Fremantle’s future: What does our port city look like without its port?
For more than 120 years, the behemoth container ships and giant steel cranes that dot Fremantle docks have been a cornerstone of our port city’s identity. So what will the inner harbour look like when they disappear from its landscape?
For the first time, a vision for a Fremantle Port without its landmark mechanical ‘dinosaurs’ has been revealed as a part of a 50–year plan to transform it into a world-leading waterfront city.
Fremantle could welcome 55,000 more residents under a new plan for a future without container shipping.Credit: Future of Fremantle Place and Economic Vision report
The skyline-dominating red-and-white cranes will make way for six unique precincts, including medium and high density residential areas accommodating 20,000 new homes and 55,000 new residents.
At 260 hectares, the site is comparable in size to large-scale national and international redevelopment projects, including Sydney’s Darling Harbour, Hamburg’s HafenCity and London’s Canary Wharf.
The Future of Fremantle: Place and Economic Vision report shows bold plans for new harbour crossings including a fixed bridge at James Street and a potential moveable active transport bridge, as well as a new cruise terminal and recreational boating opportunities.
The preservation of the freight rail corridor for future public transport, relocating North Fremantle station and a new Fremantle station are also part of the vision.
Credit: Future of Fremantle Place and Economic Vision report
Future of Fremantle Planning Committee chair Jane Bennett said imagining a future for the inner harbour port precinct had been a “privilege and a challenge”.
“The Fremantle Inner Harbour has for many thousands of years been a place where people have come together to meet and trade,” she says in the report.
“It embodies the spirit of Fremantle and the wider Western Australian community – resilient, adaptable, hardworking and welcoming.”
The harbour will continue to cater for passenger cruise, visiting naval and recreational vessels.
More than 1000 people were consulted through open days, workshops, design forums, focus groups and online surveys.
Bennett said the resulting report was a “bold and ambitious” proposal to unlock the site’s “unparalleled potential” as a future global waterfront city.
“It will reconnect Fremantle/Walyalup with its waterfront,” she said.
“Any future social and economic proposal for the site once the container operations shift to Kwinana must capture and reflect these values as well as the area’s cultural importance to local Traditional Owners. - Jane Bennett.Credit: Future of Fremantle Place and Economic Vision report
“It has potential to support 45,000 new jobs and to generate $13.6 billion in gross state product annually.
“Most of all, it will be a place that demonstrates a genuine respect for our incredible natural environment and supports people carrying out their lives in a way that is both rich and sustainable.”
The Fremantle Future plan follows a state government initiative to move container trades to the new Westport terminal in Kwinana by the late 2030s.
In November, the price tag for Western Australia’s new container port at Kwinana jumped by more than $2.5 billion.
After 2½ years of planning, the Westport business case handed to the government revealed a cost of $7.2 billion in today’s dollars compared to the $4.7 billion the project was originally slated to cost in 2020.
The latest iteration of the port will not be built in stages, but rather all at once.
When it opens all container freight will be moved from Fremantle to Kwinana.
Deputy Premier Rita Saffioti said $273 million will be spent on project definition planning, finalising designs, resolving remaining risks and uncertainties and fine-tuning costings and construction strategies.
“By relocating these services further south on our coastline, we have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to reimagine our harbour city and deliver new maritime, tourism, housing, employment and cultural experiences in Fremantle,” she said.
Timeframes for implementation of the Future of Fremantle vision will in part be guided by the timing for the relocation of trades from the inner harbour, as this will determine when land and waterways become available for repurposing.
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