SOMEWHERE along the way we’ve convinced ourselves that if you want to see innovation, you need to look east. Sydney. Melbourne. Maybe Silicon Valley if you’re feeling particularly ambitious.

Meanwhile, Fremantle quietly gets on with inventing the future and barely tells anyone about it. 

It’s the equivalent of having Taylor Swift busking on the Cappuccino Strip while everyone walks past asking when the real entertainment starts.

As CEO of the Fremantle Chamber of Commerce, I spend a lot of time meeting the people building tomorrow’s businesses. 

And honestly, they’re extraordinary.

One founder is growing seaweed that could help reduce methane emissions from cattle. 

Another is building AI systems for autonomous vessels. 

Others are reimagining manufacturing, breathing life into forgotten buildings or creating businesses that blend creativity with commercial smarts. 

They’re not “having a crack”. 

They’re changing industries.

Yet ask the average person in Fremantle what’s happening in our innovation scene and you’ll probably get a puzzled look followed by, “Didn’t someone open another café?” 

Don’t get me wrong. 

I love a good coffee as much as the next Fremantle local. 

But our city is becoming known for something far bigger than exceptional flat whites.

We’re becoming a city of ideas. 

And unlike coffee, ideas don’t just wake people up. 

They change the world.

Innovation has picked up a bit of an image problem over the years. 

We’ve wrapped it in buzzwords, hidden it behind PowerPoint presentations and made it sound like something only people wearing sneakers with venture capital backing are allowed to talk about. 

Old problems
New answers

Nonsense. Innovation is simply someone looking at an old problem and refusing to accept the old answer. 

It’s an artist creating a new business model. 

It’s a marine scientist commercialising research. 

It’s a founder brave enough to hear “that’ll never work” and replying, “Watch me.” 

That’s the sort of thinking Fremantle has always celebrated.

Our Port City wasn’t built by people waiting for permission. 

It was built by traders, makers, risk takers, creatives and just enough loveable troublemakers to ignore conventional wisdom.

It’s in our DNA, so why aren’t we telling this story louder? 

That’s exactly why the Fremantle Chamber of Commerce has launched FIE, the Fremantle Innovation Exchange. 

Not another conference where everyone collects name tags they’ll never wear again. 

A storytelling series. 

Because stories have always been the fastest way to spread ideas.

When you hear directly from someone who has built a business from nothing, failed a few times, got back up and finally cracked it, something changes. 

Suddenly innovation doesn’t feel intimidating. 

It feels possible. 

One conversation can spark a collaboration. 

One introduction can create a business. 

One story can inspire the next founder sitting quietly in the audience wondering whether their idea is worth pursuing. 

Spoiler alert. It probably is.

We often talk about attracting investment into Fremantle. 

Here’s a radical thought. 

Perhaps the best investment we can make is believing in the remarkable people who already call this place home.

Because the next generation of businesses isn’t waiting for someone else to build our economy. 

They’re already doing it. 

We just need to notice.

So next time someone tells you innovation only happens in Sydney, smile politely. 

Then invite them to Fremantle. 

We’ll introduce them to the future. 

It’s been here all along.

by CHRISSIE MAUS
CEO
Fremantle Chamber of Commerce