What next?

Freo Today. 14 August 2025. What next? For decades, the former South Fremantle landfill – from near the junction of Hampton, Rockingham and Cockburn Roads west towards South Beach – has sat quietly beneath our feet – a buried reminder of Fremantle’s industrial past and the environmental costs of ‘progress’. Once a dumping ground for everything from household rubbish to hazardous waste, the site has long been deemed too toxic for homes, parks, or public gatherings. Its legacy is one of caution: methane gas, unstable ground, and groundwater contamination. And yet, once Fremantle dared to imagine something better. A proposed solar farm proposal – hailed as a visionary reuse of contaminated land —promised to turn a liability into an asset but quietly ended in July 2022, when it seems Epuron, the renewable energy company behind the project, couldn’t secure a retail electricity partner. Without commercial viability, the City of Fremantle had no choice but to terminate the agreement. So what next? Perhaps this is the time to reframe the question. Not just “What can we build?” but “What can we learn?” The landfill site is more than contaminated soil – it’s a case study in urban memory, environmental accountability, and the limits of remediation. It challenges us to think beyond conventional development and toward adaptive, low-impact uses that honour both safety and imagination. Could it become a space for ecological research? A memorial to Fremantle’s industrial history? A canvas for visual storytelling or community-led art? Whatever comes next, it must be shaped not just by technical feasibility, but by public dialogue and shared vision. Because in Fremantle, even buried stories deserve to be heard.