Up There Walyalup Walking Tour

An auditory experience and love letter to Fremantle.

Where else in Perth can you expect to be serenaded and cajoled by a harmonica player racing past you on a skateboard?

We listened to recorded oral interviews of Fremantle makers and locals through bluetooth headsets as we passed by the tenancies they used to occupy, starting at Walyalup Koort and meandering in a curve through High Street Mall along to where Cibo Café used to be, then on to the long neglected Woolstores building on Cantonment Street.

Many have been sitting empty for years. Others more recently extinguished of the creative smiling faces that used to light up the windows. The Cappuccino Strip in parts now a piano key ensemble of occupied, unoccupied, occupied, unoccupied, unoccupied.

All have stories and fond memories. One of the most curious including a stranger, emulating Neo from The Matrix in his leather trench coat and sunglasses, giving an interviewee a kiss on the hand after she expressed she was trying to brighten up the street, even if only a bit, to make it better for everyone. Why wouldn’t you?

Our Port City changes all the time. Not always for the better. People come and go. Shopfront signs shapeshift. Colour schemes are introduced. Murals are painted. Some more original than others.

The stories and gentle music took us to the Westgate Malls, almost completely vacant in the wake of the new apartment building soaring above.

Then we ventured to the Outside the Box gallery, where a secret thoroughfare under the Woodsons Apartments features artworks by local students. Our unofficial anthem for Perth, “Spanish Blue” by The Triffids, accompanied us along the way.

The leaders of our walking tour, WAAPA graduates Will, Tay, and Leah, brought this vision to life with the aid of a Fremantle Arts Centre residency grant. What a wonderful use of it.

I hope to see the trio back again next year.

* By Gayle O’Leary. If you’d like to catch up on more by Gayle here on Fremantle Shipping News, including her regular Rarely a Dull Moment reports and film and theatre reviews, look right here!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

~ If you’d like to COMMENT on this or any of our stories, don’t hesitate to email our Editor.

~ WHILE YOU’RE HERE –