Town Hall bells ringing again

Passers by the Fremantle Town Hall may have noticed recently, the beautiful sounds of the bells chiming again, after six months of silence.

They were switched off in January after several gears in the clock, which drive the bell melodies, had worn down and needed to be replaced.

The City turned to Fremantle horologist Garth Caesar for help with the restoration project. The Town Hall bells have been a passion project for him over many years.

“Over the hundred years plus of wear and tear, some of the gears have slowly worn down. We've worked a program of trying to get them replaced and we found a place in Adelaide that was able to do it in a timely fashion so that I can get the gears back and fit them true them up, and get the bells ringing again,” Mr Caesar said.

After a global search, the team found a craftsman with a special numerical cutting machine in South Australia, the only one in Australia, who could supply the replacement parts.

The bells were cast in Birmingham, England in 1887.

This is the first time the clock mechanism has needed replacing in its 137-year history.

During the major restoration of the Fremantle Town Hall in 2016-2017, the bells fell silent for more than a year, while the clock was cleaned and serviced.

The bells can be heard every 15-minutes, with a longer sequence of chimes marking the hour on the hour.

“If you're down in Fremantle, come and listen to the clock, have a look at it and admire its grandeur because it is a landmark and we’d like to keep it that way,” Mr Caesar said.