Rarely a Dull Moment - The Final Moments for a Few

Closure of the doors for quite a few after this short meeting of only two hours. Short, but also sweet, with laughs and tears.

Tonight, we had a full seating of councillors present, barring one. Cr Camarda was absent tonight due to a medical incident – a nasty bee sting to his foot, as it happens. Sorry to hear it. Hopefully all resolves well.

This is the last Council meeting to be held before the local government election on 18 October 2025.

It was the final iteration of this Council as present for us today. Cr Thompson is retiring after a remarkable four decades serving the community (37 years, making him Fremantle’s longest serving councillor to date). Cr Lang is also hanging up his hat after a proud eight year stretch in the role. They were warmly thanked by the rest of Council for fond memories and impressive devotion to their communities. It was a touching farewell with many funny asides (including a 10 minute self-imposed time limit for reminiscing from a certain prolific speaker, lessons from Dick Cotton, and a nod to Betty and Boris which I’ll leave you to guess at).

Just a few standout examples for Cr Lang include organising an enormous community tree planting effort at Hollis Park, representation at the Southwest Environmental Forum and more recently advocacy in protecting owls, long necked turtles, and increasing local government power to contain cats. Now, Cr Lang gets to tackle new challenging projects such as commencing work on his house and fatherhood!

Cr Thompson needs his own feature to faithfully recount his legacy after 37 years in the job. He’s seen it all in countless Council meetings, working with “77 councillors, six mayors, and seven CEOs”. His clarity, level-headed, dedicated representation at WALGA, and respect for proper process was appreciated. Councillors present recounted their admiration for the example he set as one of the first “green-leaning” councillors and his support for new members in learning the ropes. All alongside his love for ballroom dancing and talking rubbish (only joking, I’m referring to the great “rubbish debate”, namely waste management which has led to remarkable achievements for the City such as being one of the earliest adopters of the FOGO system, momentum in reuse above refuse, and phasing out of plastics).

Both councillors graciously thanked their colleagues and the administration staff for years of collaboration and assistance.

We wish them well in their future endeavours and look forward to seeing what’s in the cards for them.

Once the top job of Mayor has been decided, we will also be saying farewell to at least two of the three: current and possible continuing Mayor Fitzhardinge, Cr Archibald, and Cr Lawver. After all, there can only be one!

NOW BACK TO COUNCIL BUSINESS AND DRY EYES

Public Statement Time saw a local resident speak to noise complaints from adjoining air-conditioning units associated with live music at 4 Bannister Street (a recording of the sound was also played).

No petitions, presentations, or deputations, makes for a short meeting.

Cr Williamson-Wong confirmed that the City will be seeking answers from the ASA about their future public engagement following the fiery AUKUS public forum at the Town Hall recently.

This agenda was quite short, with a sprinkling of planning items all referring to residential projects so I won’t go into those. Cr Lang declared an interest in Item 3, seeing as it directly affects his house, and thus absolved himself of voting on it.

A FEW MORE DOORS CLOSED

Council also reported on the closure of various working groups now that they have achieved their purpose and the Sister Cities travel report.

The working groups for closure are:
a. Community Emissions Working Group
b. City Plan Engagement Working Group
c. Culturally Vibrant City (Noise) Working Group
d. Economic Development Strategy 2024 Working Group
e. Fremantle Oval Project Working Group
f. Towards 2029 Working Group

Cr Williamson-Wong pointed out that she consistently hears about an action item to advocate for a free public transit zone to ameliorate the traffic impact of the Fremantle Traffic Bridge closure, which the City has also engaged Fremantle Ports about.

Cr van Dorssen thanked the City officers for assistance in preparing the considerable report on the Sister Cities travel expedition and acknowledged the actions associated with it.

Mayor Fitzhardinge acknowledged the “huge” body of work associated with the report, City staff who assisted in coordinating the event, and for the advice of Cr Archibald and Cr Thompson in successfully managing it.

TTFN

At 7:54pm, Mayor Fitzhardinge declared the meeting closed but not before thanking her Council colleagues and the administration for all of their support and tireless work since her election, not to mention their collegiality (wink to anyone else who attended the Mayoral Debate two nights prior).

It’s a bit sad to wrap this one up after nearly two years of reporting on this particular Council and I wonder what future meetings will look like. It has been a pleasure watching these meetings and, for the most part, a healthy, respectful, and spirited discussion. A Council that respects each other and their community is so important for us all.

That’s it for now. Goodnight and don’t forget to vote!

* By Gayle O’Leary. If you’d like to catch up on more by Gayle here on Fremantle Shipping News, 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 –