Port Beach windy day quick sketch

Windy morning at Port Beach last month, freighters lined up in Gage Roads to enter Fremantle harbour, parts of the car park are fenced off, big winter storms have washed away the beach and tarmac.

Fremantle Traffic Bridge

The wooden Fremantle Traffic bridge (opened 15th December 1939) is due to be demolished and replaced by a new structure in the next few years… Each of the main wooden pillars is hand carved with numbers (in roman numerals), the criss-cross of West Australian timber bolted together is quite unique, it would be a shame to lose such an iconic structure – should be kept as a bike/pedestrian bridge!

Sketched in ink before colour…

Freo Giraffe

One Freo giraffe feeding….(one Fremantle crane loading/unloading)…on a sunny morning last week

Power Pole

I find drawing power poles fascinating, here in Western Australia the local Eucalyptus hard wood (Jarrah – Eucalyptus marginata and occasionally Karri or Marri) is used for the long, straight poles, each one is unique with whorls and slight kinks along its length. They’re often treated with anti-termite solution so have a greenish tinge. This one is in South Terrace, South Fremantle, but they’re everywhere if you look out for them…except the suburbs that have moved to underground power!

Bayly Street

The last remaining house is Bayly Street, North Fremantle is surrounded by containers, trucks and shipping…such a cute house

South Fremantle

Sampling the cafe life down in South Fremantle with the Urban Sketchers recently…lockdown lifted, some sense of “normal” returned to some cool cafes

Dingo Flour

Cycling back from Fremantle I stopped by the iconic (and heritage listed) Dingo Flour building, owned by Great Southern Roller Flour Mills Ltd. I sketched the same view almost exactly 5 years ago (25 June 2015) when the silos were still standing to the left of the main shed and it was rather rusty then (renovated in 2016 – new corrugated panels and repaint).

Fremantle after lockdown

Fremantle slowly opening up again after the COVID-19 lockdown. The Fremantle Markets still aren’t open yet (probably too hard to control people numbers and social distancing inside) but cafes and shops opening again. Lots of people about on a beautiful sunny winter’s day (plus the usual cars/utes/motorbikes rumbling up and down the terrace…poseurs!). Quick and rough sketch of Gino’s cafe plus the back lane (Essex Lane).

South Fremantle Power Station

The abandoned Fremantle Power Station, in North Coogee, I sketched this ruined building in November 2015 and have returned again to have another crack at it, this time an autumn day when it wasn’t so scorching hot. Opened in 1954 and closed in 1985 it has been empty and unloved for the last 35 years. Now surrounded by new apartments and luxury homes it looms as a ghost from the past on the horizon. My sketch squashed the long building onto a small rectangular page but that’s how this building felt to me,  looking up at the solid concrete structure with the dark empty window frames (most glass is missing, just the odd one high up that remains intact).

 

South Mole Fremantle

South Mole lighthouse Fremantle midday…a strong Southerly breeze (blowing up from Antarctica…a bit chilly) watching the big container ships being escorted out of the port into Gage Roads…