Is Fremantle’s ‘bogan cousin’ upstaging the port city?

2 months ago 20

Opinion

December 30, 2025 — 5.00am

It wasn’t that long ago that South Fremantle was a semi-industrial wasteland compared with the cultural landscape and vibrant food scene of its neighbour up the road.

Gradually, the textile shops, delis, and small factories in South Freo, run by immigrants who added colour, flavour, and a utilitarian charm to the area, had all died away.

When we first moved into the suburb in the ’90s, our rental shared a common back wall with the brothel Ada Rose.

Many a night, we were woken by boisterous, boozed-up boofheads knocking on our door, mistakenly thinking our abode was a bordello. (We ended up putting a green light bulb at the front to deter drunker revellers, but it only ended up attracting homeless environmentalists.)

At the end of our street, an assembly of artists and musicians squatted in a half-house, half-shed before gentrification crept up behind them.

Even though the suburb was starting to shed its former skin, there was a grittiness to the place that was both appealing and alluring.

You could head down to South Beach at any time and be greeted by a few mutts and a couple of penniless backpackers playing hacky sack. Now the beach is overrun by pampered pooches, drum circles and wannabe Cirque du Soleil performers.

Then, slowly, the urban migration of a newly emerging nouveau middle class transformed the main artery of the seaside suburb into a strip of boutique bars, microbreweries, galleries and hipster haberdasheries.

Gentrification has a dark side, and while some may mourn the loss of a neighbourhood abandoning its alternative scene, it can also be a petri dish for innovative food.

If you can’t find anything to tantalise your taste buds in South Freo, you’d best walk into the sea.

There is a range of cuisines, from Thai, Middle Eastern, Indian, Mexican, and Italian, with a couple of old-school pubs serving modern Australian fare.

While the following comment will sting more than the Dockers moving to Cockburn, South Fremantle has overtaken Fremantle as the multicultural food destination of the southern suburbs.

As with most salubrious suburbs, which seem to attract a peculiar population of gluten-intolerant folk, some bakeries serve up pastries and bread without the fear of getting “glutened”.

Despite all the Birkenstock-wearing bon vivants riding single-gear bikes, South Freo is a lot funkier and cooler than Freo.

There are parts of downtown 6162 that still ooze rustic charm. And Freo has an electrifying music scene and a splattering of truly wonderful live venues.

However, some of them are on shaky ground due to encroaching development.

In the West End, you can find some of the grooviest bars in the port city, and cafes are popping up down alleyways and in the nooks and crannies of the old warehouses.

But sadly, the Cappuccino Strip has lost so much of its lustre and appeal at night, even the bogans don’t bother chucking bog laps down the street.

There is a humdrum homogeneity to the strip. A planned $6.5 million booze barn at the site of the old Hungry Jack’s site will only add to the sameness.

One can only shudder at the ambience a sports bar with a “stadium experience,” a brewery, and a theatre with open-air silos and terraced seating will add to the area.

The sprucing up of King’s Square has brought families back to the heart of the CBD, but the gaming centres and sports bars around FOMO have the chaotic, unsettling energy of Sideshow Alley at the Perth Royal Show.

Also, having a convenience store as a bookend on the High Street Mall is jarring and uninviting. You won’t find many big-brand chains in South Fremantle.

Freo has a bustling culture, an intoxicating food scene, and a lively atmosphere after 9.30pm that has a restrained MMA vibe, yet South Fremantle is more sophisticated and hip.

Although, according to the scientific metric for hipsterness – the Hipster Index, designed by MoveHub UK – South Fremantle lacks tattoo studios and a couple of record stores to be truly classified as bohemian chic.

And while it might be a less unsavoury way to measure a suburb’s desirability, the average price of a home in South Freo is around $200,000 more than its neighbour.

There is no denying that Freo was once WA’s cultural anchor.

With the port city about to undergo a renaissance, as private and public sector investors scramble to snap up the last remaining prized real estate, its title as Perth’s most creative postcode will be further eroded.

But if you jump on your vintage treadle and head south along South Terrace for a couple of clicks, you will stumble into a suburb with compact charm, excellent dining options, art galleries, and a village vibe that is more polished than Fremantle’s.

Not only has South Freo shed the tag of Freo’s poorer bogan cousin, but it also offers a more distinctive and attractive urban experience.