Fremantle
· OSM · Fremantle · walking ·
So I went for a walk, and found nineteen pink crayfish trail markers.
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First up, I stopped at Bill Campbell's bookshop, and bought a copy of A Place of Consequence. He was telling me about when they replaced the floor in that building, twenty years ago, and the fact that there's no cellar there.
My search for the walking trail started at the shipwrecks galleries, where I found a Maritime Heritage Marker:
But then, not far away was the first pink crayfish (or orange lobster, I guess, if we're to follow the tourism guidelines).
After that I had to walk down towards Bathers Beach, but there were no markers to be found at all, and no indication of where to walk. I had to carry on, and around in front of the Fisherman's Coop and over the road before I found a second marker. Then it started to seem that this trail might actually exist (and that I was even following it in the right direction, if the direction of the pink antennae was anything to go by).
The third plaque was in much better condition, because it's mounted vertically on some wooden steps. It pointed to the right along the boardwalk, but the map said that there was meant to be a loop up around Bon Scott's statue. There was no sign of that though. This was the first plaque with a visible QR code, but it resolved to http://11631286 which didn't seem quite right.
Another one, this time in good condition and with a functioning QR code. It goes to https://www.transport.wa.gov.au/mediaFiles/marine/MAC_M_Fremantle_Boat_Harbour_Walking_Map.pdf (here's a local copy in case that disappears).
After the boardwalk, Little Creatures had a bunch of closely-spaced ones, and then on the other side of the road was the actual main sign board that explained the whole thing.
After that sign things were easy, although oddly one of the markers further along is marked "start/finish" and points across the road. There doesn't seem to be any on the other side of the road, so I guess it was just put in the wrong place. The last marker I could find was back where I started at the maritime museum (I walked past it to start with.
So all up, I think it's definitely a trail, although some fixes are needed in the OSM relation. The map says 12 minutes, but I took 45 (being a dawldling nerd with a camera).
