LIGHTING UP THE BATHERS BEACH SUNSET MARKETS

The second Fremantle BATHERS BEACH SUNSET FOOD MARKETS yesterday was equally successful to the first one with several stall holders selling out. Local residents absolutely love it and it was so nice to see many children enjoying the beach and the ocean while the parents watched from the boardwalk. The grassed area was one of the favourite spots while the dust bowl was not used at all, which shows that resurfacing the area should be a priority for the City of Fremantle.

Council was initially reluctant to grand a license for the market but now that is has been shown to be a success the City needs to get its act together and supply lighting. The foot lights, installed as part of the million dollar plus Old Port Project development, have never worked and they should be connected to power, while the city should liaise on behalf of the market operators with the real estate agent of the vacant Poisson D’Or/McDonalds/Dome building, so access will be granted to switch on the large flood lights on the roof. It seems silly these lights are there but no one is willing to switch them on.

While at the markets yesterday I was told Fremantle, together with Claremont and Stirling are the least favourite local governments with market people because things are made difficult for them because of red tape. While the City of Perth has a market license that covers all markets for a year at $ 160.00, in Fremantle stall holders need to apply for each and every individual market. The paper work, especially for people from non English speaking countries, often makes them abandon plans to be part of a market in Freo. I believe stream lining this process would be a very good idea and would help all markets around the city.

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Roel Loopers

Bathers Beach Sunset Food Markets, Fremantle, Western Australia

WHALERS TUNNEL CLOSED FOR TOURISM

What is going on with the opening and closing times of the Fremantle Whalers Tunnel under the Round House. Can the security company who gets paid for it simply decide for themselves? On several occasions the tunnel still had not been opened till at late a 9.30 am although the City of Fremantle information provided last year stated it was going to open from 7 am.

The last few weeks I have noticed the tunnel closed as early at 6.50 pm although it is supposed to remain open till 8 pm.

And why are half of the street lights and Christmas lights down High Street west not working on the night where the Christmas tree is officially switched on

 

Roel Loopers

 

FREO’S NEW CHRISTMAS LIGHTS

These new Christmas decorations have been installed at Fremantle‘s Kings Square and will be put on lamp posts all along High Street to the Round House as well. They light up at night and will be first switched on with the stunning Moreton Bay Fig Christmas tree at Kings Square this Friday at 7 pm. Come along and bring the kids as it is a beautiful sight!

Roel Loopers

Fremantle’s new Christmas decoration

ART LIGHTS UP FREMANTLE’S MOORES CENTRE

Let Me Play So I Can Lose My Way is a colourful light show artwork by David Kenworthy upstairs at the Fremantle Moores Building Art Centre. David bought lots of small plastic letters and packets of colourful and translucent cut-price candy, from which he crafted his illuminated artworks. The show is only on till the end of this Sunday November 11, so go and have a look.

There is a mixed bag of good to average art by a number of artists  in the rest of the Moores Centre, with some good small works upstairs by indigenous artist Herbert Marshall.

It is a big, but unsubstantiated, claim for a group show like this though to put an A-Frame outside the building stating these are some of Western Australia’s best investments artists. I’d call it misleading advertising. The light show is definitely worth the exercise up the stairs. Here some impressions of it.

Roel Loopers

FREO’S MIRACLE LIGHTS

Hallelujah! Miracles do happen! While Western Power called me on Friday to say the faulty lights along the shared bicycle foot path at the railway line underneath the Fremantle Round House were not their responsibility, the fault has been repaired by someone and the lights were on when I came home from Kulcha yesterday early evening.

Only one question remains. Why did it take eleven months and required emails to the ministers for energy and tourism to get the repair job done?

Roel Loopers

SAD SAGA OF FAULTY FREO LIGHTS

If it wasn’t so sad it could be funny. The saga of the streetlights near Fremantle‘s Round House continues and I feel for the frustrated City officer Dan who has to deal with Western Power to try to get them fixed. To make it clear, this is outside the City of Fremantle‘s control!

Coming home around seven last evening I was surprised and delighted the street light that lights the step to the Round House was working, sadly only till I was halfway up, when it switched off. I observed it for a while to see if maybe storm damage was the cause, but the light came back on after about twenty seconds, to turn off again, and on again in intervals.

The lights to the South of the railway line have been off since November last year, but for a period of a couple of weeks when they were on 24 hours a day. Last night I thought CoF Dan’s efforts and my emails to the Ministers for Energy and Tourism might have been successful but alas……….the story will continue.

Roel Loopers

 

 

ROUND HOUSE DARKNESS A GRAVE CONCERN

Last evening after a meeting of the Fremantle West End Traders at Arthur Head Adam Monk, the owner of the Adam Monk Photo Gallery in High Street, fell down the unlit steps at the Round House and sprained his ankle so badly that he thought it was broken. He had to call his wife to come and pick him up.

The streetlights at the walkway/bicycle path west of the railway line have been out since November last year. I first made the CEO of the City of Fremantle aware of it on the day of the opening of ISAF.

The problem lies with Western Power, not the CoF, as the frustrated manager of city lights explained to me, who has been trying to get them fixed for many months.

Adam’s fall down the dark steps was not the first one,  Councillor Jon Strachan fell down them before he was elected. From the carnage of broken bottles on the steps I have seen over the last ten months many backpackers who gather at the Round House at night have also fallen down.

It has now come to the point where someone higher up in the City of Fremantle needs to take it up with the minister responsible for Western Power, as it is only a matter of time before an American tourist will sue the city for negligence. The Round House is one of the most visited buildings in Fremantle and many tourists come to see the oldest public building in the state  after dark. The light at the steps needs to be working to avoid further injuries.

I will today email the ministers for Western Power and Tourism and also the West Australian newspaper. Maybe then finally someone at Western Power will get off his backside and make the repair of the lights the highest priority, as it should have been since last year.

Roel Loopers

LOVING FREO STORMS

I love storms, bad weather, heavy showers, lightning and thunder. It always makes me realise how insignificant we human beings are in the bigger picture and that nature is so much more powerful than we’ll ever be.

Sitting in my car on the South Mole at Fremantle harbour late yesterday, rain was pelting down and the car shaking like a leaf in the heavy winds. I like this arty photo of a car bumping along on the mole and its headlights making a painting out of my car’s wet windscreen. There is beauty everywhere!

Roel Loopers

Car light show on the Fremantle South Mole

WHY KEEP FREO’S WEST END IN THE DARK?

For over seven months the street lights south of the railway line along the bicycle and footpath in Fremantle‘s Little High Street were not working. This was due to the Old Port Project works at  I was told. Then the lights came on for 24 hours a day for a few weeks and now they are off again at night, as I discovered on Friday evening when I stumbled up the very dark steps to the Round House. It is a safety and security risk to have the path in the dark at night.

The major works at Bathers Beach were completed three weeks ago, so that can’t be the problem.

It makes not difference to anyone trying to use the steps and the path at night if the failure to keep the lights on is the responsibility of the City of Fremantle or Western Power. It is simply unacceptable that ten months after I reported the failure to the CEO of the City the lights are still not on. It’s bloody dangerous!

Roel Loopers

FREO CHRISTMAS IN JULY

It looks like Christmas in July but it isn’t. Small lights are being put up between lamp posts at Kings Square in Fremantle to create a more pleasant mood there at night. I like the idea but was expecting something more creative as far as the small lights go, but it’s a start we might be able to improve on in the future.

I like lit trees at night as well, so that is something the City of Fremantle should consider for Kings Square the High Street Mall and the Esplanade.

Roel Loopers