'Dinosaurs Come Alive' brings record numbers to Fremantle

The City of Fremantle’s school holiday promotion ‘Dinosaurs Come Alive’ has been labelled a ROAR-some success.

From 1 January until 2 February there were 10 huge animatronic dinosaurs positioned at key locations around the city, including the Fremantle Markets, Fremantle Prison, Fishing Boat Harbour and Clancy’s Fish Pub.

The Fremantle Visitor Centre was kept busy, with their highest monthly door count month in the past three years with over 11,000 visitors. This is compared to just over 5400 in the same period in 2019.

The Dinosaur Trail maps flew out the door, with 10,000 maps picked up in within the first week of the promotion.

Fremantle Library also experienced a surge in visitors, with all of its LEGO Dino workshops booking out and a 39 per cent overall increase in patrons compared to January 2019.

Pedestrian counters in the city indicated a positive increase in foot traffic in the month of January compared to the same time last year.

Fremantle Mayor Brad Pettitt said it was great to see so many families in Fremantle enjoying the dinosaur trail.

“We are always looking for new ways to attract people to Fremantle and this one certainly proved to be very popular,” Mayor Pettitt said.

Clancy’s brand Ambassador Tom Fisher said the dinosaurs proved to be a terrific school holiday attraction.

“They were a great fit for our family-friendly brand,” Mr Fisher said.

“We noticed a spike in our early lunch trade, around our opening time, with lots of families stopping in for lunch whilst doing a dino tour.

“There were many excited kids as they popped in to see the dinosaurs, and I think many parents were grateful for the kids being entertained while they dined.

“It was a very enjoyable experience overall and a good draw card for Freo.”

Mayor Pettitt said there were plenty more reasons to visit Fremantle in the coming weeks and months.

“Sculpture at Bathers is on right now at Bathers Beach and Kidigo Art House and will run until March 2,” Mayor Pettitt said.

“For the next school holidays over the Easter weekend we’ll have the Fremantle International Street Arts Festival, which regularly attracts more than 150,000 people and is one of the biggest street art festivals in the world.

“There’s always something fun happening in Freo so people should check out the visitfremantle.com website to find out the latest.”