As you stroll through the Boorloo or Walayup CBDs, do you ever look up and wonder what lies behind the ageing and often decaying facades? Old photos of our streets show them once teeming with life—bustling with shops and buildings full of activity. While these buildings may now stand empty, the stories and memories they hold have faded, but they’re not forgotten…
UP THERE is a walking tour by theatre-makers and artists Tay Conway, William Gammel, and Leah Robyn. They guide audience members through a site-responsive audio walking tour of Walayup’s vacant spaces, sparking conversations about these buildings—their past, and what the future might hold for them. Magazine 6000 spoke to these creatives about their inspiration for the work and how it’s evolved.
High Street, 1924. SLWA.
How did the idea for Up There come to you, and how did you develop it as a group?
UP THERE was a concept that Leah spoke about a few years ago, because she has always been so curious about what is up there in the second stories of buildings. Everyone had always told her “oh they’re for storage”, but they can’t all be for storage, right? So, we did some investigating. Instead of finding lots of storage, we actually found a lot of empty space. That’s when we began noticing empty space everywhere, not just in the stories above. We thought about the concept of “stories”, and that’s when William had the idea to fill these vacant and underutilised spaces with stories from the people in the community. He was interested in those conversations you overhear when you walk past people on the street, those glimpses of people’s lives. The UP THERE team all live together, so we got talking about all of these ideas and that’s when we thought we should connect with the people of Walyalup and get the community involved.
Was Walyalup always the location you had in mind for this work? If so, why? How was the route itself decided?
Walyalup has always been an inspiration for this show. The cost of living crisis has meant that there are lots of empty spaces here. However, the community in Walyalup are so passionate about the place and seeing it thrive. It’s this care for the place that has become the core of the work.
The route itself was, in a way, decided by the community of Walyalup. We have spent weeks interviewing and talking to locals, and it’s been their stories that have influenced how we built the walking route. At the same time, when creating the route we were conscious to ensure that the journey is accessible, and has lots of street seating for people to relax at certain points.
UP THERE.
As you’ve worked on this project, how have your ideas evolved or changed since the outset?
We began this work in residency with the Fremantle Arts Centre and WAAPA in April of 2023, and we came back in October 2024 to finish the piece and present it to an audience.
A lot has changed in Walyalup since we began this work. Some buildings have become vacant, some have been given new life. The change to Walyalup has also brought change to our show. The work evolves and adapts alongside the place itself. As we talk to more and more of the community we start to hear different stories of these places from what we already had or what we expected, so we really have to listen and let them shape the work.
You’ve incorporated local stories and research into the tour. How was this conducted? Did you discover anything surprising about these spaces? Could you share any sneak previews of these stories?
We started off with more traditional methods of research into the history of the buildings and town itself, finding out what we could at Fremantle Library and online.
Once we had a sense of the history, we started looking into the community. At first we reached out to people we know who live and work in the area and used this network to find more people who live and work here. It became this big spider web of, “oh you definitely have to talk to this person”, then they come in and “you must speak to so and so”.
Not the most surprising thing, but the most reaffirming thing, is how much the people of this place care about it, and are so open to coming in and chatting about this place they love so much. It’s palpable.
We don’t want to give too much away but we have some mischievous stories of people breaking into the Woolstores and up the clock tower of the Town Hall…
UP THERE.
What are your feelings towards these vacant spaces? What impact does it have on the community to have so many buildings lying dormant?
Coming into this project we definitely thought that all these vacant spaces must be filled to ensure that a community thrives. However, what we have learned from this process and from the people of Walyalup is that an empty space can have so much value and importance to a community as it is. Just because it is empty and commercially abandoned, doesn’t mean it isn’t thriving with stories, history and love from the community. Just the other day we were talking to a local who used to skateboard at the Woolstores and spoke of the importance of that empty space to the skateboarders of Freo.
Despite this, rental prices are increasing and it is becoming increasingly difficult for residents to stay in the city. Therefore, we have found that a balance of nurturing a spaces’ rich history while facilitating their conscious activation is vital to the continued sense of community in Walyalup.
Where could UP THERE go next?
We have some plans in the works… But our hope is that we can take the form of UP THERE and travel it around to different places around WA and maybe even the country. There is so much vacant and underutilised space, so we would love to connect with more communities and see what stories they have to share.
UP THERE will run over two weekends: 29 NOV – 1 DEC, 6 DEC – 8 DEC with two shows occurring each day (4PM & 6:30PM).