Fremantle

Sunday:  Tom Price is Australia’s richest iron ore deposit.  There is also a gold mine there: it’s called the Tom Price Hotel/Motel.  100 rooms, fully booked all years at between $150 and $170 a night, most needing servicing only once a week.  The restaurant is the only place to eat out in the town.  And the kitchen does a good business in preparing lunch cribs for the miners (at a price) as well.
Qantaslink also does well.  Over 30 flights a week, all fully booked (B717 at 115 passengers) at $260 each way. The Paraburdoo boarding procedure is interesting.  The boarding lounge only holds 15, so once the first in are processed through security, everyone else has to wait till boarding commences.  Then off with boots, through security and explosives checks, then onto the plane.  Takes a full half hour to get everyone on board.  The flights are timed to catch miners as they end their shift – straight onto the plane in dirty work clothes, sweaty and all.  Not Qantas Club standards!
I picked up a Hyundai Elantra (upgraded) at Perth airport and let my trusty co-pilot guide me into the city hotel.  No room available till 2pm, so went wandering for an hour or so.  Two big protests in the mall: one pro-Israel, one anti-Israel.  Cops everywhere on foot and horses.  They kept the two groups separated in different mall streets.
Perth strikes me as having a much nicer and bigger CBD shopping area than Brisbane.  Their mall consists of two streets (Hay and Murray) both two blocks long, fully lined with all sorts of nice stores, and lots of interconnecting arcades.  The underground rail service has stations right at the mall, so it is easy for people to commute in and out directly.
It came over showery in the afternoon, and heavy rain overnight.  Sunday barely dawned, cold, wet and very windy.  I loafed around till about 11 am, when the rain eased to showers.  Decided to go explore Fremantle.
An easy drive to this seaside port which has kept its very colonial look.  Many buildings from late 1800s and early 1900s still in use.  The main tourist attraction is the old Fremantle Jail which was only closed as a prison in 1991.  Built by convicts who were imported to West Australia for the sole purpose of building the jail (and other buildings), it is a solid pile that offered no mod cons at anytime of its existence.  West Australia seems to be more redneck than even Queensland:  they are re-introducing use of the cane into schools here; and Parliament is debating re-introduction of capital punishment.  The police have a dreadful reputation for their treatment of indigenous people in the remote and country areas.
The Maritime Wrecks Museum is an interesting place.  Here they are scientifically restoring and preserving remnants of ancient wrecks from along the WA coast.  The most famous is the East India Company ship Batavia  that went aground in 1629.  A mutiny occurred amongst the survivors, which was finally put down with the mutineers all eventually being executed.  Quite a large number of artefacts have been brought up and are on display now.  A Portuguese ship around the same period is also being recovered.  The stories of the wrecks and their recovery are well told and illustrated.
I loved the Fremantle Markets.  Better laid out than the Adelaide one, there is a fresh food hall, then a huge area under cover for sale of all sorts of arts, crafts, clothing and cooked food stalls.  I pigged out on a Jus Burger with chips and fresh squeezed lemon juice. Then wandered around the main streets looking at all the old buildings that have been very nicely restored.  Home in time to catch the youth Mass at the Cathedral – not impressed.  Tomorrow I plan on heading north to New Norcia.
My pics of Fremantle are here.