Fremantlebiz - Paul's Letter from Australia

Bon Scott sighted beneath one of Fremantle's Bridges

Fremantle has three bridges linking to North Fremantle and the fashionable suburbs beyond. One is for the Fremantle to Perth railway and the other two are for road traffic.

The newest of these is the Stirling Bridge, named after James Stirling, the early nineteenth century Royal Navy explorer of the Swan driver and the driving force for the establishment of a colony in 1829 - with him in charge as its toffy nosed governor.

The Stirling Bridge was completed in 1974. It carries the bulk of traffic from North wharf and the suburbs further north via Stirling Highway, which links to Perth. At both ends of the bridge are traffic lights which always seem to be red when I approach them from any direction.

The original plan for the bridge was to link to a hypothetical expressway which bypassed Fremantle. This would have been a very efficient route, but the current Labor state government cancelled the plan a few years ago and thus guaranteed that heavy traffic from the wharf will be obliged forever to inefficiently crawl through the suburbs enroute to distant industrial destinations.

The concrete structure is designed to be flexible. This can be disconcerting if stopped in a car above the spans during a traffic jam, which is a pretty regular happening. The movement is very apparent. It can make some people queasy. It would be very interesting to be on it in an earthquake.

I think there have been numerous suicides from the walkway on the western side. They are rarely reported in the press for fear of encouraging more. It's a fair drop to the water, and has also attracted foolhardy youths in the past. Unfortunately some of the daredevil stunts have not ended well, and when that happens there is usually some publicity.

A former North Fremantle youth was unofficially memorialised on a wall beneath the southern end of the bridge a few weeks ago. I'm referring to a large graffiti image of the long deceased AC-DC rock n' roll singer Bon Scott. He didn't die in the vicinity. An excess of hard liquor finished him off after a performance in London on 19 February 1980 - he was 33.

Bon Scott has figured prominently in the memorialisation business in this neck of the woods. I first wrote about his life on 9 July 2006, and then about his statue being unveiled on 23 February 2008. Unfortunately there has been some sort of civic quibbling about where the statue is to be finally erected. Hopefully it will be sorted out soon

So in the meantime a local fan has taken matters in hand and painted a large portrait of the singer beneath the bridge. I suspect Mr Scott, having been a something of rebel himself, would have appreciated such a rebellious effort. His family home was in North Fremantle, and that's the direction he he appears to be looking.

The portrait promises to be there a long time. It's sheltered from the weather and the texture of the wall is very rough. Presumably is was deliberately cast that way in the 70s as an architectural attempt at beautification.

The new portrait should be left, even though the state government has declared war on urban graffiti. This is different, its art. More pragmatically it's one more reason to attract the legions of cashed up Bon Scott fans who make a pilgrimage here from all over the world. Judge for yourself by clicking here to see my photograph.

© MMVIII Paul R. Weaver.

Click here to visit 'dogandcatwatcher', my YouTube website.

Original still photographs are stored online in a cache at my Panoramio website or my Picasa site. Most of them have a brief description and a link back to a relevant essay. Images on Panoramio can usually be enlarged several times by clicking them.

About the writer

Click here to see our backyard.

Check out each month's subject index on the Calendar Page for my "common-man" monologues about survival in 21st century Australia – plus a little history occasionally. An original essay is added most days as part of an undertaking to write at least couple of million words. Zzzzzzzz!

Advertisement