ROSSLYN de SOUZA is a Fremantle community arts and place maker who livens our empty shops by running Street Gallery Fremantle in their empty windows. She was Fremantle Citizen of the Year 2025
RECENTLY I came across an artwork in the form of embroidery on linen. A simple statement. Just five words:
“You are always on country”.
They are quiet, powerful, and impossible to ignore. With acknowledgment to the unknown artist, I’d like to add:
Respect country. Respect community. Respect yourself.
• If you recognise these vandals please contact the Police and quote ref number
• Incident 1: 26 April 2026 at 1am (Anzac Weekend). We need help to identify the man with the beard, facing the camera. Crime Stoppers Reference Number 633257
Fremantle has always carried the rough-edged reputation many port cities know well.
But lately, we’ve been enduring a particularly ugly strain of behaviour — and enough is enough.
We are seeing unscrupulous operators opening questionable convenience stores, landlords knowingly leasing to them and too many people coming into our city looking for a “good time” while leaving theft, vandalism, and disrespect in their wake.
One place bearing the brunt of this behaviour is PIAZZA Fremantle.
Fremantle is benefiting from the vision and investment of people committed to transforming the city into something vibrant, youthful, creative, and casually elegant — an arts and cultural hub full of life and possibility.
Protected
It is refreshing. It is exciting. And it deserves to be protected.
So why are groups of mindless young men — often in their 20s and 30s — choosing to trash it?
Newly planted trees ripped out. Fresh garden beds stomped into mud. Planters thrown into the fountain. Public spaces treated as disposable playgrounds.
This isn’t larrikinism. It’s not “boys being boys.”
• Incident 2: 16 May 2026 at 4am. We need help identifying the man in all black standing behind the woman in white trousers. Police Reference Number #SDP26051887091
It’s weak, destructive behaviour carried out by people with no respect for place, community, or themselves.
This behaviour will not be normalised in Fremantle.
Those responsible should expect consequences — from bans to police action and public accountability. Actions have outcomes.
Let’s be very clear:
It is not okay to come into Fremantle to behave badly.
It is not okay to steal.
It is not okay to vandalise public spaces.
It is not okay to shoot up in public.
It is not okay to urinate in doorways and leave others to clean up the mess.
Fremantle is better than this.
Destructive
And a message to bystanders: raise your standards.
If someone behaves like this, call it out.
Encouraging or ignoring destructive behaviour helps it continue.
Real strength is demonstrated by demanding better from the people around you.
Good manners are not old-fashioned — they are the glue that holds communities together.
Fremantle is filled with generous, caring people who constantly show up for one another.
Artists, business owners, volunteers, families, hospitality workers, locals — people who love this city and work hard to make it better every day.
To those who take that for granted: Fremantle does not need your disrespect.
You are always on country.
Respect country.
Respect community.
Respect yourself.