Fremantle Harbour is Western Australia's largest and busiest general cargo port[3] and an important historical site.

The inner harbour handles a large volume of sea containers, vehicle imports and livestock exports, cruise shipping and naval visits, and operates 24 hours a day.

Coode ruled out building a port in the river mouth as he believed it would continually silt up due to lateral sand drift.

In 1887 the Fremantle Chamber of Commerce pushed hard for the southern scheme to be chosen, but the colony could not raise the estimated cost of £500,000.

[7] The first stage of the harbour works began with a ceremony in which the Governor's wife, Lady Robinson, tilted the first truck load of rubble for the North Mole.

[8] The inner harbour was opened on 4 May 1897 when the steamer Sultan drawing just 30 centimetres (1 ft) of water[9] with Lady Forrest at the wheel was the first ship to enter the partly built port.

Victoria and New South Wales fought for the retention of Albany as the Mail Packet port, as they were fearful they would lose business.

On 3 August 1900, Forrest won when the Postmaster-General in London informed the Post Master-General in Perth that Fremantle would be substituted for Albany as the port of call for Mail Packets.

Ten days later the Orient Steam Navigation Company's RMS Ormuz, homeward bound from Sydney to London, was the first British mail carrier to enter and berth in Fremantle Harbour.

[13] In the inner harbour, it was ... a common sight to see up to as many as four vessels of substantial size lying in tier, and it was due solely to the circumstances forced upon the port and the prevailing weather conditions that such a state of affairs could be permitted.

[20] North Quay is the portion of Fremantle Harbour on the northern banks of the Swan River, built in the late 1890s this area is now primarily used for container shipping.

On the western edges is Rous Head a smaller harbour used for vessel maintenance which also includes one of several Rottnest Island ferry terminals.

The area is the most northern of one of four coastal basins formed from the flooding of a depression between Pleistocene aeolianite ridges running north–south, and the subsequent deposition of east–west Holocene banks.

The limits of the Inner and Outer Harbour go north beyond Gage Roads and Rottnest to a line west of Trigg, and south into most of Cockburn Sound.

[21] Cockburn Sound is an inlet that extends from the south of the mouth of the Swan River for about 25 kilometres (16 mi) to Cape Peron near Rockingham.

[26] Built in the 1890s from the southern point of the Swan River mouth is a breakwater to ensure a safe anchorage for vessels in the Inner Harbour.

Built in the 1890s the North Mole was extended almost immediately after completion and on a number of occasions since, the most recent being in the late 1980s, to allow for the addition of an entrance into the Rous Head harbour that was being constructed.