FREO’S Town Hall bells are once again ringing after a worldwide operation to fix them. 

The bells stopped tolling in February this year after teeth from two gears were found to be worn down.

Although a small part in the clock’s sequence, the gears were vital to its chiming mechanism and their failure rendered the clock silent. 

Perth-based horologist Garth Caesar has maintained the clock for over 30 years and says he conducted a global search to find a company who could make an exact replica of the gears, which were originally installed in the late 19th century. 

• Horologist Garth Ceasar.  Photo by Zach Fox

“I went to Germany, I went to Sweden, I went to the US,” Mr Caesar said. 

“At [an engineering convention] last Easter I met up with a chap from Adelaide that I’ve known for donkey’s years, and he has exactly the machine we were looking for… we had them done within six weeks.” 

The gears are made out of special alloy, phosphor bronze, and have a high phosphor content for harder use and wear. 

According to Mr Caesar, the gears have to be installed at a very delicate angle with “about the pressure of a pen on your fingers” which allows the half-tonne pendulum above the gears to swing. 

• A tiny, but crucial gear silenced Fremantle’s town hall bells.

“I got the gears back upstairs, reestablished them, and then got all the pressure angles right so that they’d actually turn,” Mr Caesar said. 

“I went for the gears rather than a small, right-angle differential which would have done the job, but just wouldn’t be right.” 

The clock, which is a “very small replica” of London’s Big Ben, was installed by Fremantle horologist William Hooper in 1887. 

It was dragged down High Street by 16 horses, and was hoisted up by a rope through a pulley system through a hole cut out of the floor in the tower. 

Mr Caesar said the clock’s care is as “original as we possibly can”, as the gears have not needed replacing since they were installed 137 years ago. 

“Heritage would say you can you can replicate, you can add to, so long as you take it away and it is original,” he said. 

Fremantle council facility manager Andrew de Weerd says there is a “lot of interest” in the community about the clock, as it’s an “integral” part of the Fremantle soundscape. 

“Every year, Garth [Caesar] and I will make sure that on New Year’s Eve the clock is running and we’ll make sure that it chimes correctly,” Mr de Weerd said. 

“You’d be surprised – if that clock is not running, we’ll get phone calls and people off the street to tell us the bells are not working.

“We’ll get inquiries telling us it’s two minutes out. 

“There’s a big expectation that we’ll come in and fix it up.”

If you’re in or around the Fremantle Town Hall, you’ll hear the bells toll every hour on the hour, and every 15 minutes in between. 

by KATHERINE KRAAYVANGER