A NEW friends group has been formed to lobby for the needs of Fremantle’s Round House.

Fremantle Society president John Dowson was at the inaugural meeting of the Friends of the Round House, and says WA’s oldest public building is urgent need of funding and has been neglected too long.

“Specifically, the group seeks in the short term, funding in the 2025-2026 Fremantle council budget for the beginning of works identified as needed in the 2021 Conservation Plan, but ignored since then, and funding for balanced and historian led interpretation in and around the Round House,” Mr Dowson said.

• The Friends of the Round House include Round House Guides president Frank Duffy and treasurer Keith Melrose, Fremantle Society president John Dowson, UWA senior architectural conservation lecturer Ingrid van Bremen and Curtin Uni adjunct associate professor and author Steve Errington.

Bicentenary

“In the medium term, the group seeks, well before the 2029 Bicentenary, a plan that focusses on the needs of the Round House and Arthur Head, which provides the implementation of ideas evident from earlier reports and including material in the two recent Round House books by Dr Errington, to cover interpretation of Aboriginal, whaling, port, maritime, and military history of the area.

“Additionally the group seeks that Mrs Trivett’s cottage adjacent to the Round House be given to the Round House Guides to use for further detailed interpretation, sale of refreshments, and materials promoting the Round House and Arthur Head.”

Mr Dowson later contacted the Herald to say he’d been in contact with photographer Glen Cowans, who has a gallery in the cottage to discuss the Friends’ aims, and says he was shocked to find that he’d been left languishing without a lease by the council. He says it’s indicative of the council’s neglect of one of the state’s most important heritage assets.

by STEVE GRANT