One of WA’s most notorious prisons is now a five-star hotel

Fremantle’s historic former police station has been transformed into new luxury accommodation with the opening of Garde Hotel. Launched in September, the city’s first five-star stay blends the heritage grit of the Convict Quarter with coastal-inspired design.

Operated by W1 Hospitality, the group leading the Convict Quarter’s renewal, Garde Hotel has also absorbed the former Warders Hotel, with the heritage-listed Warders Cottages, which once housed staff from Fremantle Prison, as premium rooms alongside 83 new rooms. It brings the hotel’s capacity to 106 rooms, cementing Fremantle as more than just a day-trip destination.

Anglesea, Garde’s all-day dining hub, serves a Korean-Japanese menu, with daily breakfast and an evening glass of wine included for hotel guests. The inclusions extend to in-room minibars stocked with local alcoholic drinks and snacks.

For an extra fee, the onsite wellness centre has ice showers and an infrared sauna that can be privately booked, as well as massages, facials, body scrubs, and therapeutic yoga sessions.

Adjacent to Garde Hotel, in the Convict Quarter’s historic former lock-up, is Moon & Mary, an all-in-one venue featuring an Asian restaurant, a distillery, a cocktail bar, and a beer garden dubbed the Rec Yard in a nod to its prisoner past. The convict-built walls have been preserved, along with two original cells for intimate brunch or dinner parties.

The Moon & Mary offers a chef’s choice $95 banquet that may include watermelon crudo with shiso, soy and chilli or crispy prawn and chive dumplings with yuzu pepper mayonnaise.

Beyond the prison walls, Fremantle’s lively city centre shows the city’s broader reinvigoration.

Nearby H&C Urban Winery produces its own wines and also sells a global range by the glass or bottle. The plant-filled, 1000-square-metre warehouse conversion is Western Australia’s first and only urban winery, combining tastings and fresh regional produce such as Albany rock oysters.

Further afield, Ode to Sirens is a sanctuary of mismatched furnishings and retro album art inside the P&O Building on High Street. Its analogue hi-fi system plays vinyl and tapes, with DJs spinning on weekends. Dishes on the Greek-centric menu – presented in a 45 record sleeve – include persimmon and mushroom moussaka and pork belly with ouzo honey, which can be teamed with a mostly local wine list, with Greek imports.

Music lovers can drop into For The Record, a new retro-styled cafe where a red phone box serves as a vintage vinyl listening station.

The completion of Fremantle’s historic Convict Quarter development marks a definitive shift for the port city, signalling its transition to major tourism hub.

The writer was a guest of Visit Fremantle. See visitfremantle.com.au