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A Day in Fremantle | Perth Day 6

Last full day in Perth! This week has gone by so fast! Thankfully the weather is great today – in the 70’s and sunny. Woke up a little late so I took a Didi (uber of Australia) to spend the day in Fremantle.

The car dropped me off at the Fremantle Prison so I could take a tour. I opted for 2 of the 4 tours. There was one that takes you into the tunnels and part of it is by small row boats. I opted out. The warnings included claustrophobia and getting wet. No thanks. So I started with the regular prison tour. Fascinating! The prison was in use until 1991! Hard to believe because it was so old. I was super relieved that throughout the tour there weren’t any gross smells- even by the prison toilets.

The tour took the group (maybe 30 people?) through all parts of the prison including the check-in area, check-in and check out shower area, the kitchen, the recreation “yard” for the prisoners who worked in the kitchen (the kitchen workers were the best jobs and paid $36 a week), the recreational yard for the other prisoners, various cells and cell blocks, the theater and the woman’s prison. The tour was about an hour and 15 minutes. I really enjoyed it and learned a lot. Oh! We also toured the execution room where they did hangings. The tour guide told some crazy stories! The length of the rope was specific to the prisoner’s height and weight. If the rope was too long the prisoner’s head literally came off. He told us about one execution of a prisoner whose 1/2 a face had been blown off (self inflicted). The person setting up the rope didn’t account for that and the prisoner’s head went flying around the room. Totally gross.

By the time the tour was over, I was getting hungry and not really up for another hour and 15 minutes tour. The prison couldn’t refund my money for the 2nd tour but said I could come back later if I wanted.

I walked into town determined to find a store I read about in my lonely planet book. Found it and bought a great tshirt. I popped into a few other stores but nothing really caught my eye. I was hoping to hit up the Fremantle Markets (an outdoor market) but didn’t realize it was only open Friday through Sunday. So I went to Gino’s cafe for a late lunch. It was an Italian place – super casual – and one of the only restaurants still serving lunch. I ordered a chicken panini. It said it came with fries or a salad so I ordered the fries. I couldn’t tell if the woman taking my order purposely screwed me or not but my sandwich came with the fries plus a side order of fries. Really?? I couldn’t even finish the original plate! I felt bad wasting the food but that was a lot of fries! The latte was amazing though.

From there I went to the Western Australia Shipwreck Museum. WOW! It was super cool! I saw really interesting artifacts recovered from various Western Australian shipwrecks and read really interesting stories about the wrecks. One dude working there was very excited to explain it all to me. Very kind of him but I didn’t think he would stop talking. I was surprised how much I enjoyed and learned there.

It was 5pm by the time I finished and I walked to the train station. The trains are like the metro in most areas. It was about 25 minutes to get into Perth and then I switched trains to get to my stop about 8 minutes away. Everything went relatively smoothly considering I got very turned around when I got off at my stop. Google Maps can be hard to navigate when walking. Made it back to the Airbnb around 6:15pm.

Time to shower, pack, finish laundry and eat dinner. Thankfully I had the leftover pasta and arancini from last night so I didn’t have to go back out. It was a pleasant last night in Perth! Off the Brisbane tomorrow!