 6-7 years ago. Yes, it was asthmatic but in summer I went there the night before the concert and turned it on. The timer turned it off after 6 hours, so in the morning of the concert I went there again and at 2pm I would turn it on so it wouldn’t be too hot when people arrived. It never kept up with a full hall but it was manageable for 2 hours. A few years ago, I looked into buying or renting portable A/C units. The A/C expert examined the drill hall and the town hall: there is not enough electricity for portable A/C and a generator is too costly (and makes noise).
Cr Rachael Pemberton promised me it would be fixed once the new admin building is up. There are 2 major issues with the town hall from a performing arts organisation’s view: capacity has been halved and lack of ventilation of any kind.
Capacity has been halved: the balcony is closed (-178) and the 100 plastic chairs are gone. So loss of 278. Left are 290 (if you are lucky) battered, dirty chairs. (Ps: in 2019 the Government House Ballroom gave aways their 455 identical chairs but in pristine condition for free! I contactd council: no takers. I contacted Rachael Pemberton: no takers.) I’m told the popular balcony is closed because the railing is too low and the seats are not “legal standard”. I suggested to lift the railing as I have done on the balcony of my heritage home. I’m sure if everybody worked together the chair problem (non for 100 years???) could be solved too.
Ventilation: on 11 December, FCO performed after a cold night of 14 degrees and on a day of 24 degrees. It was very warm in the hall. I opened the back doors to the main hall but there was no ventilation as there are only 2 tiny windows behind the stage and one was painted over. I’m told that’s solved. Kitchen windows (now called supper room and used for storage of all sorts of miscellaneous stuff from tricycles to…) are not to be opened: security issue. They are about 1.6 metres high and couldn’t be climbed into that easily. I suggested only open them as long as a security person is there. Another suggestion I sent to the mayor is: The glass roof over the atrium isn’t original and instead of providing ventilation (via entrance under the tower as well as main doors in the hall) is like a green house.
Naturally, this is not only about FCO but Fremantle: its community, economy and re-vitalisation: If the town hall cannot be used several months a year….. The town hall could and should be busy with events of all sorts and play a major part in Freo’s revitalisation of its heart.
Since December I have been urging the mayor to do something but nothing seems to happen. FCO played in the Armadale District Hall last year for the first time: fabulously restored. A/C, heating, chairs, kitchen, lighting are all much superior to Fremantle. But I am even more blown away by the contrast - how FCO has been treated in its home town and in Armadale. We met at the Fremantle council meetings where I detailed FCO contribution to Freo and you witnessed partly how this was never taken on board but belittled. Disappointing and depressing. In Armadale, FCO is not only welcome but the community development officer met with me, welcomed us, connected us with several community groups so we could announce our first concert there, organised another meeting with somebody from finance and recently approached me with a proposal to come back this year.
Encouraging, uplifting, exciting. Where I see community destroyed in Fremantle I see it being built in Armadale.
(Hans Hug)
John Dowson
President
The Fremantle Society
0409 223633
2 March 2022
References and Link
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 3 June, 2023 and hosted at freotopia.org/society/campaign/townhall.html (it was last updated on 11 May, 2024). The donated data is also preserved in the Internet Archive's collection.