RouteFremantle

Fremantle Whadjuk Noongar Country Walk

Explore Fremantle through the lens of Whadjuk Noongar culture — the Aboriginal custodians of this coastal landscape for 50,000 years who named Walyalup (Fremantle) and whose continuing presence shapes the city's identity.

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1
Walyalup — Fremantle Original Name
Walyalup is the Whadjuk Noongar name for Fremantle — meaning 'place of the woylie (brush-tailed bettong)', the name acknowledges the Aboriginal custodianship of this coastal meeting place that predates European arrival by 50,000 years.
2
Fremantle Park Noongar Boodja
Fremantle Park and surrounds are on Noongar Boodja (country) — the Whadjuk people used the Swan River and coastal areas seasonally, and the park's interpretive signs acknowledge the layers of Aboriginal history beneath the Victorian park landscape.
3
Round House Indigenous History
The Round House (1831) was used to incarcerate Noongar men accused of disrupting colonial settlement — the history of the oldest building in WA includes the imprisonment of Yagan, the resistance leader whose death in 1833 made him a Noongar hero.
4
Whadjuk Story Trail
The Whadjuk Story Trail through Fremantle marks significant sites with interpretive signs in Noongar language — the trail follows the movements of Noongar people through the coastal landscape and identifies places significant in Dreaming stories.
5
Fremantle Noongar Land Council Office
The South West Aboriginal Land and Sea Council has offices in Fremantle — the organisation coordinates the Whadjuk Noongar native title claim over the Perth metropolitan area, one of the largest urban native title determinations in Australian legal history.
6
Wadjemup / Rottnest Island Connection
Wadjemup (Rottnest Island) visible from Fremantle has a painful history as a prison for Noongar men from across WA from 1838 to 1931 — over 3,700 Aboriginal men were incarcerated on the island, and the acknowledgement of this history has transformed how the popular holiday island is understood.