If the walls at the Flying Angel Club in Fremantle could talk, they would tell you the secrets of the sea – or more specifically, the secrets of the seafarers that come seeking sanctuary among its halls and rooms.
Stories of piracy, ocean disasters and of lonely hearts have trickled through the doors of the Queen Victoria Street building (and previously High Street) since the 1960s.
A refuge for weary travellers, the Flying Angel Club sits opposite Victoria Quay. Club chairman Ross Storer and operations manager Hilme KhamassiCredit: Claire Ottaviano
The Mission to Seafarers volunteers provide more than just a place to sleep and food to eat, they’re a friendly face and compassionate ear for those far from home, some who have gone months without touching dry land.
Chairman Ross Storer said it was the appreciation of seafarers that kept the volunteer effort moving 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
“It’s a place where they can be safe,” he said.
“They know that they can get picked up from the ship and safely dropped off here for two or three, four hours, overnight, and know they can be safely taken back to the ship.
“They can find seafarers from other ships and share things in common.”
Services also include driving seafarers to doctors, dentists and the airport, helping them change currency, buy sim cards and access a chaplain.
In 2003, the Flying Angel Club housed a crew of actual pirates – pursued by the Australian Navy for 21 days for illegally fishing Patagonian toothfish.
When the crew were brought back to Fremantle for trial, staff and volunteers looked after them for the next two years.
In 2014, the club took on all 50 crew members of the livestock ship Ocean Drover after a fire broke out while the ship was docked at Fremantle Port.
Perhaps the most impactful time was during the three-year ban on shore leave in the COVID years.
Drivers did all the shopping for seafarers, supplied three meals a day to COVID ships, offered pastoral care, and put themselves at risk transporting sick crewmen to quarantine.
Last Christmas, staff and volunteers packed more than 700 hampers filled with Australian treats and gifts and delivered them to the docks.
Flying Angel Club delivers Christmas presents to seafarers, 2024.Credit: Flying Angel Club
“Imagine you are on the ship working for eight or nine months, it’s a Christmastime and you are away from your family,” operations manager Hilme Khamassi said.
“We’re not talking about fly-in, fly-out out here; we’re talking about nine months, and it’s Christmastime and you see someone coming wearing a Christmas hat carrying the bags, saying “merry Christmas”.
“They came down the gangway, and their smile just got bigger and bigger because they knew that someone was thinking about them.
“The ships come to our ports, providing us with the goods we need, so we have to look after these people, the seafarers deserve all the help and support we can give.”
But the future of the club is in a state of uncertainty under the state government’s plans to move Fremantle’s container port to the new Westport terminal in Kwinana by the late 2030s.
In January, a vision for a Fremantle Port without its landmark mechanical “dinosaurs” was revealed as a part of a 50–year plan to transform it into a world-leading waterfront city.
But the move to Kwinana, a 45-minute drive from Fremantle with less surrounding infrastructure and social hubs, has the club concerned.
“It will affect the work we can provide to the seafarers,” Khamassi said.
“We won’t have an option, we can’t keep running from here to go 45 minutes to the outer harbour and bring them back, we have everything we need here and [the Port Authority] know what we’re doing, and they know we are important to the seafarers, and we hope we are in their plans.”
There’s also the economic and social impact on the port city’s community, with the club estimating each seafarer spends about $200 in the shops, on groceries, in restaurants and in the bars.
The Flying Angel Club is funded by the Fremantle Port Authority (Fremantle Ports) which provided about $210,000 to the not-for-profit last financial year.
The Flying Angel Club is a refuge for many seafarers.Credit: Claire Ottaviano
The Fremantle Ports harbour master’s office also conducts routine inspections of ships, including reviews of crew welfare.
While no welfare issues have been found recently, Fremantle Ports’ 2023/24 Modern Slavery Statement noted that occasionally when Flying Angels transport is unavailable due to either funding or driver availability, some ship operators are reluctant to pay for seafarers’ shore leave transport.
“Our focus with the industry is to ensure that seafarer welfare is sustainable and there is awareness of the risks and issues that seafarers face,” the spokesperson said.
A Westport spokesperson said it had undertaken more than 1500 hours of stakeholder engagement
since January 2022 to inform design of the future port facilities and container supply chain.
They said this included engagement with The Flying Angel Club to understand how seafarer welfare support could be effectively incorporated in overall Westport planning for future port facilities.
Neither authority provided comment on future plans to incorporate a dedicated seafarer welfare hub such as The Flying Angel into the new Kwinana port.
Regardless of what the future holds, the club remains determined.
“We’ve never faced this predicament before, to uproot everything from what we’ve had and what we’ve got now and go down to Kwinana, we’re not sure what we can get, whether it’s a drop-in centre or something like what we have now,” Storer said.
“No matter what, I know that we will try to get the best outcome for these people – we’re stubborn that way.”
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