Gage Roads

The Swan River (Nyungar: Derbarl Yerrigan) is a major river in the southwest of Western Australia. The river runs through the metropolitan area of Perth, Western Australia's capital and largest city.

The North Mole Lighthouse began operation in 1906 at the entrance to Fremantle Harbour, in Western Australia. The occulting red light, emitted from a fixed lightsource at a focal plane height of 15 metres (49 ft) above sea level, is visible for 11 miles (18 km) and indicates the westernmost point of the harbour and its entrance. The lighthouse established permanent service from 1906; after the mole's foundations had settled a temporary lighting arrangement there was discharged. The light originally planned for the house was found to be too powerful and was sent to Broome for the steel lighthouse at Gantheume Point. The lighthouse and its technically identical yet green coloured partner on the south mole are the last remaining of their type. It has an 'indicative place' status of the Register of the National Estate and is a well-known landmark to seamen visiting the port. It was designed by Charles Yelverton O'Connor, an engineer responsible for the construction of Fremantle Harbour and who advanced the proposal of the Goldfields Water Supply Scheme. The 15 m tower is made of cast iron, painted red and features classical decorations. It is located at the end of North Mole Drive. The position is a well used recreational fishing spot and a vantage point for ocean yacht racing or birdwatching. In June in 1927 and July 1935, severe storms were recorded affecting the Moles but not seriously damaging the lighthouses.

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 livestock exports, cruise shipping and naval visits, and operates 24 hours a day. It is located adjacent to the city of Fremantle, in the Perth metropolitan region. Fremantle Harbour consists of the Inner Harbour, which is situated on the mouth of the Swan River; the Outer Harbour, which is 20 km (12 mi) 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, under the registered business name Fremantle Ports.

Fremantle Fortress was the combined coastal defences protecting the harbour of Fremantle, Western Australia, since the mid-1930s and, predominantly, during World War II. The coastal defences of the Fremantle Fortress stretched along the coastline of Perth from Cape Peron to Swanbourne and also included installations on Garden Island and Rottnest Island. While the first coastal batteries of the future Fremantle Fortress were installed at Arthur Head in 1906, the military installations protecting the harbour were expanded in the 1930s, being eventually dismantled again by 1963. During World War II, Fremantle Harbour, guarded by the Fremantle Fortress, was home to the Fremantle submarine base, which was the second-most important submarine base in the Pacific War after Pearl Harbor. The coastal batteries were manned by members of the Royal Australian Artillery, the Royal Australian Engineers and the Volunteer Defence Corps. Apart from these men, members of the Australian Women's Army Service also served at the Fremantle Fortress. Of the former installations, the Oliver Hill Battery and its associated railway have been preserved, remaining a tourist attraction on Rottnest Island. Parts of the Leighton Battery, Buckland Hill, have been restored and its underground facilities are accessible. A bunker and one of the Panama mounts of the Peron Battery are also preserved and accessible.

HMAS Ovens (S 70) is an Oberon-class submarine, formerly of the Royal Australian Navy (RAN). She was one of six Oberons built for the Royal Australian Navy by the Scottish Scotts Shipbuilding and Engineering Company, and entered service in 1969. The vessel was named for Irishman and Australian explorer John Ovens (1788–1825) and for whom the Victorian river Ovens was named. During her career, Ovens was the first RAN submarine to deploy with the ANZUK force, and the first RAN submarine to fire an armed Mark 48 torpedo, sinking the target ship Colac. The boat was decommissioned in 1995, and is preserved at the Western Australian Maritime Museum as a museum ship.

J Shed is a building and collection of artists studios at Arthur Head Reserve, Fremantle. It was built as a warehouse for Fremantle Harbour in the early 20th century, and moved to its present site in the early 1960s.

Challenger Harbour is a marina in Fremantle, Western Australia adjacent to the Fremantle Fishing Boat Harbour. The harbour breakwater covers the historical site of the Fremantle Long Jetty.The harbour was named after HMS Challenger, which was under the command of Captain Charles Fremantle when, on 2 May 1829, he hoisted the British flag on Arthur Head, the south head of the mouth of the Swan River, to mark the establishment of the Swan River Colony.The harbour was built for the 1987 America's Cup in 1983–84 and included facilities specifically for the associated 12-Metre class racing yachts. A stone breakwater protected the harbour from the ocean. It has since been modified for recreational vessels only, with seven jetties (including one jetty leased to the Fremantle Cruising Yacht Club and four jetties leased to the Royal Perth Yacht Club), as well as short-term serviced apartments. Pens range in size from 10 metres (33 ft) up to 35 metres (115 ft). The marina is owned and administered by the Western Australian Department of Transport.In January 1999 the Fremantle Sea Rescue's communications centre was sited at the harbour, until a 2016 move to the former signal station on Cantonment Hill.

The Round House was the first permanent building built in the Swan River Colony. Built in late 1830 and opened in 1831, it is the oldest building still standing in Western Australia.It is located at Arthur Head in Fremantle, and recent heritage assessments and appraisals of the precinct of the Round House incorporate Arthur Head.

Fremantle Long Jetty was constructed in 1873 to replace the smaller South Jetty which had become too small for the large amounts of vessels entering the colony in Western Australia. The jetty lies in Bather's Bay which has been an occupation site since the Swan River Colony was established in 1829. It was a centre of trade and communications that served Fremantle and Perth until Fremantle Harbour was opened. An increased amount of shipping made it necessary to improve the harbouring facilities by the late 1860s. Long Jetty was built as a less expensive alternative to building a harbour at the mouth of the Swan River due to a lack of funds and technological shortcomings.In July 1984 the Maritime Archaeology Department of the Western Australian Museum was notified of plans to construct a marina for the 1987 America's Cup that would be close to the remains of the Long Jetty. This prompted an archaeological excavation to ascertain the importance of the site.

Arthur Head (also known as Arthur's Head) in Fremantle, Western Australia, is a former large limestone headland on the southern side of the mouth of the Swan River, now also the entry to Fremantle Harbour. Historian Bob Reece identifies the geographical prominence of the location in his entry in the Historical Encyclopedia of Western Australia:: 387  Fremantle is a narrow peninsula of land located at the estuary of the Swan River within Cockburn Sound, its principal landmarks from the sea being the limestone outcrop known as Arthur Head and the two hills known as Buckland Hill and Monument Hill (now Obelisk Hill). Also the strategic quality of the head is noted as: In May 1829 the strategic location of Arthur Head led it being chosen by Captain Charles Fremantle RN as the site for his fortified beach camp.: 4  It has been significantly altered since European settlement in the 1830s, and is the site of a large number of demolished structures.Archaeologist Michael Pearson in his 1984 report identified the following: 1851 Lighthouse (first) 1876 Lighthouse (second): 22 feet (6.7 m) in diameter, 72 feet (22 m) high; constructed by convicts in 1876–1879; decommissioned in 1902. 1834 Courthouse (first) 1840 Courthouse (second) 1852 Police station complex Lighthouse keeper quarters Harbourmaster quartersThe structures remaining on the head are the Round House, the oldest remaining building in Western Australia, and the pilots' cottages, all of which are heritage listed. Passing through Arthur Head is the Whalers Tunnel that enabled ease of access to Bathers Beach, Fremantle and the Long Jetty. A significant part of the Arthur Head area was utilised during World War II; the slipway constructed then for submarine repairs was known as the Arthurs Head Slipway.

The Old Kerosene Store is located at Bathers Beach in Fremantle, Western Australia, adjacent to the ruins of the original Fremantle Long Jetty. It is a single-storey limestone building and forms part of the historic Arthur Head Reserve precinct.

The Old Customs House is a building in Fremantle, Western Australia that was built in 1908 to house the main branch of the Customs Department of Western Australia. It is one of only a handful of extant Customs Houses in the state; others are in Albany, Broome, Cossack, and Geraldton.