North Fremantle

“It’s one of the best-connected beach spots in Australia but look inland and you’ll find plenty more to love in North Fremantle. Like an enviable culinary scene, independent boutiques, the undisputed home of Western Australian live music, and the giant Dingo that has stood watch over North Freo since 1940.”

North Fremantle has been a popular place for swimming, surfing, and good times since the 1930s. Today, happy crowds continue to spill out of the train and walk the all-too-easy 300 metres to Leighton Beach.

Look east from the beach to see the giant Dingo mural on the side of the heritage-listed and working Great Southern Roller Flour Mill. Painted in 1940, it’s cemented itself as part of Fremantle's iconography and has inspired all manner of artists and entrepreneurs. Look out for the dingo on boardshorts, postcards, t-shirts, and even on consumables like Dingo Sauce Co and Dingo Brewing Co.

The craft beer story started in Fremantle in the 1980s with the launch of the Matilda Bay Brewing Company at the Sail and Anchor Hotel on South Terrace, the first new brewery to open in Australia since World War II and Australia's first craft beer brewery.

At the end of the Rous Head peninsula stands the red cast iron North Mole lighthouse, one of two lighthouses that have guided ships into one of the busiest container ports in Australia since 1903. Its non-identical green twin is found on South Mole. Today a raft of ferries and recreational vessels use them as markers on their way in and out of the harbour alongside the container ships and cruise liners.

Whale sightings are common along this stretch of coastline, known as the ‘Humpback Highway’, as they make their way north from the Great Southern Ocean to warmer waters along our northwestern coast. The best time to see them is from September to November, but the winter months still offer plenty of water acrobatics to see when the waves are dotted with the colourful sails of kitesurfers and windsurfers jumping and flying through the sky.

The fun only gets amped up inland. Mojos Bar has been a holy site for counterculture and live music in Western Australia since the 70s. In the early 2000s, international roots behemoth John Butler was famously plucked from his busking pitch and plonked inside Mojos by his manager and former Mojos owner Phil Stevens, while in recent times acts as diverse as Tame Impala, POND, CW Stoneking, Abbe May, The Stems, Stella Donnelly, San Cisco, and Thee Oh Sees have all graced its illustrious stage.

And when you need a pick-me-up the next morning? Lean back in a deckchair with something caffeinated from local favourite The Orange Box or enjoy something heartier at Bib & Tucker, where owner Eamon Sullivan of Olympic and Celebrity MasterChef fame serves up a menu of refined rascality alongside co-owners Scott Bridger and fellow Olympian Jamie Dwyer.