Since The 1940s
A wartime shed, four decades of boat storage and a family that lives and breathes the water.
Our big shed at Woodman Point was built in the mid-1940s to hold ammunition stores and the submarine nets that protected Fremantle Harbour and Cockburn Sound during the Second World War. Look down and you'll still see the original railway tracks running through the floor, out to what was once the Navy jetty.
Boats have been stored under this roof for more than 40 years. The previous owners, Charlie and Jo, ran it for decades and made the cafe famous across the Sound for their sausage rolls.
Jim McLarty grew up in Applecross and got his first boat at nine years old. He spent ten years working on 50–60 metre superyachts around the world, starting as a deckhand and finishing as Captain, with more than 200,000 nautical miles in the logbook, then ran Blue HQ Marinas for four years.
In October 2019 he brought all of that home, taking over Woodies to run it the way a captain runs a ship: everything in its place, ready to launch.
Woodies is a proper family business. Jim's parents, Bill and Leonie, have been part of the place since the family took it on, and Bill runs the local boating weather page "Sea the Seas" on Facebook. Jim's sister Tori pitches in, and his wife and four boys are never far from the shed. Woodies is a huge supporter of the local community.
The family also runs Fremantle Boat Hire, self-drive days on the river or out on the water, so between storing, hiring, fuelling and feeding, boating is the family business in every sense.
Drop in any day between 6am and 3pm, check out the history, have a look around and grab a Woodies Hamburger.
A wartime shed, a busy ramp and a local family business since 2019.