From Penal to Pride: A Fremantle Rejoinder

It’s taken a whole month, but here it is!

We are sure many Shipees will recall watching or reading Channel 7’s 5 September report, put together by its Queensland reporter, Sarah Keszler, on Freo’s crowning in Canberra as Australia’s TOP TOURIST TOWN.

Sarah – obviously told by her director of news to expect a Queensland winner – penned a piece on the award (to which she bravely attached her name) proclaiming to the world that – wait for it …

A former penal colony with a dark past has come out on top of the 2025 Australian Top Tourism Town Awards.

Well, did the FSN switchboard light up! In moments our regular reader Laurence Foley from East Freo, consumed with ‘indignant outrage’, was in touch demanding that we respond appropriately to this slight obo all right thinking Freo folk:

‘Unlike ‘Moreton bay” (now Brisbane) we accepted convicts later in life and weren’t receiving recalcitrant tourists from NSW! This calls for a feisty response from FSN and putting the so called journo into the stocks in the roundhouse forthwith !!( Questions should be asked in council and duly filed under do not disturb.) To the nearest bar for extra harrumphing !’

We at FSN, while as indignantly outraged by Sarah’s slight as Laurence, found ourselves simply unable to put pen to paper for a whole month, until now, as we fumed daily over Sarah’s slight – usually just after passing the offending quote blue-tacked to the Editor’s office wall. For most of the past month the best we could do was emulate Laurence, and adopt accepted journalistic practice in such circumstances, by repairing to the nearest bar harrumphing.

We have now sufficiently recovered our repose to address the slight.

So Sarah, ‘ penal colony’ indeed! We prefer port of first arrival – for ideas, for artists, for ships that actually dock on time.

Yes, Fremantle has convict bones. But unlike some, we’ve built on them – with galleries, gardens, and a planning scheme that doesn’t confuse sprawl with soul.

We don’t mind being called a top tourist town. It means people want to come here. On purpose. Repeatedly. Even in winter.

And while Queensland’s busy counting theme parks and crocodiles, we’re hosting exhibitions, welcoming cruise ships, and debating housing policy with more nuance than a Gold Coast cocktail menu.

So there, take that!