FSN - Freo Life

In Episode 1 of the Catalpa Escape Podcast Series, our narrator, Margo O’Byrne, set the scene for the famous 1876 Catalpa Escape of the ‘Military’ Fenians from just south of Fremantle, Western Australia. Episode 2 deals with the raising the money through the auspices of Clan na Gale – the Irish Association in America – and how John Devoy became the key plotter of the escape. In this, Episode 3, we find ourselves in New Bedford in key meetings of key men. Devoy, Goff, Reynolds, Hathaway, Ric...

The Catalpa Escape was the escape, on 17 April 1876, of six Irish ‘military’ Fenians from the ‘Convict Establishment’, now Fremantle Prison, in the then British colony of Western Australia. A number of Fenians were initially transported on the convict ship Hougoumont to Fremantle, arriving on 9 January 1868. In 1869 and 1871, pardons had been issued to many of the imprisoned Fenians. But not to the ‘military’ Fenians who remained in Western Australia’s penal system. In 1874, one of thes...

The Catalpa Escape was the escape, on 17 April 1876, of six Irish ‘military’ Fenians from the ‘Convict Establishment’, now Fremantle Prison, in the then British colony of Western Australia. A number of Fenians were initially transported on the convict ship Hougoumont to Fremantle, arriving on 9 January 1868. In 1869 and 1871, pardons had been issued to many of the imprisoned Fenians. But not to the ‘military’ Fenians who remained in Western Australia’s penal system. In 1874, one of thes...

Chuckie Raven is the 2025 Fogarty Literary Award winner. The Award was announced Tuesday night at the Western Australian Government House Ballroom. Chuckie Raven receives a $20,000 cash prize from the Fogarty Foundation, a publishing contract with Fremantle Press and a $1500 writing fellowship from Centre for Stories for their winning manuscript Glimmers in the Sea Glass. Raven describes the novel as being about family and how we define and redefine it. They said, ‘It's about the streng...

With the Australian Federal elections pretty much over – bar some shouting – and the Ministers in the new Albanese Government appointed, and so much happening elsewhere around the globe just now, the Prof and I decided to turn out attention to another election – that of Il Papa – the Pope. We chat Francis and Leo, the influence of the Papacy, and how the Vatican works as a State in international law terms. Martin Drum is the Executive Dean for the Faculty of Arts, Sciences, Law and Bus...

Welcome to our politics podcast, View From The Round House With Martin Drum. Well the Australian National elections are over. The Albanese Labor Government has been re-elected with an increased majority. The minor parties and a number of independents seem not to have done so well, and Labor’s Josh Wilson in Fremantle had to fight hard to retain his seat. The Prof discusses all this and more in The Wrap today. Martin Drum is the Executive Dean for the Faculty of Arts, Sciences, Law and Busine...

Emeritus Professor Charles Watson has done it all, well, if not exactly all, then nearly all in the fields of neuroscience, public health and health sciences. Charles is Emeritus Distinguished Professor of Health Sciences, Curtin University, January 2017 to the present; Professorial Research fellow, Neuroscience Research Australia, 2007 to the present; Adjunct Professor of Neuroscience, University of Queensland, 2013 to the present; and Senior Honorary Research Fellow, University of Western A...

In early 1993, after spending just over 2 years inside Biosphere 2 in Arizona, USA, Mark Nelson emerged from the artificial sphere into the natural atmosphere of Biosphere 1 – Planet Earth – with his 7 fellow Biospherians. Mark Nelson was in Fremantle recently and kindly agreed to meet with our Editor, Michael Barker to make this podcast where we talk about Biosphere 2 and answer the lingering questions: Just what was this all about? A crazy hippy commune inspired by space travel? A ‘lab...

Ilaria Mazzoleni is the General Editor of Transect of Coexistence: Inquiry into Nature, Art, and Habitat, a recently published book that collects the outcomes of a decade-long collaboration between scholars and creatives, who, through an artist and researcher-in-residence program, have explored current environmental challenges aiming for inclusive objectives at both the global and local levels. Indeed the book has an international group of collaborators, including the Freo connected choreogra...

Fraser Maywood is the Chair of Sustainable Energy Now, a non profit formed in 2006, that advocates for how Western Australia can make a swift and orderly transition to clean renewable electricity safely, reliably, and affordably with commercially proven technologies. Fraser has over 40 years of international experience in the Oil & Gas, mining and power sectors. Roles have included engineering, project management, business management and management consulting. He is a passionate and voc...

Josh Wilson is the Member for Fremantle in the Federal Parliament. Since July this year, he has also been the Assistant Minister (to lead Minister, Chris Bowen) for Climate Change and Energy. In August this year, at the Australian Labor Party’s National Conference in Brisbane, Josh Wilson voiced his opposition to Australia’s signing up to the AUKUS deal with the US and the UK, involving the acquisition by Australia of nuclear powered submarines that will be rotated through HMAS Stirling at G...

Yirga Gelaw Woldeyes has won the 2024 City of Fremantle Hungerford Award for የተስፋ ፈተና / Trials of Hope. Written in English with accompanying Amharic poetry and prose, Yirga has written about his journey from boy shepherd in Ethiopia to human rights academic at Curtin University, Western Australia Yirga’s background is as a writer, researcher and poet from Lalibela, Ethiopia, who now lives with his wife, writer Rebecca Higgie, in Bentley, WA, and teaches, researches and writes at ...

Sophie McNeill is probably best known as a television reporter for the ABC’s investigative program Four Corners and as a Middle East Correspondent for ABC News delivering prime time reports from Afghanistan, Israel, Iraq, Pakistan, Syria, Yemen, Egypt, Turkey and Gaza. Sophie has twice been awarded Australian Young TV Journalist of the Year and in 2010 won a Walkley Award for her investigation into the killing of five children in Afghanistan by Australian Special Forces soldiers. She was als...

When a young Holden Sheppard realised blokes weren’t meant to talk about feelings, he began to write stories instead. Twenty years later, the boy from Geraldton, Western Australia is a multi-award winning author – with a treasured black ute! Holden’s debut novel Invisible Boys achieved both commercial and critical success, winning many accolades including the WA Premier’s Prize for an Emerging Writer. Invisible Boys is being adapted as a TV series with Stan Australia, currently in post-produc...

Linda Wayman has a background in journalism, marketing, public affairs, communications, business development, and commercial and business leadership, with an eclectic mix of government and commercial knowledge. For nearly 15 years Linda was Southern Cross Austereo’s WA General Manager of two Perth radio stations, Mix94.5 and Hit92.9. Currently, Linda is the principal of Wayman Advisory, chair of Carers WA, director of Carers Australia, and board member of Tourism Australia. She’s a busy, soug...