‘Wally’ opens for business.

Walyalup Bridge – her birth name – otherwise affectionately dubbed ‘Wally’, opened today to great fanfare. Here’s our story and pics of the morning. As you’ll see, Rita, quite reasonably, took centre-stage!

At more or less exactly 9 am this morning, Sunday, 1 November 2026, Rita Saffioti, the Minister for getting things done around the WA, and Josh Wilson MP, the Federal Member for Fremantle, officially opened the new Walyalup Bridge linking North Fremantle and Fremantle across the Derbarl Yerrigan.

L-R Simone McGurk MLA, Rita Saffioti, Lisa O’Malley MLA, the be-hatted Josh Wilson

As soon as they did, there was a steady surge of folk from the south side and the north side of ‘Wally’ that quickly covered the whole bridge space, as these eye-in-the-sky pics taken by Les Moyle of Balm Commercial Photography show.

Before that all happened, speeches were made mid-Bridge by Rita, Josh, and Simone McGurk, the State Member for Freo, to the assembled media, including FSN. Then the Pollies, ably assisted by Bicton MLA Lisa O’Malley, and the construction team head honchos, ceremonially cut the ribbon!

After Wally was officially opened, every person and their three dogs, babes in arms, oldies in wheelchairs, and colourful young and in-betweeners took over the Bridge. The crowds swelled the four traffic lanes on the bridge as well as the fab shared bicycle and pedestrian lanes on either side of them.

Bands played, singers sang, and hoops hooped. And a passing train on the nearby railway bridge sounded its horns quite beautifully and continued on by in a manner reminiscent of an RAAF flyover on ANZAC Day.

There was even a sizeable group of orange tee-shirted folk, who one first mistook for AFL Greater Western Sydney Giants supporters trying to rain on Freo’s parade but turned out to be 1 Nation folk intent on showing their interests extend beyond by-elections in Secret Harbour to new bridges in Freo. We looked in vain for signs of blue, red or green tee-shirted groups – there were none to be seen.

Down below Wally, some folk tested out new fishing spots, while others admired the bits and pieces of the Old Fremantle Traffic Bridge that have been retained for posterity.

And while they were doing that, also down below, alongside Beach Street and the river, Rita refreshed her earlier media speech before a spellbound crowd devouring their hotdogs from the free sausage sizzle and hydrating on the water from the Drinking Water tanks. Not quite Roman era bread and circuses, but close!

The queues for the hot dogs were very impressive, as were the small animal petting stall and the face painting for the kids.

All in all, a great occasion, a great day out, a great atmosphere and lots of fun.

And tonight, vehicles start crossing too!

Congratulations to the State and Federal governments, and WA’s Main Roads Department and the Alliance, for getting Wally up and running in such a short time – and in time for Christmas. Well done!

But fair’s we must acknowledge the true star of the show from go to whoa has been Rita, and here she is this morning on Wally taking a well earned bow!