In 1905, the Burford Soap Factory was established in Fremantle, Perth. At the same time, a 96-metre tunnel was built, behind the factory. The original factory building has since been renovated into apartments, but the abandoned tunnel remains. At just 1.8 metres high and 1.4 metres wide, it’s a tight squeeze, and it gets a lot narrower as you walk in. It’s pitch black, full of cobwebs and my worst nightmare – cockroaches.
I noticed a lot of metal pipes along the ground as I was exploring this tunnel and later found out that these were used to transport water pumped from the river to below the factory, where it was directed up the vertical trunk to the factory and then to the cooling tanks or to be heated into steam.
As you go deeper into the Soap Factory Tunnel, you will find two vertical tunnels (trunks) that lead to storm drains on the street above. The first trunk is located at the first bend in the tunnel. It is a drywall construction and capped with angle iron, tin sheeting, and cement. The second trunk is lined in modern concrete with hand holds leading to the surface. Both of these trunks are blocked at the entrance, so there is no point in fighting your way through the cobwebs and cockroaches to see if you can get through the latches above!
Enjoy the video and photography slideshow below and don’t forget to follow Abandoned World Photography for regular urbex updates on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.
jake
where is this one located because i know there is another one near there to
James
51 Rule Street, north fremantle.
Mark
Can you give an exact location please
James
51 Rule Street, north fremantle. The tunnel is accessible from the beach. They wrote some more info on an article titled “Top 5 Abandoned Buildings in Perth for Urbex”
http://www.abandonedworldphotography.com/2022/08/19/top-5-abandoned-buildings-in-perth-for-urbex/?amp=1
Top 5 Abandoned Buildings in Perth for Urbex - Abandoned World Photography
[…] old soap factory tunnel in Rocky Bay, Fremantle is an abandoned historical landmark long forgotten but not hard to […]
ASD
Where does it go if you continue down the concrete pipe?
Abandoned World Photography
It goes on forever but a huge cluster of cockroaches ended my adventure so I couldn’t tell you!