Wray Avenue

“Cut to the chase and drop straight into local life in this action-packed street where Fremantle’s post-war migration story is told. Think mouthwatering conti rolls, gourmet sausages, and vintage vegetable trucks piled with the weekly special.” 

Houses and shopfronts reflect the time they were built and their more recent influences on this interesting strip named in the 1920s after former Mayor of Fremantle W.E. Wray. 

At the top of Wray Avenue near the intersection of Hampton Road you’ll find the old Beacon Theatre, the first modern cinema in Fremantle. It opened in 1937 with the movie Three Smart Girls using an innovative projection box that allowed for a fast-changing screen that moved between the cinema and the open-air gardens. While no longer used as a cinema, it’s one of the few remaining Art Deco style buildings remaining in Western Australia.

You’ll find the main action at the South Terrace end of the street, where traditional European butcher Frank’s Gourmet Meats sits alongside grocer-come-delicatessen store Galati & Sons with their great line of mouth-watering continental rolls and weekly vegetable special piled onto a vintage truck. There’s queues out the door.

Hair studios, bespoke fashion, carefully curated homewares, vintage menswear, a bike store and yoga studio are dotted between sidewalk eateries and small basement bars. Visit Hey Little for cool children’s clothing, Bukeshla for homegrown threads, Sisko Store for home and lifestyle ware, and Loop de Loop Curio Store for varieties and collectibles.  

Ready to do as the locals do? Start with morning fuel at The Little Concept, enjoy an afternoon drink in the sun at Who’s Your Mumma, one of Freo’s first neighbourhood small bars, and finish with a tipple of whiskey at Perth’s biggest small whiskey bar, Malt’n Gold.