Bart Bear's Blog

These two lighthouses mark the entrance into Fremantle Harbour in Western Australia. We saw them a couple of times during our trip to Perf because the river cruise boats stop in the harbour, and the boat to Rottnest Is goes past them. They are right at the end of the breakwalls that keep the Swan River mouth calm, one on each side. The breakwalls are called "moles"; I can't understand why because all the moles I know are small little critters that live underground. Anyhow, these lighthouses have been there since the harbour was finally completed in 1903. They are coloured red and green, red for port (left) and green for starboard (right) so that ships coming into the river know what side is what (I think it would be funny to see one get confused and come in the wrong way around). During the war Fremantle was an important naval base. It had one of the biggest submarine bases in the world. The concrete building at the base of the green lighthouse is the remains of a WWII observation post. These days Fremantle is a very busy harbour with lots of huge container ships, livestock transports, cruise boats and river ferrys (some of which carry small bears on holiday).

Labels: lighthouse, Perth, Western Australia