Fremantle Harbour

Fremantle Harbour is Western Australia's largest and busiest general cargo port and an important historical site. The inner harbour handles a large volume of sea containers, vehicle imports and exports, cruise shipping and naval visits, and operates 24 hours a day.

Fremantle consists of the Inner Harbour, which is situated on the mouth of the Swan River; the Outer Harbour, which is 20 km south at Kwinana in Cockburn Sound and handles bulk cargo ports, grain, petroleum, liquefied petroleum gas, alumina, mineral sands, fertilisers, sulphur and other bulk commodities; and Gage Roads which is the anchorage between Rottnest Island and the mainland. The Inner Harbour includes northern and southern wharves named North Quay and Victoria Quay respectively. All of this area is managed by the Fremantle Port Authority, a government trading enterprise.

Fremantle's port role began immediately the Swan River Colony was founded in 1829, but the entrance to the Swan River estuary was blocked by a rocky bar, which made the mouth of the river virtually impassable for seagoing vessels. The first steamship to enter the port was HMS Driver on 4 December 1845.

Fremantle shipping was served by the Long Jetty that extended into the open sea, where Bathers Beach is today. Cargo was offloaded onto the jetty and then taken down Cliff Street in Fremantle's West End. It was loaded onto barges that sailed up the river on the westerly sea breeze and back to Fremantle on easterly winds. Later it was transported by rail.Sailors disliked the Long Jetty: in 1892 Captain D.B. Shaw of the American barque Saranac described it as "terrible":

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