The City of Fremantle is a local government area in the south metropolitan region of Perth, the state capital of Western Australia. Fronting the Indian Ocean to the west and forming part of Australia’s western boundary, the city is 15.9 kilometres south-west of the Perth CBD. The municipality has a population of over 40,000 residents with more than 40% born overseas and 21.9% of households speaking a language other than English.
Current initiatives
Before the age of air travel, newcomers to Australia made the journey by ship and their first sight and landing in their new country was at the port of Fremantle. The City has declared itself a Refugee Welcome Zone in line with this strong tradition of welcoming newcomers to Australia.
Fremantle has an extensive range of services accessible to its residents, but gives special support to events and activities during Refugee Week each year. Some of these events include the “Welcome Refugee Fiesta” and “Walk Together”, with the involvement and support of a range of prominent refugee support, community and advocacy groups. The City assumes responsibility for hosting, coordination and promotional advertising for the events each year and provides financial relief for participating refugee community groups.
