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Wednesday, 6 April 2011

"It is dusk, after a hot summer afternoon in 1973. Les Lauder, the feisty Fremantle community activist, is returning to his home in Ellen Street ... He is in for a shock."

It reads like an exciting mystery novel, but it is the story of the Fremantle Society, and how a group of passionate citizens saved the life of the historic port town.

Fighting for Fremantle is the first joint project of Fremantle husband and wife team Ron and Dianne Davidson, both UWA graduates and former staff members of the University.

Ron is a psychologist who worked in the UWA Department of Psychology for nearly 30 years, after switching from a short career in journalism. Dianne is a historian who also taught at UWA in the late 1970s. Both of them have had previous publications short-listed for the WA Premier's Book Awards.

Fighting for Fremantle , published by Fremantle Press, is packed full of stories about graduates and staff from UWA who helped save the character-filled port city from the bulldozers which changed the personality of Perth forever.

Current staff member, former Premier and Federal Member for Fremantle, Professor Carmen Lawrence, was an Honours student in Psychology when Ron Davidson first met her.

She features in the book, as does current Premier and member of the Fremantle Society, Colin Barnett, who studied Economics at UWA . Former Geography lecturer and Federal Member for Perth, Ian Alexander, is president of the Society.

The foreword is written by Professor Geoffrey Bolton, who taught Ron English at UWA . Photographer Michal Lewi, whose images feature in the book, is also a UWA graduate. The crowd at the first meeting of the Society included UWA lecturer in architecture, John White, and lecturer in English, Neville Teede. And Les Lauder, the driving force behind the Society and a Fremantle City councillor, is a UWA psychology graduate.

So what was the shock waiting for him back in 1973?

"A red rooster lies headless, in a pool of blood, on the front step. Its message is clear: aggravation is to be stepped up against those opposing the erection of a 16-storey glass tower near the Fremantle Town Hall. The recently-launched action group, the Fremantle Society, is to be targeted."

Fighting for Fremantle is full of lively anecdotes such as this. The authors saw it all happen first hand and their book is modern history in the making.

It is available from the Fremantle Society for $39.95.

Published in UWA News , 4 April 2011

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