AUSTRALIAN HISTORY CURRICULUM @ FREMANTLE PRISONLINKS FOR YEAR 5

FREMANTLE PRISON
AUSTRALIAN HISTORY CURRICULUM
LINKS FOR YEAR 5
THE AUSTRALIAN COLONIES

1AUSTRALIAN HISTORY CURRICULUM @ FREMANTLE PRISONLINKS FOR YEAR 5

CONTENTS
Fremantle Prison

3

Curriculum Links

4

Historical Inquiry

6

Teaching Resources

7

Resource Booklets

10

Planning a School Excursion

11

Suggested Pre‐Visit Activity

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Historical Overview – Convict and Colonial Era

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FREMANTLE PRISON
In 2010 Fremantle Prison, along with 10 other historic convict sites around Australia, was placed on
the World Heritage Register for places of universal significance. Collectively known as the AustralianConvict Sites these places tell the story of the colonisation of Australia and the building of a nation.
Fremantle Prison is Western Australia’s most important historical site. As a World Heritage Site,
Fremantle Prison is recognised as having the same level of cultural significance as other iconic sites
such as the Pyramids of Egypt, the Great Wall of China, or the Historic Centre of Rome.
For 136 years between 1855 and 1991 Fremantle Prison was continuously occupied by prisoners.
Convicts built the Prison between 1851 and 1859. Initially called the Convict Establishment, Fremantle
Prison held male prisoners of the British Government transported to Western Australia. After 1886
Fremantle Prison became the colony’s main place of incarceration for men, women and juveniles.
Fremantle Prison itself was finally decommissioned in November 1991 when its male prisoners weretransferred to the new maximum security prison at Casuarina.
Fremantle Prison was a brutal place of violent punishments such as floggings and hangings. Conditions
were primitive ‐ freezing in winter and scorching in summer, infested with cockroaches and rats, thesite was lonely and cruel. It housed thousands of prisoners, each with a fascinating story to tell. It was
the site of numerous daring escapes and prisoner riots.
Western Australia, as we know it today, would not be here if not for the introduction of convicts to thecolony and the construction of Fremantle Prison. For students studying the history of our State andAustralia, Fremantle Prison is an essential site of historical investigation.

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CURRICULUM LINKSYEAR 5 – THE AUSTRALIAN COLONIESThe Year 5 curriculum provides a study of colonial Australia. Students look at the founding of the
British colonies and the development of a colony. They learn about what life was like for different
groups of people in the colonial period. They examine significant events and people, political andeconomic developments, social structures, and settlement patterns.
A framework for developing students’ historical knowledge, understanding and skills is provided byinquiry questions. The key inquiry questions at this year level are:•

What do we know about the lives of people in Australia’s colonial past and how do weknow?
As a place of active historical inquiry Fremantle Prison has a wealth of information and stories
for students studying Western Australian History. Our online education resources are packed
with information about the Prison, its role in the development of the colony, and biographicalinformation about significant people who lived and worked here.

•

How did an Australian colony develop over time and why?
Fremantle Prison played a major role in the development of the Swan River Colony. As theseat of the convict system it influenced the development of the colony for more than 50 years.

•

How did colonial settlement change the environment?
The work of convicts changed the face of Western Australia through extensive building
projects, land clearing, and infrastructure development such as roads, jetties and wells. The
forced labour of the convicts was organised and centrally controlled from Fremantle Prison.

•

What were the significant events and who were the significant people that shaped
Australian colonies?
The history of Fremantle Prison is packed with stories of escapes, punishments, riots andreform. Both prison administrators and prisoners who spent time at Fremantle Prison weresignificant figures in the development of the colony.

HISTORICAL CONCEPTS
Evidence and SignificanceFremantle Prison exhibits an extraordinary power of place. Because it remained operational as a
prison until 1991, the site is remarkably intact and authentic. Students visiting the Prison can see firsthand what life was like for modern prisoners as well as for convicts 150 years ago. Seeing the original
heritage fabric allows students to identify the heritage significance of the site.
Sources
Our tour guides encourage students to ask questions while on tour. In this way are tours focus on an
exchange of information rather than a one‐way lecture on the Prison’s history – our tour guides are
sources of information directed by the active inquiry of students.
Continuity and change
On a tour of the Prison students can identify what aspects of the prison system changed over the years
and what stayed the same.
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Cause and Effect
Our display cells provide a visual example of how changes to cells over the Prison’s history were driven
by cause and effect.
Perspective
People in the past may have had different points of view about a particular event, depending on theirage, gender, social position, beliefs and values etc. Our tour guides tell stories about historicalindividuals and provide an insight into their differing perspectives.
Empathy
An understanding of the past from the point of view of a particular individual or group, including anappreciation of the circumstances they faced, and the motivations, values and attitudes behind theiractions. Students on tour see the real conditions of incarceration and punishment which helps them to
empathise with prisoners’ experiences.

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HISTORICAL INQUIRY
Fremantle Prison is a site of active historical inquiry. Historical research to inform the content of ourtours and exhibitions is ongoing. Curators research and manage the Prison’s collection which includes
convict artefacts, prison clothing, documents, photographs and artworks. Prison historians research
the intangible heritage of the site which includes stories of prison life, escapes, riots and punishments.
Heritage specialists manage and conserve the Prison’s buildings and structures, ensuring that they arepreserved for generations to come.
Fremantle Prison has two visitor centres which provide visitors to the site with an introduction to thehistory of Fremantle Prison and the themes of incarceration. The Convict Depot focuses on the story of
the convicts who originally built Fremantle Prison.

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TEACHING RESOURCES
Fremantle Prison’s on‐line Convict History resources are designed for students studying early colonial
or convict history. These resources are free and downloadable at www.fremantleprison.com.au
The Teacher Resource provides suggested pre‐visit and post‐visit activities.

The Student Resource provides activity and information sheets for students. An example activity isprovided on the following page.

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AUSTRALIAN HISTORY CURRICULUM @ FREMANTLE PRISONLINKS FOR YEAR 5RESOURCE BOOKLETSThere are four resource booklets that provide supporting information for the student and teacher
booklets.

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AUSTRALIAN HISTORY CURRICULUM @ FREMANTLE PRISONLINKS FOR YEAR 5

9

AUSTRALIAN HISTORY CURRICULUM @ FREMANTLE PRISONLINKS FOR YEAR 5RESOURCE BOOKLETSThere are four resource booklets that provide supporting information for the student and teacher
booklets.

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AUSTRALIAN HISTORY CURRICULUM @ FREMANTLE PRISONLINKS FOR YEAR 5

SUGGESTED PRE‐VISIT ACTIVITY
In terms of preparing students for a visit to Fremantle Prison, a useful pre‐visit activity would be to run
a simple Five Ws and an H exercise to focus students on what they plan to learn from their visit. In
small groups students list possible questions focussed around the theme of their visit. Ideally theirquestions should link back to one or more of the key inquiry questions from the Australian History
Curriculum for year 5:••••

What do we know about the lives of people in Australia’s colonial past and how do weknow?
How did an Australian colony develop over time and why?
How did colonial settlement change the environment?
What were the significant events and who were the significant people that shaped Australia
colonies?

Questions are grouped into five Ws and an H. These questions then form the focus of their visit toFremantle Prison and are used to direct the tour guides tour.

What do I want to know?

WHAT?

WHO?

WHEN?

WHERE?

WHY?

HOW?

Write a question you can ask the tour guide on your trip to Fremantle Prison.

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FREMANTLE PRISON HISTORICAL OVERVIEWCONVICT AND COLONIAL ERAINTRODUCTION
British transportation of convicts to Australia was the first time in history that a new society
was built on the labour of convicted criminals. Between 1788 and 1868, approximately
166,000 convict men, women and children were sent to Australia on 806 ships. Thousands ofsoldiers, pensioner guards and prison warders, many accompanied by their families, came to
manage the prisoners. Australia, a vast continent inhabited by Aboriginal people with theirown cultures and traditions, was forever changed both physically and culturally by thismassive forced migration. It is impossible to understand modern Australia today without
reference to its convict past.

View of Sydney Cove, 1803, George William Evans
State Library of NSW

OVERVIEWIn 1788, eleven transport ships comprising the First Fleet carried 775 convicts and 645 militaryguards and their families to the new convict colony of New South Wales. Western Australian
was first colonised 43 years later in 1829. Unlike the eastern colonies it was a free settlement.
However, the inhospitable nature of the land made life difficult and the colony struggled for
20 years. The settlers eventually petitioned the British Government to send convicts and thecolony was transformed into a penal colony in 1849.
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The first convicts arrived in 1850. Over the next 18 years nearly 10,000 convicts landed inWestern Australia. They built roads, bridges and much‐needed public infrastructure. As thecolony became more economically viable the public mood for convicts changed andtransportation ended in 1868. The convict system continued to operate for another 18 years.
After the convicts served out their sentences they entered the community as free men. Evenso, society during this time was fractured into two classes, free settlers and ex‐convicts. Thissocial division lasted for many years and even throughout the Twentieth Century, Western
Australians shunned their convict ancestry and the past was treated as a shameful secret. It isarguable however that without the transportation of convicts it is possible that the Swan
River Colony would not have endured.
FROM FREE SETTLEMENT TO PENAL COLONY
The political object of transportation is colonisation.
Superintendent Thomas Dixon’s Half‐yearly Report, 10 January 1857
Convicts played a vital role in the history of Western Australia. During its first two decades the
Swan River Colony suffered from a severe labour shortage and a lack of public infrastructuresuch as roads, bridges, jetties, sewerage systems, hospitals and schools. Many of the early
settlers abandoned the colony and headed east to the more established settlements in New
South Wales and Tasmania. With less than 6,000 settlers remaining by the late 1840s, thefailure and collapse of the colony was an imminent possibility.
Convict labour was seen as a feasible solution to the colony’s woes. A sympathetic British
Government, looking for an answer to their burgeoning prison population, agreed and on 6
November 1849 the Swan River Colony became a penal settlement.
ARRIVAL OF CONVICTS
In June 1850, the first convict transport ship the Scindian arrived at Fremantle. On board wereRoyal Engineer Captain Edmund Henderson and his family, the Superintendent of Convicts
Thomas Hill Dixon, 75 male convicts, some warders, and 50 Pensioner Guards.
Henderson rented a warehouse on the beachfront at South Beach from the harbourmaster,
Captain Daniel Scott, located where the Esplanade Hotel is today. The convicts were forced tostay aboard the Scindian where it lay at anchor in Gages Roads while the warehouse wasmade secure and suitable for their accommodation.
If any colonist wishes for proof of the incalculable benefit this colony will receive,from the formation of the Convict Establishment, let him visit Fremantle, and contrast
what he will now observe there, with what was to be seen only a couple of months
since. Where before was nothing but long faces, downcast looks, depression andlistlessness, now will be found happy smiling countenances, and a bustle and activity
which augurs well both for the present and the future.
The Perth Gazette, 5 July 1850

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In the first year of transportation, four ships unloaded 676 convicts 1 into a town of less than
500 people. The free citizens of Fremantle, fearing the social impact of the ‘degenerate’
convict presence, called for greater security and controlling measures such as curfews.
Fitzgerald ordered Henderson to forbid any ticket‐of‐leave men from working in Fremantle.

View of South Bay, Fremantle c1855 (artist unknown)
Fremantle Prison Collection

CONVICTS BUILD FREMANTLE PRISON AND COLONIAL PUBLIC INFRASTRUCTURE
A hillside above Fremantle was chosen as the site for the new convict prison. Fremantle
Prison was built between 1851 and 1859 from limestone quarried on‐site. Construction
involved three main projects including accommodation buildings for prison officers, service
buildings and perimeter walls, and cell ranges. Royal Engineers (commonly known as the
Sappers) from the British Army provided technical supervision while the convicts built theprison.

1

The Scindian landed on 1 June 1850 with 75 convicts, the Hashemy on 25 October 1850 with 100 convicts, the Mermaid on 13
May 1851 with 208 convicts, and the Pyrenees on 28 June 1851 with 293 convicts (Bateson, C., 1974)

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After 10 years of planning and building, the Convict Establishment, designed to accommodate
882 convicts, was ready. The following year only one convict was sent out from England. This
lull in transportation, however, was short lived and the steady stream of convicts began
flowing once again in 1861. It continued without interruption until transportation ceased in
1868.
The convicts came to build a colony, and build one they did. During the 1850s and 1860s vital
infrastructure as well as a number of important buildings in Fremantle and Perth wereconstructed. Between 1850 and 1862 convicts built 563 miles of road, including Stirling andCanning Highways, and 239 bridges. They cut down more than 4000 trees, dug 44 wells andmade 543 culverts. Convicts built the South Bay Jetty at Anglesea Point which served as
Fremantle’s main jetty until the early 1870s, and the North Bay Jetty in the mouth of the
Swan River.
Important public buildings constructed by convicts included the Fremantle Lunatic Asylum,
the Perth Gaol and Courthouse, Perth Colonial Hospital, Government House, the Perth Town
Hall, as well as convict depots throughout the colony.

Convict Prison, Fremantle 1859, Henry Wray
National Library of Australia

TRANSPORTATION ENDS 1868
On 20 June 1863, a Commission into transportation and penal servitude to Western Australia,
chaired by Earl Grey, recommended that transportation be extended indefinitely as apermanent policy. This recommendation was met with strong criticism by the easterncolonies who believed that the ‘convict stain’ tainted the entire continent and that ex‐Swan
River convicts with conditional pardons were relocating to the eastern states bringing crimeand moral decay with them. The eastern colonies had abolished transportation to their partof Australia two decades previously and were keen to see it stopped in the west as well. They
were at odds with many of the Swan River settlers who had enjoyed more than a decade of
economic growth as a result of convict labour.
The following year rich pastoral lands were discovered in the north of Western Australia.
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convict labour could be used to open up the north. The Secretary of State, sensing a potential
division between the north and south of Western Australia, decided to settle the vexed issueof transportation then and there. He announced the end of transportation in three years
time. The Times newspaper in England commented:
This discovery could not fail to mark an epoch in the history of Western Australia.
When a new country is thrown open for settlement in Australia the admission or non‐admission of convict labour becomes a matter of the first moment. … It would havebeen possible no doubt to place the new settlement under different regulations fromthe old, but had this arrangement been made the feud now existing between
Western Australia and the Eastern Colonies must have arisen in an aggravated form
between the North and South of Western Australia itself. There was a judicious way,
and one only, of meeting the difficulty, and that was to cut the knot of it and solve
the convict question by the same stroke.
The Times, quoted in The Cyclopedia of Western Australia, Vol. 1 1985, Hesperian
Press, p. 108.
Early in 1865 the House of Commons was informed that the system would come to an end by
1868. A despatch was forwarded to Governor Hampton stating that;… (t)he present intention of the Government is to send out two ships containing from
270 to 280 convicts, in each of the years 1865, 1866, and 1867, at the end of whichtime transportation will cease.
Reviewing the achievements of the convicts, the Inquirer gave a summary of the results ofeighteen years of transportation:
We have made roads and bridges and constructed many public works which without
the aid of the convict system we could not have performed. A large Imperial
expenditure in the colony has maintained a trade and strengthened the hands of thesettlers. … We have learned that the criminal is not all evil, that the angel within is
not forever expelled by the verdict of a jury, that it may and does survive many
deviations from the path of rectitude, and leaves us at times to marvel at the goodthat lingers around the hearts of even the hardest offenders needing but little
kindness from one to another to bring it out.
The Times, quoted in The Cyclopedia of Western Australia, Vol. 1 1985, Hesperian
Press, p. 108.
There can be no doubt that transportation was coming to a natural and appropriate end.
Public opinion on how criminals were treated by the government was changing in afundamental sense. Just as institutionalised slavery was viewed as an historical shame, so too
would transportation be viewed in a short period of time.

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Fremantle Prison Gatehouse with signal cannon in foreground c1870s
Fremantle Prison Collection

CONVICT SYSTEM ENDS 1886
Even though transportation of convicts to Western Australia had ceased, 3158 convicts
remained in the system, most of whom were working in the colony on tickets of leave.
Fremantle prison remained under administration of the British Government and the system
continued to operate for another 18 years.
By 1884 only 63 prisoners populated Fremantle Prison, aging ex‐convicts and serial re‐offenders. By this stage the prison was a mostly empty complex, quiet but for the sounds of a
few remaining angry and bitter men. The British Government, reluctant to continue paying forFremantle Prison, decided to hand the Prison over to the colony. On 31 March 1886
Fremantle Prison was transferred to the Colonial Government, bringing an end to 36 years ofconvict history in Western Australia.

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STORY: THOMAS BUSHELL – STORY OF PUNISHMENT 1865
Thomas Bushell, a young Irishman in the British Army, was sentenced to life imprisonment
and transportation for striking a superior officer while serving in Malta. He arrived inFremantle on the Edwin Fox in 1858. Working in the kitchen the following year he wreckedsome kitchen tools by using them to clean the boilers and was sentenced to the Refractory
Block. While locked in a dark cell he attempted to hang himself using a cord pulled from thelining of his jacket. He was transferred to the temporary asylum on Cliff Street near theCommissariat whereupon he assaulted the warders who came to his cell. Surgeon Attfieldordered him into solitary confinement and after six weeks seclusion he had calmed down.
Four months later Attfield recommended that he be discharged and returned to theestablishment. Bushell responded by tearing up his bedding and threatened to kill himself andanyone who came near. He was diagnosed to be insane but too dangerous to keep at theasylum. He was returned to the Refractory Block in the establishment.
From this point on Bushell was constantly in trouble, threatening warders, refusing to work,and attempting to escape. He was flogged, spent weeks on bread and water, and spent weeks
on end in solitary. At one point he was sentenced to hard labour in leg irons and worked on
the Fremantle Bridge building site. He spent a year out of trouble working from the Guildford
Convict Depot before he threatened to kill a co‐worker. He was sentenced to 100 lashes andtwo weeks on bread and water in solitary. On release from the Refractory Block he was sent
to the Albany Depot where he attempted to escape, and was again returned to theestablishment.
Far from achieving his ticket of leave, in 1863 Bushell attempted to escape another threetimes and was sent to work on Rottnest Island. Five months later he was returned toFremantle for disobedience and placed in irons. He was again put to work on the Fremantle
Bridge and kept in irons for eight months. Then, finally in 1865, Bushell went too far andattacked a warder with a knife.
The knife attack
After working in the Prison Bakehouse on the Sunday Bushell smuggled a 13‐inch dough knife
back to his cell. That afternoon as Warder Hollis was mustering the convicts for the church
service, Bushell came up behind and struck him in the shoulder with the knife. He
immediately gave himself up to the warders and told them he had attacked Hollis. His reason
for the attack was that:
Hollis had told some prisoners that Bushell had given the information which led tothe discovery that the window of (convict) 8047 Charles Kemball had been boredwith an augur.
Bushell was locked in the Refractory Block and on 6 September 1865 he was tried before Chief
Justice Burt on the charge of ‘feloniously and maliciously stabbing Warder Hollis with theintent to Murder’. Bushell pleaded not guilty and conducted his own defence. While notdenying he had attacked Hollis, he stated that he had not intended to kill him and he wassorry for what he did.
Warder Hollis actually spoke in defence of Bushell, explaining to the Chief Justice and the jurythat the prisoners ‘consider it most disgraceful to tell tales on one another … (and he) did not
believe the prisoner intended to harm him.’ Despite Hollis’ defence of the man who had
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attacked him, the jury found Bushell guilty. Three days later Thomas Bushell, at the age of 29,
was hanged at the Perth Gaol.

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CONVICT 1014 JOSEPH LUCAS HORROCKS
Not all convicts were inherently villainous or hapless vagabonds. In time many ofthem commanded respect and even admiration for their achievements.
R. Erickson, The Brand on his Coat – Biographies of some Western Australian convicts,
1983
Joseph Lucas Horrocks was convicted of forgery and attempting to pass a false bill of
exchange in London in 1851. Sentenced to 14 years transportation he arrived at Fremantle on
the Marion in 1852. Horrocks differed from the other convicts in that he was well educated,
and at 35 years much older than the men around him.
Between 1852 and 1853 he worked on the construction of the Convict Establishment. In 1853
he earned his ticket of leave and travelled north to the Lynton Depot at Port Gregory where
he worked as a doctor.
The Lynton Depot was abandoned in 1857. Horrocks received his conditional pardon andsettled in the district of Wanerenooka where he developed a successful copper mine. News ofHorrocks’ enterprise spread and many newly released convicts headed north with the hope of
employment. He employed 60 ticket of leave men between 1862 and 1865. Horrocks built amill and encouraged farmers to settle in the area. He built the Gwalla Church between 1861
and 1864 and opened a schoolhouse in 1863. He petitioned for the state’s first public railway
to be built between his mine and Geraldton port, thirty miles to the south. The railway
opened in 1879.
The community with its ‘curving stone‐walled road, its neat row of cottages and carefully
tended gardens’ as described by Rica Erickson in The Brand on His Coat, was named
Northampton in 1864.
Horrocks died from general ill health on 7 October 1865 and was buried in the Gwalla
Cemetery near his church. Joseph Horrocks was one of the most successful convicts who built
not only a good life for himself but an entire community after he was freed from prison.

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MOONDYNE JOE
One of Fremantle Prison’s most famous inmates was Joseph Bolitho Johns, known as
Moondyne Joe. Moondyne Joe was celebrated by Perth and Fremantle newspapers at thetime for his many escape attempts as well as his ability to embarrass Governor Hampton.

Moondyne Joe 1880
Hesperian Press and Ian Elliot

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Joseph Bolitho Johns (1830‐1900), better known as the Western Australian bushranger
Moondyne Joe. This is the only known photograph of Joseph Bolitho Johns (1830‐1900). It
depicts Johns holding a tomahawk and wearing a kangaroo skin cape.
When Joseph Johns arrived at Fremantle on the Pyrenees in 1853, he was immediately
granted his ticket of leave. He worked as an animal tracker near Toodyay until 1861 when he
was accused of stealing a horse. This earned him a three year sentence in the Convict
Establishment. It was not long before he received another ticket of leave. He returned to theMoondyne Springs area near Toodyay, but only four years later in 1865 he went back toprison after stealing and killing an ox. He escaped from a work party in that year but wasrecaptured and another year was added to his sentence. A year later he managed to escape
once again but was again recaptured and a further five years were added to his sentence. By
this time the newspapers were writing about Moondyne Joe and he became well known inthe colony.
Frustrated by Joe’s escapes, Governor Hampton ordered an escape proof cell to be built in theestablishment for Moondyne Joe. The cell was reinforced with wood panelling and long nails
to prevent Joe from digging his way out. Inspecting this cell Governor Hampton told
Moondyne Joe sarcastically, “If you get out again, I’ll forgive you.”
Joe’s health got worse. To give him fresh air and exercise, he was put to work breaking rocks
in the Parade Ground in 1867. Under strict supervision Joe broke rocks daily until a large pileof rubble had built up near the front wall of the prison. Now, partially hidden behind the pile,
Joe quickly dug a hole through the prison wall with his pickaxe and emerged into theSuperintendent’s yard. He escaped through a gate and disappeared into nearby bushland.
Moondyne Joe was at large for the next two years. In 1869 he broke into the cellar of
Houghton’s Vineyard in the Swan Valley intending to steal some wine. Bad timing saw a groupof policemen led into the cellars for a social drink and Joe, attempting to flee, literally ran into
their arms.
He was returned to the Establishment. This time Joe behaved himself and did not try toescape again. He earned his ticket of leave in 1871 and became a free man in 1873. He stayedout of trouble for the rest of his life.

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CONVICT 5850 ANDREW MILLER
Miller jumped up. They all ran together ... I called on Miller to stand, and he turnedround and fired; the ball struck some dry jam trees just above my head ... He thenfired at me again and I threw myself down behind a tree ... I fired at Miller ... I struck
Miller in the groin ... Miller fell from the loss of blood.
Detective John McKenna, reporting on the capture and death of ex‐convict andwanted murderer, Andrew Miller, 1884
Andrew Miller was 16 when convicted at Cambridge in 1859 for house breaking and larceny.
He was transported for 10 years and arrived in Fremantle on the Palmerston in February
1861.
In July 1862 while working on a road party between Guilford and York, Miller and four
companions held up two approaching supply carts. They attacked the teamsters and made off
with the supplies. Miller threatened the teamsters; ‘if you holler again I’ll put your bloody
light out,’ he cried, and ‘dead men tell no tales’. He was caught the next day and returned to
the Convict Establishment.
Miller was a difficult prisoner who constantly tried to escape. Caught each time he waspunished with a stint in solitary confinement. After a period of good behaviour he wasreleased with a ticket of leave. However, ten years later he was caught stealing a wallet andsent back to Fremantle Prison for three years of hard labour.
Finally in September 1884 he was charged with the murder of a policeman in Beverley. Miller
and an ex‐convict named Thomas Carbury became violently intoxicated after drinking in the
Settler’s Arms Hotel in Beverley. They were arrested by Constable Patrick Hackett who locked
the pair up and released them later that evening after they had sobered up. However, laterthat night Miller and Carbury followed and attacked Constable Hackett, beating him to deathwith two hammers.
The well‐liked policeman had a wife and a one week old baby. A major manhunt for his
murderers followed. The police came upon the convicts resting by a local river. During a major
gunfight Miller was shot in the groin but Carbury escaped. Miller, bleeding badly, admitted to
the killing and cursed Carbury for being a coward. He died shortly after.

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CONVICT 7340 THOMAS ‘SATAN’ BROWNE
Should any evil befall me I ask you kindly to see to my funeral ... These are the true andlast words of a lost and dying man who has lived industriously, frugally and honestly as
you yourself can testify. ... I wish to lay against my child.
Thomas Browne, in a letter to detective Sergeant Rowe on the night of his death, 1882
Thomas Browne was an architect and civil engineer in London with experience in building
railways. Convicted of forging a money order he was transported to Western Australia on the
Lord Dalhousie and arrived in Fremantle in 1863. For the next year and a half his skills were
put to use on building projects in the colony.
Browne received a ticket of leave in June 1865 and found work as a schoolmaster near
Bunbury. Four years later he received a conditional pardon and moved to Fremantle to work
as an architect and land agent. He earned the nickname ‘Satan’ because of his black hair,sallow complexion and thin face. He married in 1875 and he and his wife had a daughter who
unfortunately died six months later.
While his personal life was marred with tragedy, Browne’s public life suffered from the stigma
of his convict background and he found it difficult to find employment. James Thomas, theDirector of Public Works, took a dislike to Browne and ensured that no‐one would employ
him. At this point Browne decided to change career entirely.
In 1879 he leased the Old Mill in South Perth. He developed it as a pleasure resort which
included a dining and supper room on the first floor, surrounded by a wide circular balcony, asmoking room for gentlemen on the second floor, and a viewing gallery at the top of thetower boasting views across the river to Mount Eliza and Perth. ‘Alta Gardens’ opened with aflourish on 21 April 1880 and quickly became the place to be seen in the upper social circles of
the colony.
However, Browne’s bad luck was soon to return and by 1881 he was deep in debt. When it
was apparent that he would be returned to Fremantle Prison he committed suicide,swallowing a lethal dose of strychnine.

The Convict Establishment c1864, Thomas ‘Satan’ Browne
State Library of New South Wales27

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CONVICT 9843 JOHN BOYLE O’REILLY
They rode for hours until they reached a dry swamp near the sea. ... They had nowater, and suffered horribly from thirst. Through the hot day that followed, O’Reilly
lay on the sand, tortured with blistering pains and hunger. ... In the afternoon thewhite sails of the whaleships were seen and the company put out, but to theiramazement the Vigilant sailed away, never heeding their signals.
Captain George S. Anthony, Commander of the Catalpa, 1897
In 1868 the British Government sent 62 Fenians (Irish nationalists opposed to British rule in
Ireland during the 1800s), on the last transport ship, the Hougoumont, to Fremantle. The
Fenians differed from the typical convicts in that they were generally well educated, literatemen.

John Boyle O’Reilly c1867
Courtesy Kevin Cusack, USA

John Boyle O’Reilly was put to work in the Prison Library as the Chaplain’s clerk. As a trusted
prisoner he was soon transferred to a work party in Bunbury where it was his responsibility tohelp muster the convicts and carry communications between the work party warder and the28

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local convict depot. O’Reilly took advantage of this trusted position to meet with two locals in
the Bunbury Irish Catholic community, a local priest Father McCabe and ‘Big Jim’ Maguire.
Together they planned O’Reilly’s escape and organised passage for him on an American
whaler the Vigilant. On the appointed day in February 1869, O’Reilly absconded from thework party, met up with Maguire and rode to a secluded beach where a rowboat waited.
They rowed out into Geographe Bay but unfortunately the Vigilant failed to sight them andsailed away.
By this time the police and Aboriginal trackers were chasing him. Over the next few weeks
O’Reilly was forced to hide in the sand dunes in the scorching summer sun with little fresh
water while his friends organised another rescue. Eventually another whaler the Gazelle wassecured to carry O’Reilly to safety. On 2 March 1869 he again rowed out into Geographe Bay,was picked up by the whaler and sailed away to freedom.
O’Reilly did not forget the Fenian prisoners left behind in Fremantle Prison. Once in America
he met with John Devoy, a member of the American Fenian Brotherhood, and helped plan
their rescue. Their arrangements ultimately led to the famous Catalpa escape.

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EDMUND HENDERSON‐ COMPTROLLER‐GENERAL OF CONVICTS
The Comptroller‐General was in charge of all aspects of convict life. Sir Edmund Henderson
was born on 19 April 1821 in Hampshire, England, into a military family. After quickly risingthrough the ranks of the Royal Engineers (a command in the British Army commonly referred
to as the Sappers), he was appointed the Swan River Colony's first Comptroller‐General ofConvicts.

Comptroller‐General Edmund Henderson c1860
State Library of Western Australia

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Henderson was ‘a kindly and just man, moderate and understanding, opposed to the harsher
forms of discipline. He thought that flogging did more harm than good, and that putting men
in chains was useless and aggravating.’ 2 Henderson often disagreed with the colony’s
governors. For example, when designing the Convict Establishment, he argued that a solitaryconfinement block was unnecessary – he believed that the cramped conditions of the cells in
the main cell block would be punishment enough. However, Governor Fitzgerald ordered
Henderson to build the Refractory Block, a place of secondary punishment for those convicts
who broke the rules.
In 1855 Henderson’s wife Mary died while the new prison was still being built and in February
the following year Henderson returned to England for an extended period of absence.
Henderson returned to Australia two years later in 1858 with a new wife to oversee the final
stages of the prison building project.
Henderson was popular amongst the free settlers for his good management of the convicts
and his positive approach towards prisoner reform. However, this changed in 1862 whenGovernor Kennedy was replaced by John Hampton. Governor Hampton’s strong belief in strict
discipline clashed with Henderson’s more humane approach. Henderson resigned from his
position and left the colony with his family on 7 February 1863.

2

Hasluck, Alexandra (1959). Unwilling Emigrants. Melbourne: Oxford University Press. Republished in 1991 by Fremantle Arts
Centre Press.

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GOVERNOR HAMPTONJohn Hampton was appointed Governor of Western Australia on 28 February 1862. He had acontroversial background – while employed as Comptroller‐General of Convicts in Van
Diemen's Land from 1846 to 1855 he was accused of corruption and making money from theillegal employment of convict labour. His governorship of the colony came to be one of thedarkest periods for convicts in the prison’s history.

Governor John Hampton c1860s
State Library of Western Australia

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During his six year term as Governor of Western Australia Hampton payed close attention toconvict affairs. His interference in convict management drew the hostility of Perthnewspapers and many prominent citizens. Comptroller‐General Henderson resigned and left
the colony in December 1862. Before Henderson’s replacement arrived, Hampton assumed
direct control of the Convict Establishment. When the new Comptroller‐General Captain
Newland arrived in 1863, Governor Hampton refused to give up control and he and Newland
constantly argued.
Newland left in 1866 and Governor Hampton placed his own son George Hampton in the roleof Acting Comptroller‐General. George was an unlikable man and he became extremely
unpopular with the colonists.
Hampton was a tyrannical leader. During the years 1865 to 1867 the number of floggings at
the establishment increased. Hampton reintroduced the use of solitary confinement which
had ceased three years earlier. A convict caught attempting to escape could receive 100
lashes from the cat o’ nine tails, and perhaps six to nine months solitary confinement
beginning with 30 days on bread and water. 3 Both the convicts and the general community
complained about the Hamptons. On 5 September 1866 the Inquirer referred to the ‘severityof punishment’ in the establishment and Hampton’s ‘repressive regime.’ 4
Under the management of the Hamptons, escape attempts increased. Between June 1866
and March 1867, more than 90 convicts attempted to escape – three times the number of any
other nine‐month period. 5 Of the 32 floggings during 1864, 25 were for escape attempts.
Similarly, during 1865, 23 of the 40 floggings were for escape attempts.

3

Hasluck, A. Unwilling Emigrants, Fremantle Arts Centre Press, 1991, p. 60.
Inquirer, 5 September 1866.
5
Elliot, I. Moondyne Joe – The man and the myth, University of Western Australia Press, 1978. p. 87
4

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FREMANTLE PRISON TIMELINE
DATE

EVENT

1788

First Fleet arrives Port Jackson

1819 ‐ 1821

Bigge Inquiry ‐ Recommends stricter convict system

1827

Captain James Stirling explores Swan River area
Stirling recommends establishment a colony at the Swan River

25 April 1829

HMS Challenger captained by Charles Fremantle arrives Cockburn Sound

1 June 1829

HMS Parmelia captained by Stirling arrives Cockburn Sound

12 August 1829

Foundation of Perth

1837‐1838

Molesworth Committee ‐ Recommends abolishment of transportation

1840

Transportation to NSW ends

1842 – 1849

Western Australia accepts 234 Parkhurst Apprentices

1843 – 1844

Economic depression effects colony

1846

York Agricultural Society petitions Legislative Council for colony to accept
convicts

6 November 1849

Swan River colony officially becomes a penal settlement

1 June 1850

Scindian arrives Fremantle with first convicts
In the first year of transportation, 4 ships unload 676 convicts

18 December 1851

Captain Henry Wray and Twentieth Company of Royal Engineers arrive
Fremantle on the Anna Robertson

1853

Transportation to Van Dieman’s Land ends

1 June 1855

Convicts move from temporary establishment to main cell block

1856

Select Committee on Transportation investigates transportation to colony

2 January 1858

Henry Wray leaves the colony

1859

Fremantle population is 2946

15 April 1859

Superintendent Dixon suspended – flees colony in July

December 1859

Construction of Convict Establishment officially completed

28 February 1862

Governor Hampton replaces Governor Kennedy

December 1862

Comptroller‐General Henderson resigns and departs colony

1863

Captain Newland replaces Henderson as Comptroller‐General

30 March 1863

Warder Johns refuses order to give convict Own Duffy 100 lashes. He isrelieved from duty

1864

Frequency of floggings at prison increases rapidly
Government House completed using convict labour
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1865

Fremantle Lunatic Asylum completed, built with convict labour

1866

George Hampton replaces Newland as Acting Comptroller‐General
Fremantle (Stick) Bridge completed using convict labour

5 September 1866

Inquirer refers to ‘severity of punishment’ at the prison and is highly critical ofGeorge Hampton

1867

Convict Establishment renamed Fremantle Prison

March 1867

George Hampton abolishes Board of Magistrates, removing prisoners’ meansof redress

1868

Transportation of convicts to colony ends with arrival of the last convict
transport Hougoumont
Upper southern association ward converted to prison schoolroom

2 November 1868

Governor Hampton resigns and departs colony

31 March 1886

Fremantle prison handed over to colonial authorities and becomes colonial
prison1888

Gallows constructed

14 April 1888

Transfer of prisoners from Perth Gaol to Fremantle Prison completed

1889

Jimmy Long first man hanged at Fremantle Prison

1893

Gold strikes at Coolgardie and Kalgoorlie

1897

Superintendent George orders height of perimeter walls to be increased in
response to escape attempts

1898

Royal Commission into Prison System

1899

Royal Commission recommends abolition of dark cells and leg irons at
Fremantle Prison, enlargement of cells and division of main cell block

1900

West Workshops constructed

August 1900

Western Australian vote to join the Commonwealth

1 January 1901

Federation of states35