Assembly Yard

If you happened to drive past the multidisciplinary venue Assembly Yard, you probably wouldn't realise it's there tucked behind an unassuming grey fence in a semi-industrial area on the outskirts of Fremantle.

This is precisely how husband and wife team, Sam Davies and Helen Pow, designed it, yet what takes place on the other side of those grey gates is quite the smorgasbord.

"We want the experience to start as soon as you walk through the gates. From the entrance to how the gardens are landscaped to the lighting through to the flow of the space. We carefully considered every part of the design," says Davies to Lost in Fremantle on a recent visit.

The 3000 square meter site hosts events from private parties, weddings, photoshoots, gallery exhibitions to ticketed musical performances. Yet creating an event and exhibition venue wasn't what Davies and Pow initially set out to do. While searching for a space for Pow's growing flower-delivery business, The Little Posy Co., the couple came across the property.

They immediately saw the site's potential. It was once the home to former pro-basketballer Luc Longly until a fire burnt down the residential part of his estate. Then it moonlighted as a storage yard for a steel fabricator for around a decade.

"We were stepping over scraps of metal and glass on the asphalt floor. But when we looked up, we realised this great view of greenery from the surrounding park and golf course, almost like a rural backdrop. We saw how the sunset cast such a nice light, and we thought, hang on, we could create a really great venue here," Davies explains.

While Pow set up The Little Posy Co. in the back half of the warehouse Davies got to work transforming the rest of the space.

Drawing on his degree in architecture and design, plus extensive hospitality experience working as a sommelier and project manager at several top venues around the world, including Vinoteca in London and Zuma in New York, Davies set about creating a versatile venue ideal for any occasion.

Particular attention was paid to the garden and landscaping. Davies cites the southern Italian villa Masseria Moroseta as inspiration for the chic and streamlined aesthetic at Assembly Yard, creating a limestone courtyard and a garden filled with fragrant rosemary, fig and olive trees and bright bougainvillaea.

While inside, the crisp white walls and concrete floors in the warehouse offers a blank canvas that allows guests to execute any creative vision. A large barn door leads into the "yard", linking the internal and external spaces, that Davies cites as part of the secret to Assembly Yard's success.

"We never dreamed it would become this big. Last year [2021], we held around 60 weddings, 25 live music events and more than 10 art exhibitions, plus around five photo shoots and several parties a month”, he reflects.

The husband-and-wife duo plan to keep evolving the space and hope to host an even more extensive range of events in the future, including pop up dinners and outdoor movie nights. "The most important thing to us is that we're not one dimensional. We want to continue to be a hive of activity and a creative venue people enjoy and want to spend time in," says Davies.

Next up, Suburban Vibes present Jack Botts on his Slow Mornings Australian Tour at the Assembly Yard on 13 March 2022. With special guests Ben Camden & Leah Grant. Ticket info here.

Check out the Assembly Yard What's On page for all the latest events info.

Discover more of the best events in Fremantle this March here. 

Photo credit: Main image - Liam Fawell | Others: Ridhwaan Moola, Claire McFerran, Kepper Creative, Keven McDougall.