About the Event
Since the permanent arrival of Europeans in Western Australia in 1826, there has been a supremacy struggle between Albany and Fremantle over the best port facilities on this side of the continent.
Now, historians Mike Lefroy (Fremantle) and Malcolm Traill (Albany) will put that argument to the test – who has the better harbour and why?
Using historical data, photos and documents, we will discover why Albany was the main port of the colony until the turn of the twentieth century, and how and why it was overtaken by Fremantle at that time. What were the key factors initially, and what caused governments and industry to prefer one over the other?
Surely Mammang Koort / Princess Royal Harbour is one of the best-protected harbours between Africa and Port Phillip Bay in Victoria. But Fremantle Harbour is on the Indian Ocean and part of the trade route to India and the Far East. Which was the more important factor?
The two protagonists will describe the war of words between the two settlements and the ground-breaking engineering project that finally turned the advantage towards Fremantle. In between times, each has played significant roles in Australia’s military, naval and social histories.
Albany saw the visit of the US Great White Fleet (1908) and the departure of the Anzac convoys in 1914; each harbour hosted American submarine fleets in World War II; and Fremantle was the first destination for tens of thousands of migrants who came to Australia from Europe from 1945 onwards.
In 2026, we can look back at those arguments of the past and reflect on who really was the winner in this Battle of the Harbours!