IT once attracted a 13,000 signature petition calling for its preservation, but the owners of the abandoned Carriage Cafe on Fremantle’s Esplanade Reserve have been told to haul it away. 

The cafe was closed in 2022 after lease negotiations between the council and the lessees of the site broke down, and since then it has been surrounded by ugly fencing.

Fremantle council’s  business director Matthew Hammond says it’s only a matter of time before the site is cleared.

“The City has since formally requested the removal of the carriage from the site, however the private owner has yet to proceed with its removal,” Mr Hammond said.

Kel Smith owned the cafe years ago and said it was a sad day to see its demise looming; back in 2008 he gathered 13,000 signatures to force the council into backing away from an order to move on.

• Fences surround the cafe, rubbish piled up inside, while a murder of crows seems ready to pick at the carcass – a sad end for the Carriage Cafe.

Trendier

Despite the carriage having been on the Esplanade since the 1970s, council staff had claimed it didn’t fit their vision for the park and should be replaced with a trendier cafe closer to the Italian Club carpark.

Despite buckling to public pressure, the council never eased up its opposition to his plans for the retired railway carriage, Mr Smith says.

Before selling the cafe back in 2015, he said he spent thousands of dollars on upgrade plans, but the council refused to give him a lease extension that would justify the investment.

“All we wanted to do was to maintain a much loved community asset for the community and visitors” Mr Smith said.

One of the signatories and a high-profile campaigner was South Fremantle resident and former WA premier Peter Dowding.

He says the council is bucking to pressure from businesses around the Esplanade who are just trying to knock off a competitor.

“When so many tourists and visitors use the Esplanade, why on earth would Fremantle council bow down to the landlords that own large swathes of Freo property and whose demands for rents exceed the economic capacity of small business operators and leave so many properties vacant,” Mr Dowding told the Herald.

by ROMIE FAYLE