WA DEFENCE REVIEW has been honoured by being selected as a finalist in the annual Fremantle Business Awards event, held in June 2019 at the Esplanade Hotel. The nascent defence sector player was entered in the ‘Marine and Defence Industry Excellence’ category, which recognises the outstanding achievements of Australian marine and defence related businesses in their engineering, manufacturing, products, and services.
The two other finalists in the category were Civmec, an integrated heavy engineering and construction provider, and IKAD Engineering, which provides integrated project management and engineering solutions. WA DEFENCE REVIEW congratulates IKAD on winning the Award; and is proud to have been a finalist with such prominent competition – it was a pleasing acknowledgement of WA DEFENCE REVIEW’s credentials.
The Marine and Defence Industry category falls under the Excellence grouping of awards, which recognises businesses that define excellence in their industry and are making their mark in new territories, technology, or growth. Other categories in this section are: Innovation, Professional Services, and New Business.
A further grouping is Leadership, which recognises businesses taking Fremantle into the future. Categories here are the Mayor’s Award for Sustainability Initiative, and an award for Marketing Fremantle. Another is Individual Business Awards, which recognises businesses that excel in niche fields and work to promote Fremantle as a unique and liveable City. Categories here include: Creative, Sporting and Community Enterprise, Outstanding Event, Best Retail, Best Accommodation, and Best Attraction.
Keeping alive the time-honoured concept that ‘the customer knows best’, there is a grouping of People’s Choice Awards, which promote the best experiences to be had in the Port city. This year, these included the categories of Best Café, Best Bar, Best Artisan in Craft Food or Drink, and Best Italian. To be eligible for entry to the Fremantle Awards, the entrant must have engaged in business activities within the greater Fremantle region for at least 12 months prior to the application.
The Fremantle Business Awards were established 11 years ago when John Longley, of America’s Cup Challenge fame, was CEO of Fremantle Chamber of Commerce. Already a widely recognised personality with ready access to media, Longley was successful, through his innovations, in bringing greater prominence to his much loved home-town. It is to the credit of those who have followed on, as Board members, staff, or CEO’s, that his creation has gone from strength to strength and is an annual celebration of widening appeal and significance.
The inclusion of a category recognising Fremantle’s links to the defence sector is timely and appropriate. In late May this year, WA DEFENCE REVIEW cooperated with the Chamber in holding a seminar, titled: “Future of the Defence Sector in the South West: The City of Fremantle”. The focus of this event sought to explore and promote those links, which range from Fremantle having the largest submarine base in the southern hemisphere in World War II, to today’s presence within the City’s boundaries of a Defence prime contractor engaged in cutting edge product development in undersea communications.
When Fremantle’s proximity to Henderson, with its naval shipbuilding and engineering facilities, as well as the well-developed industry and infrastructure of the Australian Maritime Complex, is taken into account, the coastal and industrial strip of which Fremantle is a component, makes defence a sector of importance to its future.
WA DEFENCE REVIEW salutes the Chamber for its foresight, thanks it for its recognition, and looks forward to many more opportunities for mutual cooperation.