I had the pleasure of visiting this port while aboard the WALTER S DIEHL on my
second tour of that ship and also while I was on SPICA. I think that the last
time I saw the port was in 1996. This is one of the ports that was involved in
shipping live sheep to the Arabian Gulf in fact one of the sheep ships was there
when we arrived. We had always heard the tale when I was in the regular Navy
that girls would be waiting on the pier for the chance of meeting up with a
sailor. I guess that the tale was not true. We saw no such thing in Townsville
either. Sorry folks you will not find an Outback steak house here and they do
not know what chicken on the barbie is. One thing
that remains is that these people still love Americans and the help that
we gave them during World War II . There is a train that runs from
Freemantle to Perth proper and I took it being the tourist that I am.
Perth is a good walking city much like down town San Diego. They do not
call them Chevrolets in Australia they are called Vauxhauls and Burger
Kings are called Hungry Jacks. I liked the street preachers I
heard and even spoke with one. Kind of ironic that Australia is sending
missionaries to us when we are sending folks to them. I did enjoy
my visits there but forget about shopping after working hours it just is
not going to happen. Just like Great Britain the unions have a strangle
hold on the economy.
