A new Fremantle hotel reimagines the port city’s former police HQ – and heralds a burgeoning new precinct

The city that made a tourist icon of its historic prison has continued its spirit of reinvention in Garde Hotel – a box-fresh stay in the heart of Fremantle marking its first 5-star hotel in more than a century. This 83-key block of limestone and glass joins the original Warders Hotel – comprised of 23 rooms within the convict-built terrace cottages that once housed prison warders back in 1851 – to become the latest landmark in Freo’s ‘Convict Quarter’.

Location

Just 30 minutes from Perth’s CBD by car or train, Fremantle – or Freo, as it’s known to the locals – is generally considered the state capital’s bohemian little sister, with its underbelly of craft brewers, live musicians and students in search of a good time. Its laidback allure hasn’t gone unnoticed, either: the city was recently crowned Australia’s Top Tourism Town for 2025.

There’s the Fishing Boat Harbour – domain of breweries and boardwalks; a West End that showcases World Heritage Listed architecture and the WA Shipwreck Museum, and even the ‘Cappuccino Strip’, famed for its many cafes and Freo’s historic markets. Garde Hotel takes pride of place in the city’s newly minted Convict Quarter, and shares the historic ‘hood with the neighbouring Warders Cottages, Fremantle Prison, the Old Courthouse Bar, as well as Garde Hotel’s food and beverage triumvirate: Angelsea, Emily Taylor and Gimlet. As far as Freo goes, you can’t get much more central than this – plus, you’re directly opposite the markets, meaning you can get there before the crowds.

Finally, Fremantle is also the quickest springboard to Rottnest Island (ferries depart from the B Shed Ferry Terminal and take just 25-30 minutes to reach the Quokkas), while also being an ideal jump-off for a road trip into wine country, Margaret River, to the south.

Style and character

Garde Hotel’s hallways, painted in a stark Austin Powers-orange, are the first clue that this hotel is not scared of a bold design move. Angelsea, its flagship restaurant, is a particular design triumph, with funky terrazzo table tops and an undulating ceiling canopy, all rusty reds and teal blues. The guest rooms are comparatively devoid of colour, and perhaps all the more sleek for it – the bathrooms, especially, where large white tubs sit against slate-grey tiles and matte gold finishings. You can’t go wrong with the rooms’ dark wood and marbled white combo, although some artwork – reflective of the bold Indigenous prints around reception, or the Tessa MacKay paintings that adorn the original Warders Cottages – wouldn’t go amiss.

Facilities

Despite its position as a city centre boutique, you could easily find yourself spending a lot of time at Garde Hotel. There’s no rush at breakfast – a complimentary buffet served in Anglesea, with plenty of cosy corners in which to work or relax. You can go and enjoy the on-site wellness space, whiling away 45-minutes in the infrared sauna ($50 per session) before – bravely – moving onto the ice-cold shower. There are also treatment rooms for all manner of massages, facials and body scrubs. By reception, two leisurely lounges are stocked with various magazines angled toward Western Australia travel, while a small list of complimentary drinks are offered to hotel guests in Anglesea between 4-7pm every day – a good chance to look through the sprawling wine list. Last but not least, there’s on-site parking (for a daily fee), including charging stations for electric vehicles.

Rooms

The hotel’s masterstroke is its alcove beds, floating cocoons of rich wood and sheer curtains destined to light up the Instagram profiles of Freo first-timers. You’ll find these beds, replete with white, luxe linens and an in-built smart TV, in the Gus rooms (Holding, Standard and Premium), so named after the original architect, Gus Ferguson. The floor-to-ceiling bedside windows face varying directions, showing off the not-always-so-glamourous views of neighbouring car parks and roundabouts, but there’s something magical to hitting a switch and watching the blinds part to reveal a fresh, Freo sky.

At Garde Hotel, two types of suites are so named in honour of Western Australia’s first female police officers, Helen Dugdale and Laura Chipper. Equal in size at 45sqm, the Helen offers a private balcony and accessibility options, while the Laura features a separate lounge, with some configurations also including a substantial kitchenette (those without the latter have a private balcony, instead).

In contrast to the new Garde Hotel rooms and suites, which are a warmer and woodier affair, the older accommodations, known previously as Warders Hotel, are cooler – splashed with duck egg blues and eucalyptus greens. In these rows of historic two-storey terraces (their look based on the English workers’ cottages at the time), room types are split into the pocket-sized Terrace Room, the Terrace Cottage – with street-facing courtyards on the ground floor – and the Family Courtyard Cottage, the only accommodation allowing for four guests.

Whichever room you choose, they all come with access to still and sparkling water taps (Warders Hotel was the first in Australia to do so), wi-fi, and safes. Even the smallest kitchenettes are stocked with glasses and mugs, plus an espresso machine with pods and a separate milk frother, a kettle and Freo-made Chai Baba teabags. A hair dryer is tucked neatly in your hidden storage drawer, below a simple clothing rack, while toiletries hail from Aussie organic skincare brand, Rohr and Remer. The only slight disappointment is the mini bar – a mishmash of big brand chocolate, sodas, wine, beer and crisps that bears no trace of Fremantle or Western Australia’s vibrant producer community. It is, however, totally free to enjoy.

Food and drink

Named after the Marquis of Anglesea, the second ship to arrive at Western Australia’s Swan River in 1829, Anglesea is where breakfast, all-day bar snacks and a pre-fixed $65 menu is served from 11:30am. Thanks to Venue Manager Kieren Garwood’s love of Korean and Japanese flavours, the pre-fixe starts with a Teishoku platter (including some spectacularly braised shimeji mushrooms), a choice of main that ranges from Hokkaido scallop carpaccio to Kangaroo tataki, and finished with one of two ice creams depending on whether you prefer miso caramel or black sesame maple. Having said this, the bar snack menu might be the better bet: those feasting on the plump pork and kimchi gyozas are the envy of the room.

The complimentary breakfast buffet is a lively affair, with the option to skip the coffee machine and pay extra for a barista-made concoction or add a cooked breakfast dish. The cold buffet options, though, feel fresh and customisable: make a yoghurt bowl using the bounty of juicy fruits, granolas and honeys, and choose from a choice of bread for toast. There are cakes, pastries and chia seed puddings, too, as well as copious options for the gluten-intolerant.

Anglesea joins lauded dumpling joint Emily Taylor (similarly named after a crucial ship in the colony’s history), and Gimlet, Freo’s coolest gin bar, which were opened alongside the original Warders Hotel, with Gimlet taking over one of the old cottages.

Does Garde Hotel have access for guests with disabilities?

It does – the whole property is wheelchair accessible and there are adapted suites for travellers with accessibility needs, including a king-sized bed with step-free access and modified bathrooms.

Is Garde Hotel family-friendly?

Besides one family room (Family Courtyard Cottage) with its king-sized bed and separate bunk beds, Garde Hotel as a whole is not especially family-oriented. Your fellow guests are more likely to be couples on holiday, 30-plus professionals on business trips and solo travellers inclined toward more designer digs. Tim Buckton, the co-director of W1 Hospitality who owns the Garde complex, told PerthNow: “I wouldn’t say we’re not a family-friendly hotel, but it’s not our priority."