ONE of Freo’s oldest social clubs is being revitalised into a “place of solidarity” for community, music, and even unionists nestled in the West End. 

The Buffalo Club was founded in 1938 by the Royal Antediluvian Order of Buffaloes, a fraternal organisation from the UK, as a workers’ and social club in the heart of Fremantle. 

It was run by the Buffs until 1964, when it was “incorporated” into a not-for-profit and transformed into a space for “dock workers, diggers, darts leagues and punks” to gather for a drink or a game of billiards. 

• The new – and old – crew behind a push to revitalise the Fremantle Buffalo Club.

Billiards

There’s been a few lean years since then, as the popularity of Freo’s once-pumping social clubs started to wain, but club is now being revitalised by a group of volunteer members who hope to see the “slightly stagnant” venue become the hub of community and culture it once was. 

The Club building has a social hall upstairs, which volunteers plan to open for hire, as well as social initiatives such as a soup kitchen and yoga classes. 

The club’s activation also means there’s a “real diversity” in events held at the venue, including a wider range of live music gigs and genres, according to secretary Raymond Grenfell. 

“We’ve really stepped up in terms of the diversity of the genres and types of things that are happening here… everything from folk to punk,” he said.  

“We’ve got a couple of cabaret shows coming up, and a monthly poetry night, comedy nights every Monday, and even experimental ambient sound nights.

“The reality was that a lot of people haven’t really been members of clubs like this for a long time,” he said. 

“The new community are a bit younger, and we’ve come in and with a lot of ideas and energy, but we don’t want to that to be at the expense of the heritage and the history, or our older members either.

“We’ve leaned into that to some extent, while also creating space perhaps a more diverse community and younger people as well.” 

Fremantle historian Daniel Elias says the club has a “historically and culturally rich” place in Freo’s tapestry as a meeting place. 

“It’s been a safe haven for many groups over a long period of time,” Mr Elias said. 

“Upstairs used to be where the Seamans Union of Australia Fremantle branch used to meet, and if you look inside the bar, you can see all the Maritime Union of Australia stickers that are still around.

“It’s been a real haven for unionists, and it still is. 

“There are some interesting stories that I’ve heard from old timers, that Indigenous folks used to find it as one of the only safe spaces for them to be in Fremantle during White Australia, which is consistent with the egalitarian ethic of the Buffaloes,” Mr Elias said.

by KATHERINE KRAAYVANGER