AUSTRALIAN HISTORY CURRICULUM @ FREMANTLE PRISONLINKS FOR YEAR 9

FREMANTLE PRISON
AUSTRALIAN HISTORY CURRICULUM
LINKS FOR YEAR 9
THE MAKING OF THE MODERN WORLD – MOVEMENT OF PEOPLES

1AUSTRALIAN HISTORY CURRICULUM @ FREMANTLE PRISONLINKS FOR YEAR 9

CONTENTS
Fremantle Prison

3

Curriculum Links

4

Historical Inquiry

6Planning a School Excursion

8

Suggested Pre‐Visit Activity

11

Suggested Post‐Visit Activity

13

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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AUSTRALIAN HISTORY CURRICULUM @ FREMANTLE PRISONLINKS FOR YEAR 9

CURRICULUM LINKSYEAR 9 – THE MAKING OF THE MODERN WORLDThe Year 9 curriculum provides a study of the history of the making of the modern world from 1750 to1918. Fremantle Prison offers a unique insight into Western Australian history during this period,
specifically 1850 to 1918, allowing students to investigate convict and late colonial history.
In particular, the history of Fremantle Prison relates to two of the overview content areas:••

The nature and extent of the movement of peoples (slaves, convicts and settlers)
The extent of European imperial expansion and different responses, including in the Asian
region.

DEPTH STUDIES
1 Making a Better World?
Movement of peoples (1750 – 1901)
The influence of the Industrial Revolution on the movement of peoples throughout the world,
including convict transportation.
••

Students can investigate the original settlement of the Swan River and the problems
associated with the colony during its first 20 years.
Investigate the reasons why the colony decided to petition the British Government to sendconvict labour and transform Swan River into a penal colony.

The experiences of convicts and free settlers upon departure, their journey abroad, and their reactions
on arrival, including the Australian experience.
••

The role of convicts in the colony, to build public infrastructure and then to populate thecolony.
Daily life of convicts including systems of punishment and reform.

Changes in the way of life of a group of people who moved to Australia in this period, such as freesettlers on the frontier in Australia.
•

How the colony changed during the convict period

The short and long‐term impacts of the movement of peoples during the period.
••

The convicts built much‐needed infrastructure and provided economic stimulus to a flagging
colony.
Ex‐convicts or bonded men contributed to colonial society, running businesses etc, but a social
divide between free settlers and bonded men fractured the society for a long time.

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.
Historical Inquiry
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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.
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.
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.
Contestability
Occurs when particular interpretations about the past are open to debate, for example, as a result of alack of evidence or different perspectives. Fremantle Prison offers a unique view of contestablehistory as a natural outcome of differing perspectives and power relationships within the Prison
between prisoners and prison officers.

THEMES
Colonialism versus Imperialism
Colonialism is the implanting of settlements on a distant territory. Imperialism is the creation of an
Empire based on domination and subordination.
1. Was the convict system, of which Fremantle Prison is its physical expression, a function ofColonialism or a function of Imperialism?
2. Was the colony set up by the Empire as a place to discard the Empire’s refuse or as a placeof new opportunity?
Punishment versus Reform
1.
2.
3.
4.

Were convicts sent to the Swan River Colony to be punished or to be reformed?
Was Fremantle Prison an effective site of punishment?
Was Fremantle Prison an effective site of reform?
Was Fremantle Prison more focussed on punishing convicts or reforming convicts?

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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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Fremantle Prison has an ongoing program of developing exhibitions in house. Our exhibitions focus onparticular stories to do with the history of Fremantle Prison. For example our 2012 temporary
exhibition Rock Breakers told the story of Fremantle Prison and the Perth Gaol during the 1880s prior
to the Gold Rush.

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SUGGESTED PRE‐VISIT ACTIVITY
In preparing students for a visit to Fremantle Prison, a Five Ws and an H exercise focuses students onwhat they plan to learn from their visit. Students list questions around the theme of their visit. These
questions are used to direct the tour guides tour.

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SUGGESTED POST‐VISIT ACTIVITY
Following the format of the ABCs Q&A program, students debate the issue of convict transportation toWestern Australia, from the perspective of contemporary participants.

THE CONVICT SYSTEM AND THE COLONY
Roles for students could include:•••

1 * moderator
6 * panel members – (each panel member has 3 or 4 helpers during research phase)
Audience – develop questions

Students visit Fremantle Prison and gather information about the period. Research can besupplemented by examining primary source documents (newspaper articles, photographs – the TROVE
website is a very good source of primary source material), and secondary source documents, including
Fremantle Prison notes, history texts etc.
Students allocated roles as panel members could role play historical figures such as:
•
•
•
•
•
•

Convict prisoner – Thomas Bushell
Convict prisoner – Joseph Horrocks
Comptroller‐General Edmund Henderson
Newspaper journalist
Governor John Hampton
Local Fremantle resident

Alternatively, panel members could be themselves, answering from their own beliefs and POV.
Students who are audience members are responsible for developing questions which can be directed
at one or all of the panel members. The moderator determines which questions are asked andcontrols discussion.
Sample questions:
1.
2.
3.
4.

Was Fremantle Prison a site of punishment or one of reform?
Was capital punishment (hanging) an effective form of punishment and deterrence?
Which was more humane, flogging or solitary confinement?
Did transportation of convicts benefit the colony or would it have been better off without
convicts?

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FREMANTLE PRISON HISTORICAL OVERVIEW – CONVICT 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 of soldiers, pensioner guards andprison warders, many accompanied by their families, came to manage the prisoners. Australia, a vast
continent inhabited by Aboriginal people with their own cultures and traditions, was forever changed
both physically and culturally by this massive 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 military guards
and their families to the new convict colony of New South Wales. Western Australian was firstcolonised 43 years later in 1829. Unlike the eastern colonies it was a free settlement. However, theinhospitable 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 the colony was transformed into apenal colony in 1849.
The first convicts arrived in 1850. Over the next 18 years nearly 10,000 convicts landed in Western
Australia. They built roads, bridges and much‐needed public infrastructure. As the colony became
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more economically viable the public mood for convicts changed and transportation ended in 1868.
The convict system continued to operate for another 18 years. After the convicts served out theirsentences they entered the community as free men. Even so, society during this time was fractured
into two classes, free settlers and ex‐convicts. This social division lasted for many years and eventhroughout the Twentieth Century, Western Australians shunned their convict ancestry and the past
was treated as a shameful secret. It is arguable 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 infrastructure such as roads,
bridges, jetties, sewerage systems, hospitals and schools. Many of the early settlers abandoned thecolony and headed east to the more established settlements in New South Wales and Tasmania. Withless than 6,000 settlers remaining by the late 1840s, the failure and collapse of the colony was animminent 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 were Royal
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 to stay aboard theScindian where it lay at anchor in Gages Roads while the warehouse was made secure and suitable for
their accommodation.
If any colonist wishes for proof of the incalculable benefit this colony will receive, from theformation 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 and listlessness, now will be foundhappy smiling countenances, and a bustle and activity which augurs well both for the present
and the future.
The Perth Gazette, 5 July 1850
In the first year of transportation, four ships unloaded 676 convicts1 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 toforbid any ticket‐of‐leave men from working in Fremantle.

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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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 the prison.
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 intransportation, 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 were constructed.
Between 1850 and 1862 convicts built 563 miles of road, including Stirling and Canning Highways, and239 bridges. They cut down more than 4000 trees, dug 44 wells and made 543 culverts. Convicts built

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the South Bay Jetty at Anglesea Point which served as Fremantle’s main jetty until the early 1870s, andthe North Bay Jetty in the mouth of the Swan River.
Important public buildings constructed by convicts included the Fremantle Lunatic Asylum, the PerthGaol 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, chairedby Earl Grey, recommended that transportation be extended indefinitely as a permanent policy. This
recommendation was met with strong criticism by the eastern colonies who believed that the ‘convict
stain’ tainted the entire continent and that ex‐Swan River convicts with conditional pardons wererelocating to the eastern states bringing crime and moral decay with them. The eastern colonies had
abolished transportation to their part of 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 enjoyedmore 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. Hampton
wrote to the British Government requesting increased transportation so that convict labour could be
used to open up the north. The Secretary of State, sensing a potential division between the north andsouth of Western Australia, decided to settle the vexed issue of transportation then and there. He
announced the end of transportation in three years time. The Times newspaper in Englandcommented:
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 ofconvict labour becomes a matter of the first moment. … It would have been possible no
doubt to place the new settlement under different regulations from the old, but had thisarrangement 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 thatwas to cut the knot of it and solve the convict question by the same stroke.

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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 which timetransportation will cease.
Reviewing the achievements of the convicts, the Inquirer gave a summary of the results of eighteen
years of transportation:
We have made roads and bridges and constructed many public works which without the aidof the convict system we could not have performed. A large Imperial expenditure in thecolony has maintained a trade and strengthened the hands of the settlers. … We havelearned that the criminal is not all evil, that the angel within is not forever expelled by theverdict 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 good that lingers around the hearts of even thehardest 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 a fundamental 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 for Fremantle Prison, decided tohand the Prison over to the colony. On 31 March 1886 Fremantle Prison was transferred to theColonial Government, bringing an end to 36 years of convict history in Western Australia.

PERTH GAOL CLOSES AND FREMANTLE PRISON BECOMES COLONY’S MAIN PRISON IN 1888
The colony did not need two large prisons. On 31 March 1888 the Perth Gaol was officially closed. Its
54 male and 12 female prisoners were transferred to Fremantle Prison which became the colony’s
main prison. Perth Gaol only stood empty for a year before it became the site of the Western
Australian Museum.

NEW PRISONERS
By 14 April 1888 all of the prisoners from Perth Gaol were transferred to Fremantle Prison, which thenbecame the state’s main place of incarceration for men, women and children. Originally designed as aconvict barracks, Fremantle Prison was transformed into a maximum security prison holding a more
complex and violent criminal class. Subsequently the Prison’s population boomed.
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Deeming it unwise to place the female prisoners in the main cell block with the male prisoners theprison hospital was temporarily converted into the women’s division while a permanent female
division was constructed.
While the number of boys kept at Fremantle was small (for example, in 1893 there were only two boys
incarcerated at Fremantle), nonetheless they had to be kept separate from the adult prisoners for fearof sexual abuse.
Up until 1903 Aboriginal prisoners were sent to the Aboriginal prison on Rottnest Island. However,during the 1880s a small number of Aboriginal men were kept at Fremantle Prison. They were kept
separate from the other prisoners and they mostly served short sentences.
Finally, penal prisoners (men originally transported to Western Australia) remaining at Fremantle
Prison tended to be paupers and old men who had nowhere else to go.
The remaining majority of prisoners were adult white men, colonial prisoners sentenced to hardlabour for serious crimes. The different categories of prisoners including men, women, Aboriginalmen, juveniles, ex‐convicts and invalids, penal and colonial prisoners, caused major logistical problems
at the prison, specifically to do with segregation and the different levels of security required for
different classes of prisoner.

Plan of Fremantle Prison 1887
Fremantle Prison Collection

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RETURN OF PRISONERS IN CONFINEMENT ‐ FREMANTLE PRISON 31 DECEMBER 1893 2
PRISONERSNUMBER

Undergoing Penal Servitude

35

Undergoing Hard Labour

85

Paupers (ex‐convicts) under medical treatment at hospital

5

Ticket‐of‐Leave Holders out of Employment

3

Juvenile Male Prisoners

2

Debtors1

Aboriginal Male Prisoners

3

Female Prisoners Undergoing Hard Labour

12

TOTAL

146

GOLD RUSH
After decades of geological exploration, a rich field of gold was finally discovered in Coolgardie on 17
September 1892. The colony exploded with an influx of fortune seekers. During the 1890s the
population of the colony rose from 48,502 to 179,967 people.
Life on the goldfields was characterised by squalor, greed and crime. Water was in short supply andoutbreaks of typhoid, scurvy and dysentery were common. Crime rates soared as rivalry between
prospectors and the bitterness of failure pushed men towards violence.
Fremantle Prison was never the same again. In 1890, 452 adult male prisoners passed through the
Prison. By 1900 that annual figure had increased to 1,511.
Originally convicts slept in the prison and spend their days on work parties outside the prison gates. As
prisoner numbers increased there was no associated increase in staffing levels of warders. It became
impractical and unsafe to have large numbers of prisoners working outside. From the 1890s onwards
Fremantle Prison faced issues with keeping large numbers of inmates on the inside and providingthem with meaningful employment, particularly in a prison never designed to be inhabited during theday. Many of the issues were to do with conflict between the different prisoner groups, including
different racial groups, most notably whites, Aboriginals, and Asians.

AN INHARMONIOUS PRISON
With the increase in the number of prisoners in Fremantle Prison came an associated increase ininsubordination, criminal activity inside prison, and escape attempts. In 1897 Superintendent William
George ordered the height of the perimeter walls be increased.
In January 1898, after three escapes in four days, the West Australian commented that ‘Gaol breaking
is becoming a common occurrence at Fremantle.’3 High‐risk prisoners were put to the hard andmonotonous work in the pump yard of turning the pump to fill the East Reservoir.
2

Ibid, p. 36.

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Superintendent George’s annual report in 1898 summarized the prison’s main weaknesses:•

the prison buildings were inadequate•

there were insufficient staff•

there were too many prisoners•

the system of prisoner employment was inadequate•

the general character of the prisoners at this time represented a greater threat to security
than previous stages of the prison’s history.

These issues and more were the subjects of a Royal Commission into Prisons from 1898‐1899,
appointed to investigate the Penal System of the Colony.

SECONDARY PUNISHMENTAs the number of inmates rose, the number of infractions resulting in secondary punishment such as
restricted diet, time in the Refractory block, hard labour in chains, or flogging, also increased. But
more significantly, the proportion of punishments per capita of the prison population also increased.
In 1890, there were 101 sentences of secondary punishment across that year’s population of 583
prisoners. In other words, 17% of prisoners in that year received secondary punishment of some form.
In 1894 that figure rose to 20%, and in 1898 it rose again to 26%. This increase in prisoner misbehavior
pointed to a growing sense of prisoner discontent with the penal system in an age when the ethics ofprisons and punishment were being seriously questioned in society.

1898 ROYAL COMMISSION
By 1898 it was clear to people both inside and outside Fremantle Prison that there were serious
problems with the prison system and the treatment of prisoners. A member of the Legislative
Assembly, Charles Vosper, began agitating for a Royal Commission into Fremantle Prison. In particular
he was vocal in his criticism of Superintendent George, challenging the man’s credibility in the Sunday
Times:
Do you consciously consider that a man wield the autocratic power that Mr. W.A. George isallowed to with impunity, ably seconded by the herde of illiterate and brutal warders, mostof them, like himself, the product of the most iniquitous convict system on earth, is a proper
person to have absolute domain on the lives and liberty of men?’4
He alleged that secondary punishments for prisoners were too severe, citing the examples of leg‐irons,
dark cells, and flogging. He stated that the sanitation was bad, the food poor, and the system ofremissions chaotic. 5 He was particularly critical of the policy of having prisoners engaged in the pumpyard pumping water into the East Reservoir:
Sixty or seventy prisoners are engaged on pumping which could be done by a dozen men; but
there is no other work available in the walls. … If other forms of labour were employed theengine could do all the pumping work. 6

3West Australian, 4 January 1989.
Sunday Times, 17 April 1898.
5
Thomas, J.E. and Stewart, A. Imprisonment in Western Australia, University of Western Australia Press 1978, p. 50.
6Report of the Commission appointed to inquire into the Penal System of the Colony, WAPP, V. 1, 1899, Evidence from
W.A.George, p. 55
4

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Western Australian society had reached the point where people felt the prison should be focused lesson punishment and more on the reform of prisoners. As the main voice of reformation, Vosper put‐
forward the motion to the Legislative Assembly on 6 July 1898 that:
A Royal Commission be appointed (with power to call for persons and papers), to inquire into
the existing condition of the penal system of Western Australia, and to report to this House
upon the method now in vogue for the punishment of criminals, the classification of thesame, the sanitary conditions of Fremantle Gaol … also into the manner in which convicts are
employed both inside and outside of places of detention. 7
The commission met eighty times and received 240 witness accounts from a wide variety of people
including Vosper himself, Superintendent George, the Inspector of Prisons J.B. Roe, the police, warders
and other prison staff, and prisoners.
The overall picture revealed by the Royal Commission was that the operating prison system wasarchaic and in desperate need of renewal.

RECOMMENDATIONS OF THE ROYAL COMMISSION
Among the key recommendations of the Royal Commission included the abolition of flogging as asecondary punishment at Fremantle Prison, the abolition of the dark cells which were described as ‘arelic of barbarism’, the abolition of irons and the crank in the pump yard. Another recommendation
was that boys under the age of sixteen and girls under the age of eighteen should not be sent toFremantle Prison.
A major recommendation of the commission, quickly adopted by the prison, was that a system ofproper classification of prisoners be introduced. The Main cell Block was divided into four divisions:•

Division one ‐ debtors, trials and remands, and juveniles•

Division two ‐ first offenders with short sentences, petty thieves, drunkards and vagrants•

Division three ‐ long‐sentenced and habitual offenders•

Division four ‐ cooks, bakers, cleaners and orderlies 8

The other major recommendation was that the cells be enlarged and the ventilation improved byremoving the walls between each successive single cell. The West Workshops were constructed in1900 to house new trades such as shoe‐making, tailoring and book‐binding to provide more work for
inmates.

FEDERATION
Despite the forward thinking ideas espoused by the commission, many of its key reforms were notimmediately taken up by the prison administration. The major reason for the lack of interest in thefindings of the Royal Commission was that Western Australians had at that time an even greater majorchange taking place around them. In May, the Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Act 1900 was
passed by the British Parliament, and was signed by Queen Victoria on 9th July 1900. The Act declaredthat on 1st January 1901, the colonies of New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, Queensland, andTasmania would be united and known as the 'Commonwealth of Australia'. In August 1900 areferendum was held, and the people of Western Australia voted to join the Commonwealth.

78Western Australian Parliamentary Debates, Vol. 12 6 July 1898, p. 303
Georgiou, N. Work and Reform in Fremantle Prison 1989-1912, History Research Essay, University of Western Australia, 1995.

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In this way Australia became a united federation. For prisoners in Fremantle Prison, the following
century saw many major and fundamental changes. In other areas however there was very littlechange at all.

View of Main Cell Block from the South Knoll c1911
Fremantle Prison Collection

A PERIOD OF REFORM – FREMANTLE PRISON DURING THE 1910s
Despite major changes to prison structure and operations in the latter years of the 19th century andthe recommendations of the 1898 Royal Commission, Fremantle Prison remained a 19th century
anachronism well into the 20th century. As far as conditions for prisoners and prison officers went,
there had been few improvements since the prison had been constructed by convicts 50 years earlier.
Royal Commission 1911
In 1911 a Royal Commission was set up to investigate a series of complaints made by prison officers
regarding alleged poor work conditions. Captain Pennefather, Comptroller‐General of Prisons in
Queensland was appointed to investigate.
Pennefather interviewed 55 prison officials and 14 prisoners, and he inspected the prison buildings in
the company of the medical officer and the acting superintendent. 9 As had many reports before,
Pennefather condemned the physical state of Fremantle Prison, in particular the Female Division, andcalled for the construction of a new penal establishment. The old buildings, he stated, were ‘badly

9

Ibid.

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constructed and badly ventilated,’ and did ‘not appeal to one as being adapted to the application ofmodern prison principles.’ 10
Regarding the prisoners the Royal Commission made a major recommendation that was to have ‘aconsiderable impact on the future of the Western Australian prison system,’ 11 that being thereintroduction of the Mark’s System which had been in operation during the convict‐era but was
abolished in 1865. This system which allowed prisoners to accumulate points for good behaviour led
to the re‐introduction of ‘indeterminate sentences’ whereby prisoners had the possibility of reducing
their sentences and achieving early parole.
Apart from his call for the closure of Fremantle Prison, many of Pennefather’s recommendations were
accepted by the system. This was due largely to good timing, more than anything else, as the report’s
tabling in parliament coincided with a major changing of the guard at Fremantle Prison, with newadministrators being receptive to modernising and reforming the prison system.

THE REFORMER VERSUS THE PUNISHER
After running Fremantle Prison since before the turn of the century, Superintendent W. A. George
retired in 1911. George was a conservative administrator who focussed on security and prisoner
discipline. He had raised the prison’s perimeter walls in 1898 and brought to an end the practice ofprisoners working outside the prison. His replacement Hugh Hann was an energetic and imaginative
administrator who came into the role with an agenda to overhaul and modernise the prison system.
During the next few years a number of significant reforms and changes occurred at Fremantle Prison.

10
11West Australian, editorial 10 May 1911.
Stewart, Alex, Imprisonment in Western Australia, University of Western Australia Press, 1978, p. 84.

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Superintendent Hann’s annual report for 1912 details a number of significant improvements to theprison including the introduction of games for prisoners. This indicated an understanding of theimportance of leisure activities for prisoner morale. Prisoner clothing was now treated in a disinfecting
room, a vegetable garden on the south terraces had been established, and internationalcorrespondence school courses had been introduced. Hann implemented changes to prisoner
uniforms including the removal of any visible prison marking on the uniforms, the addition of collars
on shirts and the issuing of ties, hairbrushes, hand mirrors and razors. ‘All our efforts at reform,’ heconcluded, ‘are thrown away unless we can make them feel that they are not mere brutes and getthem to hold their heads up again like men.’ 12
The 1913 report indicated the continuing project of enlarging the cells by knocking out every second
wall. An attempt to eradicate vermin in the prison was made by injecting acid into the walls. The
vegetable garden established the previous year had produced 21 687 pounds of vegetables and asecond garden was created where ‘prisoners could sit, talk and read’. 13 The Female Division had been
improved with the addition of a visiting room, a reception room and a bath.
In December 1915 Hann ordered his staff to issue ham, eggs and cigarettes to the prisoners and tohang up Christmas decorations in the Main Cell Block. Prisoners were served their Christmas meal onplates rather than the usual eating tins. Also provided were basins, knives and forks. The meal was a
success and from this point on plates, knives and forks became standard for mealtimes.

12
13

Ibid.
Ibid.

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Christmas decoration in the Main Cell Block, Fremantle Prison 1916
Fremantle Local History Collection

In 1913 prisoners were given the privilege of having pens and paper in their cells. Education classes
were extended to include shorthand and language studies.
Hann believed that the object of prison was to reform. His approach to prison discipline came undercriticism by those in the government and the general community who believed that the object ofprison was to punish. People felt that under Hann’s administration, Fremantle Prison was becoming
too easy on its prisoners. The easing of discipline led to an inevitable weakening of security and during
Hann’s regime the number of escape attempts began to rise. In 1918 a Board of Enquiry was set up by
the Public Service Commission to investigate the rise in escapes. On April 5 it was reported in the West
Australian newspaper that Hann had been found to be negligent in the discharge of his duties as wellas incompetent, and had been suspended from duties.14
Although an investigation by the Public Service Commissioner into the charges laid against Hann led to
his total exoneration, he was to retire soon after because of ill‐health. Despite receiving little
recognition or accolades for his reformative influence on the prison system by his contemporaries, inretrospect Hann can be considered ‘the most important figure in the history of Western Australianprisons since the convict period.’ 15
14
15

West Australian, 15April 1918.
Stewart, Alex, Imprisonment in Western Australia, University of Western Australia Press, 1978, p. 96.

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CONVICT 1014 JOSEPH LUCAS HORROCKS
Not all convicts were inherently villainous or hapless vagabonds. In time many of themcommanded 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 heearned his ticket of leave and travelled north to the Lynton Depot at Port Gregory where he worked asa doctor.
The Lynton Depot was abandoned in 1857. Horrocks received his conditional pardon and settled in the
district of Wanerenooka where he developed a successful copper mine. News of Horrocks’ 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 a mill and encouraged farmers to settle
in the area. He built the Gwalla Church between 1861 and 1864 and opened a schoolhouse in 1863. Hepetitioned 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 forhimself but an entire community after he was freed from prison.

Remains of Lynton Convict Hiring Depot c1930
State Library of Western Australia

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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 the time for his many escapeattempts as well as his ability to embarrass Governor Hampton.

Moondyne Joe 1880
Hesperian Press and Ian Elliot

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 atomahawk and wearing a kangaroo skin cape.

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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 ofstealing 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 the Moondyne Springs area near Toodyay,but only four years later in 1865 he went back to prison after stealing and killing an ox. He escapedfrom a work party in that year but was recaptured 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 wellknown in the 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 toprevent Joe from digging his way out. Inspecting this cell Governor Hampton told Moondyne Joesarcastically, “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 pile of rubble hadbuilt up near the front wall of the prison. Now, partially hidden behind the pile, Joe quickly dug a holethrough the prison wall with his pickaxe and emerged into the Superintendent’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’sVineyard in the Swan Valley intending to steal some wine. Bad timing saw a group of 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 to escape again.
He earned his ticket of leave in 1871 and became a free man in 1873. He stayed out 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 turned round andfired; the ball struck some dry jam trees just above my head ... He then fired at me again andI 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 and wanted
murderer, Andrew Miller, 1884
Andrew Miller was 16 when convicted at Cambridge in 1859 for house breaking and larceny. He wastransported 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 ‘deadmen 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 was punished witha stint in solitary confinement. After a period of good behaviour he was released with a ticket of leave.
However, ten years later he was caught stealing a wallet and sent 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 andreleased them later that evening after they had sobered up. However, later that night Miller andCarbury followed and attacked Constable Hackett, beating him to death with 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 and lastwords 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, the Director 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 adining and supper room on the first floor, surrounded by a wide circular balcony, a smoking room for
gentlemen on the second floor, and a viewing gallery at the top of the tower boasting views across theriver to Mount Eliza and Perth. ‘Alta Gardens’ opened with a flourish 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 wasapparent that he would be returned to Fremantle Prison he committed suicide, swallowing a lethal
dose of strychnine.

The Convict Establishment c1864, Thomas ‘Satan’ Browne
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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 no water, andsuffered horribly from thirst. Through the hot day that followed, O’Reilly lay on the sand,tortured with blistering pains and hunger. ... In the afternoon the white sails of thewhaleships were seen and the company put out, but to their amazement 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 differedfrom the typical convicts in that they were generally well educated, literate men.

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 to help muster theconvicts and carry communications between the work party warder and the local convict depot.
O’Reilly took advantage of this trusted position to meet with two locals in the Bunbury Irish Catholiccommunity, a local priest Father McCabe and ‘Big Jim’ Maguire. Together they planned O’Reilly’s
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escape and organised passage for him on an American whaler the Vigilant. On the appointed day in
February 1869, O’Reilly absconded from the work 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 and sailed away.
By this time the police and Aboriginal trackers were chasing him. Over the next few weeks O’Reilly wasforced 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 was secured to carry O’Reilly tosafety. On 2 March 1869 he again rowed out into Geographe Bay, was picked up by the whaler andsailed 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. Theirarrangements 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 bornon 19 April 1821 in Hampshire, England, into a military family. After quickly rising through the ranks of
the Royal Engineers (a command in the British Army commonly referred to as the Sappers), he wasappointed the Swan River Colony's first Comptroller‐General of Convicts.

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 wasuseless and aggravating.’ 16 Henderson often disagreed with the colony’s governors. For example,
when designing the Convict Establishment, he argued that a solitary confinement block was
unnecessary – he believed that the cramped conditions of the cells in the main cell block would bepunishment 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 thefollowing 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 when Governor 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 withhis family on 7 February 1863.

16

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 the illegal employment ofconvict labour. His governorship of the colony came to be one of the darkest periods for convicts inthe prison’s history.

Governor John Hampton c1860s
State Library of Western Australia

During his six year term as Governor of Western Australia Hampton payed close attention to convict
affairs. His interference in convict management drew the hostility of Perth newspapers 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 role of Acting
Comptroller‐General. George was an unlikable man and he became extremely unpopular with thecolonists.
Hampton was a tyrannical leader. During the years 1865 to 1867 the number of floggings at theestablishment 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 andwater.17 Both the convicts and the general community complained about the Hamptons. On 5
17

Hasluck, A. Unwilling Emigrants, Fremantle Arts Centre Press, 1991, p. 60.

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September 1866 the Inquirer referred to the ‘severity of punishment’ in the establishment andHampton’s ‘repressive regime.’ 18
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. 19 Of the 32 floggings during 1864, 25 were for escape attempts. Similarly, during 1865, 23 of
the 40 floggings were for escape attempts.

18
19

Inquirer, 5 September 1866.
Elliot, I. Moondyne Joe – The man and the myth, University of Western Australia Press, 1978. p. 87

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