Fun, Fresh Fremantle Cracker Night (WA)

Fun, Fresh Fremantle Cracker Night More than 2000 shells at two firing points at Fishing Boat Harbour will provide nearly 20 minutes of spectacular fireworks for Fremantle’s family-friendly Cracker Night on Australia Day, January 26, from 8.45 pm. Pyrotechnics expert Robert Cardile (from Cardile International Fireworks) and his team have been creating the fireworks all year. More than 15 of them will take two days to organise the spectacular Fremantle display. Mayor Peter Tagliaferri said this year’s event would be, as always, a fun, family affair – with a fresh new firing site on the harbour perimeter and new major sponsor in Fremantle’s Esplanade Hotel. “The new location will give people many more options for viewing,” the Mayor said. “People can have their dinner at Fishing Boat Harbour and watch the display or have their picnic in the Esplanade Park and stay on for the show. Since its inception, the Fremantle event had grown in popularity as a more family-friendly, safer alternative to the Perth Sky Show. The event has been six months in the planning with close co-operation between the police and fire services, the Port Authority and the City of Fremantle which traditionally sponsor the event. Entertainment in the Esplanade Park and surrounds includes circus performers, buskers and a free sausage sizzle. The Mayor encouraged people to bus in and the free bus service to the suburbs, the Freo Star, will be running on the day according to its weekend timetable. The best vantage points will be Fishing Boat Harbour, Bathers Beach foreshore, the Roudhouse, Esplanade Park, North Mole, Monument Hill and South Beach. A map of the closest parking venues and all other information on the event is on the Fremantle Focus website; www.fremantle.wa.gov.au and follow the link to cracker Night. The origin of Fremantle’s Cracker Night three years ago has become part of Fremantle folklore. In 2005, Mayor Tagliaferri was chatting with his mate Henry from Cicerellos, the famous fish monger at Fishing Boat Harbour. Talk turned to an alternative Australia Day fireworks event to the Perth Sky Show without the huge crowds and bad behaviour that marred that event year after year. Despite having little time to plan it, they agreed to create a Fremantle fireworks display. Former Perth Lord Mayor, Peter Natrass, inadvertently named it when he made derogatory comments about it in the press, referring to it as little more than a cracker night. It was a reference to the now-lost tradition many Australian families had of letting off a few ‘tom thumbs’, ‘penny bangers’ and ‘sky rockets’ in the backyard on Cracker Night each November. “At Fremantle we liked the name so much we decided to keep it. It encapsulates how we want our Australia Day to be; a safe, fun, family celebration with a touch of nostalgia, “ the Mayor said. For more information contact Fremantle City Council’s media liaison officer Kerry Faulkner on 9432 9827.