It’s Official – WALYALUP KOORT Wins The Day!

The King has abdicated. The heart has prevailed.

Kings Square is to be no longer. Welcome to Walyalup Koort.

At its May meeting last night, the Council of the City of Fremantle formally resolved to change the name of Kings Square to Walyalup Koort, the Noongar term for ‘Heart of Fremantle’.

The proposed change of name is subject to State Government confirmation. And why wouldn’t they?

Kings Square transforming itself into Walyalup Koort

The decision came after much inquiry by the Council and after engaging public opinion on a possible change of name of Kings Sqaure.

Key findings from the final part of the inquiry, reported to Council at last night’s meeting, were that –
• The My Say Freo page was visited by over 2,000 people in stage two of he inquiry.
• 182 people participated in the online discussion, who made 275 comments and
placed 647 votes on other people’s comments.
• 780 owners or occupiers were randomly selected across the City of Fremantle
(stratified by suburb population) and invited to participate in a separate survey,
some receiving an information pack.
• 110 people returned the random survey (a slightly higher than average return rate
for random sampling).
• There was 60.9% positive community sentiment to change the name to recognise
Aboriginal people, land and/or culture in the random sample and 39.9% keen to retain the name Kings Square. In the online discussion 74.3% of commentary was around changing the name to one of the options and 25.69% commentary around retaining the name ‘Kings Square’.
• Walyalup Koort was the most popular name supported by those who wanted to see a new name, in both the random sample and online discussion. Sentiment for this name online was almost entirely positive.
• Kings Square attracted more mixed comments. In the online discussion it attracted the highest amount of negative sentiment and second highest positive.
• The name Midgegooroo Square attracted some support; however, it also attracted a relatively high level of negative sentiment.
• No overall clear community sentiment around the use of dual naming. As a general observation, those in favour of re-naming were against dual naming, whilst some of those who preferred to keep the name Kings Square expressed an openness to dual naming. Traditional Owners have expressed a clear preference not to use dual naming in this instance.
• Overall sentiment from participating businesses around Kings Square was towards change, however with mixed preferences.
• In addition, 7 hard copy surveys, 3 submissions (including the Fremantle Historical Society), 3 direct emails and 1 discussion pack were returned. In summary, 9 of these preferred the name Kings Square be changed but not via dual naming, 4 prefer the name Kings Square retained and 1 preferred dual naming. They are covered in the engagement report.

The Council formally resolved to –
1. Receive the report on the community engagement ‘What’s In A Name?’ that explores the idea of re-naming Kings Square;
2. Support the use of Whadjuk Nyoongar words “Walyalup Koort” (meaning: Heart of Fremantle) for renaming Kings Square;
3. Refer the above resolutions to Landgate, for formal approval by the State Government for changing the name of the place currently called Kings Square to Walyalup Koort;
4. Express a sincere thank you to everyone who engaged in this process and expressed their individual opinions in a thoughtful and respectful manner.

So much happening, and just as Reconciliation Week is about to commence for 2021.

Well done, Fremantle, Walyalup!