Fremantle's three days of fungi and games

Fremantle will host three days of fungi and fun next month.

The West Australian port city will host the Fremantle Truffle Festival from July 10-12, showcasing truffle-infused menus, chef experiences, market activations and gourmet events. 

Opening Night will feature a three-course dinner and presentation by Great Southern Truffles. 

Other highlights will include:

Truffle House: A main festival marquee hosted by Great Southern Truffles adjacent to Markets on Henderson Street.

Fremantle Markets: A truffle-inspired culinary showdown of exclusive festival dishes.
Truffle Dog Hunt Demo: Watch a live truffle dog demo at Old Courthouse
Truffles around town: Truffle inspired events and food specials are happening around Freo. Scroll down to the events section.

For detail see https://visitfremantle.com.au/fremantle-truffle-festival

“Western Australian truffles are recognised among the finest in the world and the Fremantle Truffle Festival has become a fantastic platform to showcase that quality." says Adam Wilson of Great Southern Truffles. 

And while you are in Fremantle you might want to check out the recently opened Owston Hotel.

It is located in Fremantle's historic West End, set within the beautifully restored Owston's Buildings on High Street, once home to the Roma Restaurant. 

There are just 11 rooms with options ranging from city views to a corner room with bathtub and sunset views. Guests can also enjoy handmade pasta at Vin Populi and fresh pastries from Common Bakery. 

Taste wines from four producers in the one place

 

Four leading West Australian wine brands will be hitting the big(ger) smoke next month - for one weekend only. 

West Cape Howe will be leading the quartet on May 23-24 at The National Hotel in Fremantle. 

They will be teaming up with Hay Shed Hill, Mount Trio and Risky Business to pour over 50 wines from vineyards from Margaret River through to the Great Southern. 

The format will be simple: grab a glass, wander, taste what you like and have a chat to the people who make the wines. 

The full West Cape Howe range will be open for tasting - and they always offer excellent value, as do the Hay Shed Hill offerings. 

Wine lovers can choose between Saturday with the wine tasting and finger food from 2-5pm ($55), or Sunday, with the wine tasting and shared lunch from 10am-3pm ($90). 

TICKETS ON SALE link to Hay Shed Hill

On Garde as new Fremantle hotel opens its doors

The West Australian port city of Fremantle is having a moment.

Fremantle was this month named Australia's Top Tourism Town at the Australian Top Tourism Town awards, and has also welcomed the opening of a new hotel.

The Garde hotel, one of the state's most-anticipated accommodation openings of 2025, is now officially checking-in guests.

Located in Fremantle's convict quarter, Garde comprises 83 new rooms and suites, a spa and wellness offering, along with Anglesea, a ground-floor restaurant serving a Japanese and Korean fusion menu.

The newly-opened rooms, combined with the existing Warders Cottages accommodation, bring the total room count to 106.

The former Warders Hotel recently re-branded to Garde, signalling the connection between both properties and marking the new chapter.

Historic Fremantle is home to the UNESCO World Heritage-listed Fremantle Prison, the much-loved Fremantle Markets, lively Fishing Boat Harbour, and a thriving restaurant and cafe scene.

It's also known for its rich maritime history and is home to the WA Shipwrecks Museum and WA Maritime Museum.

Cellar Door in the City to pop-up in Fremantle

I'm a big fan of West Cape Howe and Hay Shed Hill wines; consistently good and always sensibly priced. 

That duo will pair with fellow West Australian producers Mount Trio and Risky Business for their annual Cellar Door in the City tastings in Fremantle on the weekend of July 13-14. 

The venue will be Harbourside Freo - just around the corner from Little Creatures - where you can enjoy uninterrupted 180-degree views of the ocean to Fremantle Harbour. 

The popular pop-up will give visitors the opportunity to taste over 50 wines from the four wineries and their siblings, to chat with the people that make them and also have access to "one weekend only" prices.

The Saturday will see a wine tasting with canapes from 2pm-5pm, while the Sunday will feature a wine tasting with substantial finger food from 11am-2pm. 

Both are standing events and tickets will be on from tomorrow from noon WST. 

Check in for tickets here: https://www.westcapehowewines.com.au/Shop-Our-Wines/CDiC

Fremantle ups the ante

Fremantle in Western Australia has launched a new marketing campaign designed to draw visitors back to the port city now interstate and international borders have reopened.

The new campaign, by Fremantle-based creative agency &Partners and media agency Match & Wood, builds on the This Is Fremantle brand by showcasing the diversity of the city and highlighting the many new attractions that have opened over the past few years.

&Partners Creative Director Dav Tabeshfar said the campaign featured locals, visitors and business owners claiming that their Freo is the real Freo.

“If you ask 10 different people what Fremantle is, you'll get eleven different answers. We know. We tried,” Tabeshfar said.

“Then we spent many days sitting in cafes, arguing about the essence of Fremantle.

“We realised the argument was the idea. Rather than compromise to make peace, we proposed Fremantle should embrace the diversity of opinion and air the friendly banter in public.”

The new campaign includes two new videos, supported by photographs and editorial content, which will be distributed through YouTube, social media platforms including Facebook, Instagram and TikTok, sponsored articles on lifestyle websites, streaming services SBS on Demand and 10play and digital billboards and display ads around Perth.

In partnership with Destination Perth, This Is Fremantle promotions will also be featured in Jetstar aircraft and included with Jetstar customer emails.

City of Fremantle Acting Director of City Business Matt Hammond said he was excited to be launching one of the City's largest marketing campaigns to promote the destination.

“We're especially pleased this campaign has been created by local creative agency &Partners using entirely local talent,” Hammond said.

“The campaign comes at a time when our business community welcomes back, after a two-year hiatus, international and interstate visitors arriving in Western Australia to visit family and friends.

“Fremantle has always been a special place for entertaining guests, and there are now so many more reasons to make a return visit to our port city to rediscover old favourites and find new ones.”

To view the new campaign videos and find out more visit https://visitfremantle.com.au/article/campaign 

Anyone for a night in jail?

If you have ever thought about spending a night in jail then Adina Hotels are ready and willing to help. 

 
The TFE Hotels group is behind the transformation of Melbourne’s notorious Pentridge Prison site into a mixed-use lifestyle precinct in suburban Coburg with the has breathed new life into the suburb of Coburg, with Adina Apartment Hotel Pentridge Melbourne to open towards the end of the year. 

TFE Hotels' Group Chief Operating Officer, Chris Sedgwick, said the developers, Shayher Group, had put much thought into the 125-room hotel. 

The former prison exercise yard will be the lobby while 19 heritage suites have been added to the former Division B section, which will offer guests the chance to stay in historic converted prison cells - each room is made up of either four or five cells - with all the modern conveniences.  
  
The prison’s former chapel will be used for weddings with a difference. 

 In Adelaide, meanwhile,  the 18-storey, 123-room Vibe Hotel Adelaide is the final piece of the Flinders Street precinct, developed over the past decade by Guava Lime. 

The first Vibe hotel in South Australia will open in early 2023.  
  
TFE Hotels Director of Development, John Sutcliffe, said the Flinders Street precinct is expected to act as a springboard for visitors wanting to experience the best of Adelaide's CBD.  
  
“The hotel's design-focused style really reflects the vibrant, inner-city community that Guava Lime have created around it,” he said. “There are fantastic restaurants, happening bars and music flooding the ground floor, with a restaurant planned for the top floors of the hotel.”  

Designed by multi award-winning Loucas Zahos Architects, one standout design feature is an Australian first, with guests able to cool down in a stylish pool (or sky bridge as the architects call it) that connects Vibe Hotel Adelaide to the neighbouring ONE Apartments.   
   
In Western Australia, Adina Fremantle is set to capitalise on Portside Rejuvenation Project and open in 2024. 

The new 142-room hotel - the first in Fremantle and the third Adina Apartment Hotel in Greater Perth - can expect water views over the Fremantle dock and a location close to the CBD.  

Sutcliffe said the hotel, which is comprised of studios, one bedders and a series of interconnecting rooms that form two-bedroom apartments, will offer views over the Freemantle Docks.  

“With the Fremantle Docks about to undergo a Barangaroo-style refresh, this is a really exciting and strategic location for TFE,” he said. “Conference guests will be well served as will cruise ship passengers when the nearby International Cruise terminal is completed.”  

“A rooftop pool (with a view corridor to the Docks), lobby bar and café, gym and light and airy meeting and events spaces complete the offering.”   
  

Fremantle blooms as summer approaches

The West Australian port city of Fremantle is coming alive as summer approaches. 

First, Rottnest Fast Ferries has launched a whale-watching experience from Fremantle: Whale Watching Perth, a selection of new whale-watching experiences. 

The two-hour cruises set off from Sardine Jetty at Fremantle Fishing Boat Harbour. 

The new tours feature live commentary and education by marine scientists from The Aquarium of Western Australia on a state-of-the-art Voyager vessel fitted with air-conditioning, expansive viewing platforms, hydrophones and licensed bar facilities. 

The Whale Watching Perth experience offers visitors prime viewing of the annual southern migration of Humpback, Southern Right and rare Pygmy Blue whales. Tours operate until December. For more information about the tour visit the website.

Also new in Fremantle is Varsity Burgers is the first venue to open its doors at the new FOMO precinct, the heart of the Kings Square redevelopment. 

The 600-person capacity sports bar and restaurant shines a light on local skate culture, with the space featuring murals, a mini skate ramp, and painted skate decks by a range of artists. 

The burger chain also spotlights local brews, with over 40 locally supplied beers on tap. Additional vegan and gluten-free menu items are available, alongside the traditional Varsity favourites.

The Fremantle Biennale, meanwhile, is a unique and contemporary visual arts event featuring installations across the city. 

A celebration of Fremantle's rich cultural heritage and history, the third edition of the event -  CROSSING 21 - will run for three weeks from November 2-21. 

The program will feature contemporary works by both established and emerging local artists. The headline event Moombaki (where the river meets the sky) is a unique Noongar storytelling project with a choreographed drone light show, consisting of a fleet of 150 drones equipped with LED lights programmed to reveal and highlight the Swan River as a living and significant place deeply connected to the Whadjuk Noongar people. 

Presented as a series of connected stories or chapters, these brief shows will take place at three different sites along the Swan River. The full program of events is available to view online.