First constructed in 1892 to act as Fremantle’s main quay, Victoria’s Quay covers 28 hectares. It has 1.6 km of harbour side and is approximately 100 m wide, bordered by the railroad tracks to the south and the river to the north. The shoreline was originally much further back- where Slip St. and Phillimore St. are now was once a beach. The end of Cliff St. once ran into the ocean and formed the first jetty before Victoria Quay was built. C.Y. O’Connor was the civil engineer who headed the massive quay project. He is immortalised in a metal, granite and concrete statue that rises over 10 meters high in front of the Fremantle Port Authority building. The statue itself was named a ‘Significant Piece of Engineering’ by the Institute of Engineering, Australia.
Victoria’s Quay is now primarily used as a passenger terminal for ships departing for Rottnest Island and Perth. It once thrived as the base of employment in Fremantle before mechanisation replaced most manual labour in the 1960s. Recently, though, the quay has been targeted for reinvestment and reinvigoration. Proposed to be built alongside the sleek, new Maritime Museum is a $200 million commercial and retail complex including a car park, which will supposedly add $81 million to Fremantle’s annual economy. Despite earmarking $12 million for historic preservation, this project is facing community opposition due to Victoria Quay’s significance in Fremantle’s history.
