Perth Voice Interactive

FROM the late 1970s to the mid 1980s, Fremantle was a vibrant and chaotic melting pot of art, music, theatre and political activism.

For many it’s the city’s golden age, before it hosted the America’s Cup and became a softer, more gentrified affair.

This tumultuous period is captured brilliantly by the exhibition Desperate Measures, which features photos, posters, t-shirts and art sourced from the local community and City of Fremantle archives from 1977-1985. 

Highlights include photos of Desperate Measures, the first agitprop street theatre group in Fremantle.

The group was formed in 1977 by Micko O’Byrne, Duncan Campbell and Ollie Black, who all lived together in a big share house at 18 Ord Street in Freo.

Mixing entertaining and fun community theatre with political comment, Desperate Measures weren’t scared to take on the controversial issues of the day including racism, Alcoa and bauxite mining, logging of forests in the Southwest, closure of the Fremantle train line by the Liberal Government and Perth’s water crisis.

They also performed at various anti-nuclear events in Perth and Fremantle and in 1980 held a show called Don’t panic – this is your half-life Uranium Show.

All this during a period when political activism was deemed antisocial, dangerous and even “evil” by then-WA Premier Sir Charles Court.

Desperate Measures was also a haven for young women who wanted to explore feminism in performance, with many going on to star in major productions across Australia.

The theatre group was formed the same year Papa Luigi’s Pizza and Coffee Bar, situated on the corner of Collie St and South Terrace, introduced al fresco dining.

Owner Nunzio Gumina was a staunch supporter of local artists who lived and worked in affordable studios in the town centre – purchasing their photographs and artworks, commissioning a mural by Sam Abercromby for the cafe, and allowing musos and performers to use his basement (a former gambling den) as rehearsal space.

One of the musical highlights of the era was Tokyo Rose Women’s Band, a diverse bunch of female performers who fused theatrics and political humour with catchy tunes.

They went on to perform at the Adelaide Fringe Festival and a documentary about them was made by local WA film director Heather Williams.

Tokyo Rose played their final concert in 1984, a fundraiser for the Cockburn Sound Women’s Peace Camp, who campaigned for two weeks at the entrance to the HMAS Stirling Naval Base, highlighting that the base made Freo a potential nuclear target.

From 1983-85 there were lots of non-violent protests about visiting US warships with many of the demonstrations co-ordinated by a group of Freo residents called Project Iceberg.

The protests culminated in Project Iceberg unveiling an anti-nuclear banner on the visiting US aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson, which was open to the public at Freo port in 1983. 

During this time, the anti-nuclear sentiment seeped into the local music and art scene – sculptor and keen sailor Tony Jones created artworks that juxtaposed small yachts with giant US warships, and the artist-run Praxis, based in Pakenham St, held the Show of Presence exhibition about visiting warships in 1983. Desperate Measures also touches on social issues of the day with artworks from 1981-1985 by Shaun Wake-Mazey conveying the fear and confusion surrounding the HIV/AIDS epidemic at the time and the impact it had on gay men. It wasn’t until 1989 that homosexuality was decriminalised in WA.

Exhibition curator Jo Darbyshire says many of the artists and activists featured in the exhibition went on to enjoy success on the national stage.

“What really surprised me was the way they all went on to have happy, creative and amazing lives,” she says. “That early period of freedom, spontaneity and camaraderie in Freo enabled them to have the confidence to move out, all over Australia, and influence so many areas of cultural life; circus, performance, art and politics. 

“So many of the women from Desperate Measures formed circuses in other states, which are still going, and the anti-nuclear activists were able to have elected the first anti-nuclear senator in the world in Jo Vallentine, and that sparked the Green Party in Australia.

“Forty years on and some of these people are still movers and shakers; still living big lives.”

There’s still time to catch Desperate Measures: Art, Politics and Performance in Freo 1977-1985 at the Fremantle Arts Centre before it closes on January 27.

by STEPHEN POLLOCK