Preserving Freo’s port stories, culture

Ships come in to unload products, ships load up and leave.

It is a rudimentary explanation of managing most ports.

Fremantle, however, is anything but most ports.

The logistics hub at the mouth of the Swan River (Derbarl Yerrigan) has for 126 years been the beating heart of its surrounding community.

For much of its history that heart has been fuelled by the mariners and service workers needed to keep the port ticking over.

More recently, it has been the cafes, hotels, residents and institutions that moved into the portside town.

While industry and community frequently have a demarcation line between them in many towns and cities, at Fremantle Port the two blend: museums and breweries share the same slab of concrete as car import wharfs and oceangoing cargo liners.

Fremantle Ports chief executive Michael Parker has been at the helm of the port for the past 30 months.

His tenure comes at a time of major change.

Between a once-in-a-generation plan to shift Perth’s main port, aspirations to reshape the port precinct into a community-orientated enclave, and compounding trade pinch points, there’s plenty to keep decision-makers at the port busy.

“In much the same way that I can sit and look out the window and see the port in operation, the general public and the local community get to experience the port on a day-to-day basis as well,” he said.

“There is such a rich history and heritage I think between the port and the local community here.

“Over time, as trade does relocate, it will be important that we maintain some of the history that sits here.

“Everyone seems to have a Fremantle Port story.”

With the state government’s Westport plan and Fremantle Ports’ development plan both due to be signed off in mid-2024, the collision of past and future looms large at the mouth of the Swan.

Core business

Fremantle Ports made $67 million before tax at a healthy, but declining, 8.7 per cent rate of return in 2022-23.

Australian container trade market share climbed to 10.4 per cent, but total ship visits, which includes fishing and non-trading vessels, fell to 1,528, down 250 from 2018-19.

“Pretty much across the various trades that we handle, they were all maintained at a healthy level,” Mr Parker said.

“On average, twenty per cent of containers that come through Fremantle go on to rail, which is the highest across all the capital cities in Australia.

“That takes 100,000 trucks on average off the road every year.”

As the wharfies busy themselves unloading ships, those in the office are working on the port development plan to understand what assets are needed, what industries will emerge, and how to ensure the port has capacity to meet demand.

Other uses can fit into the core function, too, according to Mr Parker.

“When you … look at overarching, you come back to our purposes now about facilitating trade for a more prosperous Western Australia,” he said.

“People look at that and say it’s about getting cargo in and out.

“I think as you reframe that a little bit from a trade standpoint and about that prosperity, it’s also around to the tourism side.

“We are so blessed to have a footprint sitting here in this type of location. It doesn’t take a lot of imagination to create a vision as to what that can look like in the future.”

Changing face

The western end of Victoria Quay has been at the coalface of the port’s changing image in recent years.

A host of government and stakeholder groups are casting eyes over the port and its links. In Infrastructure WA’s case, it is figuring out how to repurpose freight routes to service the western trade coast, where Westport will one day sit.

The September release of the Fremantle Harbours Master Plan reimagined the Fishing Boat, Challenger and Success harbours as home to 12-storey apartments, hotels, cycleways and thriving hospitality strips.

That plan starts with Victoria Quay, where Fremantle Ports has already spent about $6 million refurbishing the heritage-listed A-shed, which welcomed Gage Roads in 2022.

It will be further guided by the Future of Fremantle committee’s development guide for Victoria and North quays.

“That will come out next year and it is largely to create what that masterplan looks like, as commercial trade over time probably relocates from the inner harbour further south,” Mr Parker said.

“It is becoming increasingly obvious for us … that for the harbour there are really two different parts of the business.

“There is what people most know us for, which is running a commercial operating port. But there is also an increasing focus on the public activation and creating a vibrant tourism precinct.

“It does probably take a slightly different mindset, and probably a slightly different set of skills in terms of people in our organisation to truly bring that to life.”

Among the current remit for the port staff is matching its western end buildings with ideal tenants.

Once that work was completed, Mr Parker said it would be put forward for government endorsement to push ahead with the next phase of activation.

“There is a lot of opportunity here to look at this, not just activation of buildings but activation of the broader precinct and connectors,” he said.

As for what to do with Carmel Mullally’s house among the container yards, which she had refused to sell for decades, Mr Parker said options for its use were still being explored more than one year on from its purchase.

Ageing pains

There are numerous problems that need urgent attention in terms of trade.

Fremantle Ports has an image problem: its ageing infrastructure is straining under demand, as reflected in customer satisfaction, which has plummeted from 88 per cent to 50 per cent in four years.

The unavailability of berths was bad last year, and the measure was omitted from annual report KPIs this year.

“Not only do we want to accommodate all the trade that wants to come through here, but we also want to do that in an efficient and reliable way,” Mr Parker said.

“In some cases that is going to require reinvestment into existing assets.

“In other cases, it probably needs investment in brand new assets.”

Part of the solution will be systems automation rather than infrastructure automation, he said.

“From a scheduling standpoint, I think there is a lot that we can do, together with the shipping lines, customers and also the broader port ecosystem to … smooth out arrival of vessels and also make sure we have got labour available when labour is required,” Mr Parker said.

The port has a capital budget of more than $100 million, with a new clinker import circuit in the outer harbour among its major developments.

It is the biggest capital investment for more than a decade and is due to be commissioned in the second half of 2024.

The port is said to be capable of handling 2 million containers a year but road and rail infrastructure into the harbour can only carry an estimated 1.2 million.

That means there is still room to grow – 809,000 containers moved through the port in 2022-23 – but, with transport corridor constraints into Fremantle, it shows the future need for Westport.