State welcomes Commonwealth grants for Fremantle Prison

  • Fremantle Prison awarded two heritage grants worth more than $400,000
  • Grants fund heritage interpretation and improved accessibility plans
  • Commonwealth funds bolster $5 million of State Government projects to support conservation and interpretation at UNESCO World Heritage site
  • The McGowan Government has welcomed more than $400,000 in grant funding from the Commonwealth Government to support the preparation of two key management plans at Fremantle Prison.

    Two grants from the Australian Heritage Grants 2020-21 program were announced last month. 

    A $320,000 grant will fund the development of a dedicated heritage interpretation strategy for the prison, undertaking research and stakeholder engagement to identify and record the cultural values of the Prison’s history.

    Delivered over two years, the Aboriginal Heritage Management Plan will identify cultural and historic heritage values relating to the history of displacement and incarceration of Aboriginal people at Fremantle Prison, and guide the culturally appropriate interpretation of this history to the wider community.

    A second grant of $91,000 will be used to prepare an Accessibility and Inclusion Plan in partnership with a range of people with lived experience of disability. The plan aims to make the site and the services it offers more accessible and inclusive to ensure Fremantle Prison is as welcoming as possible. The plan will be open for community consultation in early 2022.

    The grants follow more than $5 million in State Government funded projects to repair the Main Cell Block, restore the Commissariat and fund upgrades and repairs to the Main Parade Ground and Prison Hospital.

    As stated by Heritage Minister David Templeman:

    “We are working to fund conservation works to ensure Fremantle Prison – one of the most significant heritage sites in Australia and the world – remains protected, harnesses its tourism and storytelling potential and opens more areas of the prison to be discovered. 

    “Fremantle Prison represents a key part of our social and judicial history and, although it stands on Whadjuk Country, it holds many important stories of people from different Aboriginal nation groups who were incarcerated on the site. 

    “It has a rich, deep history both in its built form and in the development of Fremantle and the State, but also in the truth-telling of our past – a history that is part of Western Australia’s path to reconciliation.

    “I congratulate Fremantle Prison for securing Commonwealth grant funding and look forward to the outcomes they can deliver to ensure a better visitor experience for people with disabilities and sharing more stories from behind the prison walls through oral histories, recordings and uncovering hidden tales.”

    As stated by Fremantle MLA Simone McGurk:

    “This funding is a welcome boost for conservation works at the UNESCO World Heritage-listed Fremantle Prison.

    “These works will complement the more than $5 million worth of works being undertaken by the McGowan Government, and help to preserve this magnificent place for the future.”

    /Public Release. View in full here.