Is Fremantle’s ‘bogan cousin’ upstaging the port city?
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.
Opinion
December 30, 2025 — 5.00am
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.
South Fremantle. Credit: Brendan Foster
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.
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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.
