Perth and Fremantle

Prison Gatehouse
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On Friday we took a tour around the ‘Fremantle Prison, built by convicts from Britain between 1850 and 1860. They were given a choice when convicted transportation to Australia or death! The prison was shut down in 1991 but had changed little. No toilets were ever provided all prisoners used a bucket. The prison was constructed using doors made in Britain and the floors were made from flagstones used as ballast on sailing ships which brought the convicts from Britain.

We visited the punishment cells where prisoners were kept in solitary confinement for up to 28 days. Two cells could be cut off from all natural light. In this block was the death row cell. The last man was hung in 1964. We visited the execution chamber which had a dark and eery feel to it.

Body search
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The prison chapel had the ten commandments on the wall but Thou shalt not kill had to be changed to Thou shalt not murder get over the execution problem!

We visited the round tower which houses a cannon and black ball the cannon is fired and the ball drops to signal the time of one o’clock to mariners.

On Saturday we took the boat to Perth up the Swan River from Fremantle. The journey took one hour during which we tasted six wines from the Swan River wineries.

We saw the Perth skyline come into view from the boat, we arrived at Barrack Street Quay where the bell tower holds the bells from St. Martin's in the Fields London, given to Perth to mark the bi-centenary of Australia.

Cell block
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Taking the free Perth Cat bus we saw the few sights of Perth, Cathedral and the Barrak Gate. We had an enjoyable lunch in the David Jones Department Store, Australian Swan River wine and cheese, bread and figs.

We had an evening meal of Chinese food at the food court in Fremantlle.

Sunday was a glorious day of blue skies, we met Roger and Jose who by pure coincidence were in Fremantle that day we had lunch at an Italian restaurant and then went to South Beach for a swim in the Indian Ocean. Then it was back to the bed and breakfast to pick up our luggage and off to the airport to catch a plane to Tokyo Japan.