Billy Clare

Billy Clare, founder of the Fremantle Workers Club, 100 years ago this year. Billy Clare was drawn to the Western Australian goldrush of Coolgardie-Kalgoorlie in the late 1890s as a journalist. Soon he was a newspaper proprietor in the Goldfields and later moved to Fremantle and started a nespaper there. AS mentioned he founded the Fremantle Workers Club in 1914 and was president for a time.

The Fremantle Workers Club was in it's hey day a substantial entity, regarded as only second to the Commercial Club in Perth. The latter was a gentleman's club, whereas the Workers club wa the meeting place of workers and lumpers on the wharves.

In 2011 the club closed it's doors due to dwindling membership. It reopened in 2012 after a serious membership drive and continues to prosper.

I photographed his portrait in the current club today