William Charles Angwin (1863-1944)

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William Charles Angwin, born Cornwell England in 1863. He left Cornwall in 1882 to work as a builder in Cumberland where he joined social reform movements and worked for the temperance cause. In 1884 he married Sarah Ann Sumpton. They had children Benjamin, Elizabeth, Mary and Justus. The Angwins migrated to Victoria in 1886 and in 1892 moved to Western Australia where he worked for Sandover & Co. in Fremantle until 1904.

He worked on the management board of the Fremantle Public Hospital and Fremantle Municipal Tramway and Electric Lighting Board from 1910-1926. Angwin was a founding member of the East Fremantle Municipal Council and a member of the Western Australian Legislative Assembly for the Labor Party from 1904 until 1927, representing the seats of East Fremantle and North-East Fremantle. resigned in April 1927 to become agent-general in London for six years. In 1935 and 1938 he chaired two royal commissions on wheat and in 1936 presided over the Rural Relief Trust. He died at his Fremantle home on 9 June 1944.


John Tonkin (1902 - 1995)

John Trezise Tonkin (2 February 1902 – 20 October 1995) was an important figure in West Australian history- an Australian Labor party politician, popularly known as 'Honest John'. He served as a Member of the Western Australian Legislative Assembly for a record 44 years from 1933 to 1977, and was the 20th Premier of Western Australia from 1971 to 1974. The Tonkin Highway was named after him.

John Tonkin lived for 50 years at a modest single story house at 174 Preston Point Road and was always a zealous advocate for the interests of East Fremantle, supporting its fight against forced amalgamation in 1955 and between 1947 and 1953 he was President of the East Fremantle Football Club. He was a keen gardener and his rose garden was considered a showplace.

He married first wife Rosalie Cleghorn in 1926 and after she died of cancer in 1969, Tonkin campaigned for many years for radio-wave therapy treatments for cancer sufferers.

Just before he became Premier he married his second wife Joan West (1920- 2014) in the early 1970s. Joan had an impressive career working with: the Australian Red Cross, Girl Guides WA, Scouts Australia and the WA Royal Flying Doctor Service. Her lifelong involvement with the Royal Commonwealth Society began when she became the Honorary Secretary of what was then the Royal Empire Society, which was established in Perth in 1954 to promote the Commonwealth, its culture and values, with a particular focus on youth and education. She became president of the Society in 1982 and held the position for 31 years until she retired in March 2012 at 91 years of age. 

In the Queen's Birthday Honours of 1977, John Tonkin was appointed a Companion of the Order of Australia. He is also honoured as a Freeman of the Town of East Fremantle and in 2018 the Town and the Parks and Wildlife Service of the Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions (DBCA) developed new interpretive information at John Tonkin Park, along with landscaping and revegetation work.

Marko Sambrailo

(1925 -2011)

Born in 1925 Marko Sambrailo arrived with nothing but two pounds in his pocket from Korčula, Croatia. His father Drago had been a shipyard master workman in Korcula where the shipbuilding industry made a significant contribution during World War ll, repairing the boats of the partisan and allied navy. After the liberation of the area in 1944 the Korcula shipyard was reconstructed, but the country was threatened with Soviet aggression. Marko left, headed for Italy…but ended up on a ship headed for Fremantle by accident.

Arriving in Fremantle in 1950 he was interned at Northam for short time before finding work at the Crabbe shipyards next to where the Left Bank is today, in East Fremantle.

In 1952 he married Carolina (Lena) Rainoldi ( d. 2017) and soon after moved to a house in King Street. They were married for almost 60 years and son Mark was born in 1967. In 1972 they moved to Chauncey St.

Marko worked salvaging and repairing boats from all over Western Australia and built boats for fishermen in his backyard, with the help of Lena. Marko, always seen in his distinctive navy blue clothes, had a passion for timber and loved building Jarrah boats. He became a boat building legend, known for the hundreds of boats he built (*1).

By the 1980s Marko and his brothers, Mladin and Drago, were building boats in Fremantle together. The Mara was built in 1980 (Length 25’ - 7.63 m Marine ply hull and decks) by Marko’s younger brother- Drago Sambrailo (1920-2011) to a Marko Sambrailo design(*2)

Drago and Marko Sambralio were the last wooden boat builders in Fremantle and their slipways used to be where the Kailis and Cicerello’s fish and chips shops are now.

*1. from Melville City Herald, vol 22, no 35, August 27, 2011, pp 1 and 5.

*2. from the Newsletter of the OGA Western Australia The Association for Gaff-Rig and Traditional Sailing September 2016


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Matthew Lewis Moss (1863-1946)

Moss Street was named after the first Mayor of East Fremantle 1897 - 1900, Matthew Lewis Moss.

Moss was born in Dunedin New Zealand in 1863, was educated there as a Barrister and arrived in Western Australia in 1891. Moss married Katherine Lyons in 1895. From 1892–1914, he practiced law at Fremantle, and later in Perth with Moss and Dwyer. Moss served as Liberal Party MLA North Fremantle 22 May 1895 (by-election)–4 May 1897, MLC West Province 22 May 1900–6 December 1901, 22 May 1902–21 May 1914, Contested North Fremantle 15 June 1894, East Fremantle 5 May 1897, West Province 6 December 1901 (ministry by-election), Colonial Secretary 21 November–23 December 1901, Minister without portfolio 13 August 1902–10 March 1904; 25 August 1905–7 May 1906.

In 1934 he was acting Agent General for WA and went as a member of a (unsuccessful) Secession delegation to Imperial Parliament, along with Sir Hal Colebatch, James MacCallum Smith, and Keith Watson (see photo below).

He fought bitterly against the move of the Railway Yards from the Fremantle Ports to Midland in 1904, which had a huge impact upon the working class population of Fremantle.

Moss married Katherine Lyons in 1895, with whom he had two sons. She had been an inaugural member of the Senate of the University of Western Australia. Moss died at a London nursing home in February 1946, aged 82 at the time of his death.