Fremantle’s world famous heritage buildings have entered the digital age with the launch of the Freopedia QR Code Heritage project.
Conceived by the Fremantle Society in partnership with WIKIMEDIA Australia, and sponsored by the Fremantle Business Improvement District (BID) and the City of Fremantle, Freopedia will make Fremantle the first city in Australia to have a virtual Smartphone tour of its historic buildings and sites.
The project, which involves Quick Response (QR) coding of a number of significant Fremantle sites, was launched on May 26th at the Moores Building Contemporary Art Gallery as part of the 2013 City of Fremantle Heritage Festival.
Fremantle Mayor Dr Brad Pettitt said Freopedia would provide visitors with virtual smart phone access to Wikipedia articles of significant buildings and subjects in Fremantle.
“It means that anyone with a Smartphone will be able to take a self-guided tour of Fremantle with information available at their fingertips.
“My thanks go out to the Fremantle Society, WIKIMEDIA Australia and the Fremantle BID for their support of this initiative.”
Project coordinator Roel Loopers said Freopedia was a work in progress, but would grow to become an invaluable resource for research into Fremantle’s heritage.
“In time I think we’ll see the entire history of Fremantle available on Wiki and on Smartphones and available to everyone.
“Fremantle has such a rich and interesting history and we want to make sure as many people as possible can enjoy finding out more about Fremantle.
“We will also be working on ensuring the information is available in the language the Smartphone is set on, which will be a great service to tourism in the port city, particularly with the many thousands of international cruise ship passengers that arrive and disembark each year.”
