Fremantle Welcome Walls – Final Stage Unveiled
More than 8,000 people attended the official unveiling of the final migrant Welcome Walls outside the Western Australian Museum – Maritime on Saturday 11 December. Culture and Arts Minister John Day launched the third and final stage which added more than 4,500 new names to the existing Walls.
Mr Day said he was delighted that so many people were coming to be part of an immensely popular project.
“Australia is one of the most multi-cultural nations in the world and the Welcome Walls projects both here in Fremantle and in Albany were a way of recording and paying tribute to migrants who arrived by sea through those ports,” he said.
“More than a third of Western Australia’s population was born overseas and the Welcome Walls recognises not only the arrival of many migrants but their contribution, commitment and endurance as they made the State and the nation their home.”
Mr Alec Coles, Chief Executive Officer of the Western Australian Museum
Ms Irene Stainton (Welcome to Country)
Mr Steve Armstrong (sang National Anthem & We are Australian)
Ms Licia Stazzonelli (Registrant speaker)
The Minister for Culture and the Arts, Hon John Day MLA
Some migrants were lured by gold and the promise of a new life, others were sent as convicts and many more were displaced by the ravages of two world wars. Still more arrived as child migrants to make the best of a strange land.
Mr Day said that the Welcome Walls had been planned as a one-off project displaying about 2,000 inscriptions, but the public response had been so overwhelming that the Fremantle walls now held more than 21,000 inscriptions, paying tribute to some 45,000 immigrants to Western Australia.
All three stages of the Fremantle project were designed by Perth architects Cox Howlett and Bailey Woodland and the final stage was built by Freo Constructions.
The new Welcome Walls integrate key elements of the first two stages, completing the project as a seamless feature of both the Western Australian Museum – Maritime and the Victoria Quay waterfront, in keeping with the Fremantle Ports master plan for the area.
“The Welcome Walls projects have resulted in striking outdoor galleries both here and in Albany, that pay tribute to migrants from many lands and cultures who have helped make this nation what it is today,” Mr Day said.
The Minister for Culture and the Arts, Hon John Day MLA
Ms Irene Stainton
Ms Licia Stazzonelli
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