Australia 2016 - Museums and Boats

On Wednesday we took the Doing Time tour at the Fremantle Prison. It was very well done, and we enjoyed learning much more about this place that has become the central focus of our time in Fremantle. The history is rather gruesome, but also very interesting in terms of how the place has shaped and been shaped by this community. As noted before (wedding reception) it is an official World Heritage site.

The tour lasted one hour and fifteen minutes. At the beginning (in the “Intake” room) our tour guide asked us where we all were from. Oddly, there was one couple from Idaho and one from Sequim! So the Pacific Northwest was well represented in our group.

After the prison, we made our way to the harbor and to the Maritime Museum. Outside are walls of names of people who immigrated to Australia at different times. Australia, like the US, is a nation of immigrants and people often speak, like we do, about where their family comes from originally. We found the names of Eileen’s parents who arrived from England (with Bernard, Jean, and 6-month old Eileen) in 1954.

This is such a water-ocean-sea culture that the musuem has more stuff than you can almost take in. (We saw that they are planning to redo and expand it.) Sailing is just huge here, and Perth is most famous for finally dethroning the New York Yacht Club in the America’s Cup in 1983. Here’s the opening paragraph from Wikipedia: The 1983 America's Cup was the occasion of the first winning challenge to the New York Yacht Club, which had successfully defended the cup over a period of 132 years. An Australian syndicate representing the Royal Perth Yacht Club fielded the Australia II, skippered by John Bertrand, against defender Liberty, skippered by Dennis Conner. Australia II won the match races to win the America's Cup, ending the longest winning streak in sporting history and ending U.S. domination of the racing series.

The Australia II is on display at the Maritime Museum, and there are display cases for every America’s Cup from the beginning with a model boat for each contender in each case. Pretty fascinating, I’d say. All through our time here we see almost daily regattas of one class or another on some bay or area of the ocean. And there a thousands and thousands of cruisers and other boats. This is a boating place for sure.

Keeping to the boating them, after the Maritime Museum we went looking for a grocery store that had been mentioned called the Boat Shed Market. The building had once housed a boat shed, hence the name. It’s well known for its take away food. We got some basics we needed to replenish, and picked up dinner in the form of salmon and pea fritters and a crisp broccoli salad. It was delicious.