In this popular Fremantle Shipping News feature – My Favourite Freo Street – we ask a range of Freo folk to nominate their favourite street and tell us why they chose it. In this contribution, Peter and Jan Newman* – who have lived in Russell Street, Fremantle for the past 50 years – explain why they have chosen Russell Street – on the ‘edge’ of Freo – as theirs!
Russell Street appears on the 1844 map of Fremantle, drawn into the grid from Essex to South Street. It was thus part of the edge of the old Freo.
In 1864 the allotments were all put up for sale and sometime before or around then our house was built. It bears the hallmarks of a squatter’s build, rough planked jarrah floors and held together with rubble and render.
A century later we bought the house – here it is in November 1974.
It was on the brink of being pulled down – the house was valued at zero and the land at $10k. Across Freo there were many such places which the Fremantle Society was hoping to save. They were under serious threat as owners knocked them down to increase land value.
The Town Plan in the early 70’s had zoned the whole area from Norfolk Street to Douro Road as industrial and warehousing. We wanted to restore the streets as residential places for families, while still retaining existing industries and businesses dotted throughout. And we wanted to protect the large old Peppermint trees which needed care and were under threat from the competing needs for car parking.
Our first lobby to the WA Planning Commissioner in Perth after a stirring letter from Peter in The West Australian, was to suggest that the houses all be protected under residential zoning while leaving existing industries. The Commissioner agreed and a new era began of residential renewal between Norfolk and Douro.
For the next twenty or so years we co-existed with industry and warehousing. The old Russell/Howard Street Tannery employed around 30 men and was the scene for filming the TV series A Fortunate Life in the 1980s. The Woolstores waxed and waned until finally closed. These places were re-imagined as housing, bringing many more residents to Russell Street and support for local businesses to thrive.
Many others came to restore old houses like ours and to add their touch in colour and style and garden. The old peppermints of Russell Street live on. And the verges flourish.
For a few years a fellow resident we dubbed the “guerrilla gardener” worked out his passion for landscaping onto many of the street’s verges, creating lush canopies along the paths. And today there are some beautiful native gardens edging Russell Street.
Russell Street, at the edge of the town, is itself at the very edge of the land. Our street runs towards the sea, towards the boats. Not long before we moved in, in 1974, residents were still swimming off the rocks at the end of the street.
The photograph of the boat wreck in 1944 shows part of a rock ‘wall’ which ran along Fitzgerald Tce (now Marine Terrace) to hold the sea back from our streets. (Photo taken by professional photographer Betty Anderson 1944)
Jump forward to early 2000s and our young son and his friends would carry their boat down Russell Street to paddle around the Fishing Boat Harbour. For all our kids, living in Russell Street meant Fremantle was their backyard – from the town to the ocean to the river.
It has felt like the edge of the town centre when it comes to traffic, with drivers looking for a quick throughway from Marine to South Terrace. Kids and traffic can be a worry. At its peak, we seemed to be a test track for the hot rods that were fitted with wild, loud mufflers at the shop on the corner of South Terrace. This is now the Portuguese Consulate – one more interesting change! But the street is still a bit of a speed track.
We stopped the traffic in 1979 when we had a street party as part of Fremantle’s 150th birthday. Russell Street residents at that time were a diverse lot – old “wharfies”, Italian, Portuguese and Croatian migrants and students attending the new Murdoch University – and all came together in a huge party of food and music. The West Australian put this on their front page on January 30th, 1979.
New waves of residents brought a few more parties – this one 2003 – and each time, “old-timers” came along to celebrate as well.
The ‘Street cake’ says it all.
Fifty years on and we still enjoy living in Russell Street. It is a multi-layered place for us now, holding so many memories of family and neighbours. What we haven’t detailed are the extraordinary characters like the man who chased his partner down the street with a shovel, the woolstore wall that collapsed on our house, and the occasional police chases through our property. But keeping it simple, we love strolling past Russell Street cottages and gardens, and knowing that it sits “at the edge”; from our street we can walk to whatever we need and want to enjoy in the town, and beyond is the ocean.
By Peter and Jan Newman
* Peter and Jan Newman moved into their Russell Street cottage 50 years ago after having spent 6 months adding power, water and a basic kitchen. This was home to their three children, so further additions were required, and it also now boasts a Tree House at the rear to welcome family and friends. Peter’s academic work meant there was a lot of travel and living overseas for the family but always Fremantle was home. To discover more about Peter tune into our 2017 FSN podcast with him. We should also mention Peter has a new book shortly to be reviewed in FSN. Jan is a social worker at Tuart Place in High Street. She has long had an interest in family and local history and co-edited the book Wharf Rats when Fremantle Primary School celebrated its centenary. Peter and Jan are tragic Fremantle Dockers’ supporters and long term members of St Paul’s Anglican church.
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