The Inner Harbour was officially opened on 4 May 1897.
In 1891, WA’s first Premier, Sir John Forrest, appointed Irish-born engineer Charles Yelverton O’Connor as Engineer-in-Chief. Work on developing a safe harbour at Fremantle began the following year. The project involved blasting away the rocky bar blocking the Swan River estuary, dredging to deepen the river basin, construction of the North and South Moles to protect the entrance to the harbour, and reclaiming land for wharves and warehouses. Fremantle’s Inner Harbour was opened in 1897 and while it has been deepened, extended and modernised over the years, its visionary design remains essentially unchanged. Fremantle will continue to be a city enlivened by a working port.
In 1897, out of the 474 ships that visited the port, 127 were sailing ships, with the remainder classed as steam and sail. The gross tonnage of the ships was 550,000 tonnes. In 2005-06, there were 1,687 ship visits to the Inner and Outer harbours but the gross tonnage was 45,938,000 tonnes! And in 2005-06, the total value of trade going through the Port of Fremantle was almost $20 billion.
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Fremantle's Inner Harbour 110 years old today (4 May)
