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Fremantle Electorate Profile (2021)

About the Fremantle Electorate

Map showing the boundaries of the Fremantle electorate for the 2021 election

PDF version of map

South Metropolitan Region map PDF

Area (sq km): 46
Number of Electors: 31,347
Source: Western Australian Electoral Commission.

Origin of the Name:
Named after Captain Charles Howe Fremantle who arrived at the Swan River Colony on 2 May 1829, on the HMS Challenger. Fremantle had been despatched from the Cape of Good Hope on 20 March of that year, by Commodore Schomberg, of the Indian Squadron, and after anchoring off the mouth of the Swan River, hoisted the British flag on the South Head, and took formal possession in the name of His Majesty King George IV, of "all that part of New Holland which is not included within the territory of New South Wales." The name Fremantle has at times and in various records been incorrectly spelt as 'Freemantle'.
Source: Western Australia. Department of Land Administration. Names and Places.

Suburbs/Towns:
Beaconsfield; Coogee *; Fremantle *; Hamilton Hill; Hilton; North Coogee; O'Connor *; Palmyra *; Rottnest Island; South Fremantle; Spearwood *; White Gum Valley
* = Suburb/Town split between more than one Electorate.
Source: Western Australian Electoral Commission.

Legislative Council Region:
South Metropolitan

Local Governments within Electorate:
City of Cockburn; Statistical Profile of City of Cockburn
City of Fremantle
City of Melville; Statistical Profile of City of Melville

Schools
Government: Beaconsfield Primary School; East Fremantle Primary School; East Hamilton Hill Primary School; Fremantle College; Fremantle Primary School; Hilton Primary School; John Curtin College Of The Arts; Phoenix Primary School; Southwell Primary School; Spearwood Primary School; White Gum Valley Primary School; Winterfold Primary School.

Other: Christ The King School; Christian Brothers' College; Fremantle Christian College; Kerry Street Community School; Lance Holt School; Our Lady Of Mount Carmel School; Port School; Seda College WA; St Patrick's Primary School.

Local Newspapers:
  • Fremantle Gazette
  • Fremantle Herald

Books about Fremantle:
  • David Webb: Fremantle beyond the Round House (109p. Longley Books, 2005)
  • John K Ewers: The Western gateway - a history of Fremantle (262p. UWA Press, 1971)
  • Jack Lee: This is East Fremantle - the story of a town and its people (214p. Publication Printer, 1979)
  • Deborah Tout-Smith: The foundations of Fremantle - exploring the early history of Western Australia's port city (64p. Western Australian Museum, 1998)
  • George Seddon: Looking at an old suburb - a walking guide to four blocks of Fremantle (101p. G Seddon, 2000)
  • Michael Bosworth: Convict Fremantle - a place of promise and punishment (108p. UWA Press, 2004)
  • Patricia Brown: The merchant princes of Fremantle - the rise and decline of a colonial elite 1870-1900 (235p. UWA Press, 1996)
  • Carl Edwards: Giant lettered sheds - life in the port city of Fremantle in the 1950s (310p. Bookpal, 2010)
  • John Dowson: Fremantle Port, a pictorial history (197p. Chart and Map Shop, 2011)
  • John Dowson: Fremantle, the immigration story - twentieth century immigration through Fremantle (40p. Fremantle Society, 2001)
  • John Dowson: Old Fremantle childhood (72p. UWA Press, 2006)
  • Karen Lang: Wharf rats and other stories - 100 years of growing up in Fremantle (247p. Fremantle Primary School P & C, 2004)
  • Ron Davidson: Fremantle impressions (287p. Fremantle Arts Centre Press, 2006)
  • Ron Davidson: Fighting for Fremantle - the Fremantle Society story (167p. Fremantle Press, 2010)
  • Paul Arthur: Voices from the West End (311p. Western Australian Museum, 2012)
  • Simon Nevill: Perth and Fremantle - past and present (191p. Simon Nevill Publications, 2007)
  • R J Ferguson: Rottnest Island - history and architecture (126p. UWA Press, 1986)
  • Chronological history of Rottnest Island (32p. Government of Western Australia, 1995)
  • Kirwan Ward: Rottnest Island sketchbook (63p. Rigby, 1969)
  • Prue Joske: Rottnest Island - a documentary history (421p. UWA, 1995)
  • Jack Watson: Rottnest - its tragedy and its glory (223p. D L Watson, 1998)
  • Kevin Moran: Rottnest - ghosts of Wadjemup, a history of the discovery, the settlement, Aboriginal penal colony, boy's reformatory, the development of Rottnest as a holiday isle (207p. Frickers International Publishing, 2002)
  • Kevin Moran: Rottnest law (334p., 1998)
  • Trea Wiltshire: Gone to Rottnest (98p. UWA Press, 2004)
  • Founders and felons - a tour guide for the Fremantle Cemetery (27p. Metropolitan Cemeteries Board, 2004)

Statistical Profile of the Fremantle Electorate

Elections

Information about the 2021 State General Election
Information about Previous Elections

Current Member

Simone McGurk (ALP)

Simone has lived in the Fremantle community for 20 years. As a young adult she moved to Melbourne where she got a History degree from the University of Melbourne.

Simone has worked in the union movement for over 22 years. She was one of the first women elected to be an Organiser for the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union, before being elected the Assistant State Secretary in 1997.

After returning to university to study Media at Murdoch University, Simone worked for a short period in Native Title, and as a Producer with the ABC.

She was elected Secretary of UnionsWA in 2009 until she was elected to state parliament in 2013. She is currently Minister for Training and Workforce Development; Water; Industrial Relations.

Contact details and Speeches

Biography

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Successive Members for the Fremantle Electorate

Constituency created under the Redistribution of Seats 2015

Name Party Term
William Edward Marmion   1890 - 1896
John Joseph Higham Ministerialist 1896b - 1904
Edward Needham Australian Labor Party 1904b - 1905
James Price Ministerialist 1905b - 1910
William Alfred Murphy Ministerialist 1910b - 1911
William Henry Carpenter Australian Labor Party 1911 - 1917
Walter Leonard Jones Australian Labor Party 1917 - 1921
Frank Ernest Gibson Nationalist 1921 - 1924
Joseph Bertram Sleeman Australian Labor Party 1924 - 1959
Harry Arthur Fletcher Australian Labor Party 1959 - 1977
John Robert Troy Australian Labor Party 1977 - 1980
David Charles Parker Australian Labor Party 1980 - 1990
James (Jim) Andrew McGinty Australian Labor Party 1990b - 2009
Adele Simone Carles Greens 2009b - 2013
Simone McGurk Australian Labor Party 2013 -

b = by-election
Source:
Black, David & Valerie Prescott. Election Statistics: Legislative Assembly of Western Australia, 1890-1996. Perth, WA: Parliament of Western Australia Electoral Commission, 1997.
Parliament of Western Australia, Members (website) http://www.parliament.wa.gov.au