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Freotopia > organisations > convicts.
See also: convict hiring depots; and the pages for the walls that may have surrounded the whole establishment.

The Convict Establishment

The barque Scindian brought the first convicts to Western Australia in 1850, and with them a number of Enrolled Pensioners to guard them. Transportation ceased in 1868, after 9,721 convicts had arrived in the colony, the last convict ship being the Hougoumont. The main Convict Establishment was at Fremantle, but there were depots elsewhere. One was at the foot of Mt Eliza, another at Freshwater Bay, another at Guildford, and so on.

Heritage Council:
The Convict Establishment Conservation Area is defined as the area bounded by Henderson St and Henderson St Mall, south east along South Tce to Alma Street, east along Alma St to Hampton Road, north on Hampton Rd to Knutsford St, west on Knutsford St to Holdsworth St, along Holdsworth St to Queen St, and northwest along Queen St to Henderson St.

The Convict Establishment Conservation Area therefore includes the wall along South Terrace which was formerly the southern boundary of the Establishment, and is now threatened with partial demolition before the building of the new Police Complex. It should come under the protection accorded to such an important historical site. Another such wall runs along Henderson Street, and will continue to form the front walls of the heritage Warders Cottages which have now become hotels.

Fremantle Prison is the only built environment in Western Australia on the World Heritage List. It is also on the National Heritage List.

Hitchcock 1929:
The erection of the Convict Establishment was commenced in 1851. In that and the following years the Imperial Government carried out by prison labour a number of other works, among them being the Commissariat buildings in Cliff-street, the pensioners' barracks in South Terrace, the warders' quarters in Henderson Street, the Comptroller's residence, known as ”The Knowle” (now part of the hospital), the North Fremantle traffic bridge as originally constructed and numerous other works of public utility, including roads, streets and public buildings. With the exception of the old [second] court-house, which was demolished to make room for pilots' quarters, all those buildings and the North Fremantle bridge are still standing, and are monuments to the stability of the work done by the convicts. (Hitchcock 1929: 34-35)

Hitchcock 1919:
A very large area was set aside for the Convict Depot, which included various dwellings as well as the Prison. See:

The Barracks
('Discipline') Warders Cottages
Sappers barracks
Supervising Warders (sappers) cottages
(Henry Wray's house) aka Government House, Marmion Cottage
The Knowle (Edmund Henderson's house)
the Commissariat
North Fremantle depot

This part of a map c. 1877 shows the boundaries as: Hampton Rd on the right-hand edge; Alma Rd at the bottom; South Terrace and Henderson St to the left; and Holdsworth and Knutsford Streets (not named) at the top. The number 29 designates The Knowle (still in situ in the grounds of Fremantle Hospital), the grand residence of Henderson, the Comptroller-General. No. 30 (now the site of part of Fremantle Hospital) is the residence built originally for Henry Wray, chief of the Royal Engineers, which was later called 'Government House' (tho the Governor rarely stayed there), and finally Marmion Cottage, from one of its last residents, W.E. Marmion. No. 28 is the Barracks, the quarters of the Enrolled Pensioner Force. On that site later was the Stan Reilly Centre, which was demolished for a carpark and is destined to be a police station. On the left, cnr Henderson St and South Terrace are a pair of semi-detached houses, the residents of 'instructing warders' (sappers who instructed and supervised the work of convicts). Running up Henderson St are the three blocks of Warders Cottages which are still standing, have just been renovated, and are now being sold. They were built to house the 'discipline warders', that is, the gaolers, turnkeys. Finally, on the corner of Henderson and Queen (then Doonan) Streets are the main quarters of the sappers (later Royal Engineers), from the left, the single men's quarters, the offices (top), and married quarters (the longest building). That site is now the position of the (former) police station and courthouse.

[[Organisations/buildings/img/CE.jpg|]]

This photo of the prison was taken by Stephen Stout in about 1865, not long after the building was completed in 1859.

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Another version of Stout's photo, from a different source, Battye 88282.

The prison and establishment in 1855

[[img/convictest1.jpg|]]

These three drawings, by James Semple Kerr, from his 1998 conservation policy for Fremantle Prison, are redrawn from original convict grant maps to show the layout and extent of the prison and its environment in 1855, after the convicts were accommodated. Source: John Dowson 2005, Fremantle: The Future is in the Past: Appreciating the Synagogue Site and its Surrounds.

[[img/convictest2.jpg|]]

Comptrollers-General of Convicts

Edmund Henderson RE, 1 Feb 1850-63
Henry Wray RE, 26 Feb 1856-58
Edmund Henderson RE, 1 Feb 1858-63
Charles Frankland Newland, 15 Jan 1863-66
George Essex Hampton, acting, May 1866-67
Henry Wakeford, 16 May 1867-72
Willliam Fauntleroy, 1 Mar 1872-79

John Hampton arrived as Governor in 1862. Having been a harsh Comptroller-General of Convicts in Van Diemen's Land it was perhaps understandable that he took more control over prison affairs than previous governors. He was a cruel man, who clashed with Newland, and eventually had him removed, replacing him, nepotistically, with his son George. Both Hamptons were extremely unpopular in the colony until John Hampton left in 1868.

Hitchcock 1929:
The most notable event of 1850 was the arrival, on June 1st, of the ship Scindian with the first batch of convicts, the date synchronising with the twenty-first anniversary of the foundation of the colony. In addition to the convicts and military guards with their wives and families there arrived by the Scindian, Captain Henderson, R.E., Comptroller-General of convicts, and a large staff of officials, including Dickson [sic], principal overseer, and James Manning, clerk of works. Later a number of tradesmen were brought from South Australia to instruct the convicts in the various trades in which they were to be employed.
As no preparation had been made for the reception of the convicts, the first batches were quartered in premises rented from Captain Daniel Scott, fronting Marine Terrace, Collie Street and Essex Street, extending half-way-up to Essex-lane. The only part now [1929] remaining is used as a warehouse and extends from the Esplanade Hotel to Essex-street.
That temporary prison reverted to Captain Scott when the convicts were transferred to the new prison erected by themselves on the hill. The numerous outbuildings at the rear of the main building were then converted into tenements which, in the course of time, degenerated into mere hovels and what was known as the Old Establishment Yard became the slum quarters of Fremantle in the [18-]sixties and seventies, the tenants being mostly ticket-of-leave men and their consorts, the demimonde always to be found in a seaport town.
”Bond or Free?”
From 1850 to 1868, in which year transportation ceased, 9,721 convicts were landed at Fremantle. In the convict days a bell was rung at 9.50 p.m., and anyone in the street ten minutes after it ceased ringing who could not give the answer ”Free” to the policeman's challenge of ”Bond or Free?” was promptly escorted to the Round House. At the time of writing [1929] that old building seems doomed to demolition. Steps in that direction had been taken when the protestations of those interested in the preservation of relics of a bygone day prevented the intention from being carried out.
As an offset against the influx of the criminal element the convict system was the means of introducing about 2000 persons consisting of military pensioners with their wives and children. A contingent of those time-expired soldiers came out as guards over the prisoners in every convict ship. A large number of them were retained in the enrolled force to guard the convict establishment and others became warders or policemen or entered into other pursuits. Many of them were veterans of the Crimean War and Indian Mutiny, and others were comparatively young men who had been invalided home from India early in their military career. On the whole they were a valuable addition to the population; numbers of them accumulated property, and many of their descendants are to be found occupying prominent positions, both in private and official life.
The Convict Establishment
The erection of the Convict Establishment was commenced in 1851. In that and the following years the Imperial Government carried out by prison labour a number of other works, among them being the Commissariat buildings in Cliff-street, the pensioners' barracks in South Terrace, the warders' quarters in Henderson Street, the Comptroller's residence, known as ”The Knowle” (now part of the hospital), the North Fremantle [first] traffic bridge as originally constructed and numerous other works of public utility, including roads, streets and public buildings. With the exception of the old court-house, which was demolished to make room for pilots' quarters, all those buildings and the North Fremantle bridge are still standing, and are monuments to the stability of the work done by the convicts.
The convict system is referred to frequently in this history, and it may be well to emphasise that the class of men transported to the colony bore no comparison with the desperadoes who were sent out to New South Wales and Tasmania. Western Australia was made a penal settlement at the request of the settlers in a time of stress and in the agreement made with the British authorities it was expressly stipulated that neither criminals of a reckless or dangerous class should be sent out, nor should any female offenders be transported to the colony. The latter condition was strictly carried out, but a portion of the male prisoners proved not up to specification, and it was from those that the chain gangs were formed and recruited. The majority of the convicts proved sincerely desirous of becoming good colonists and succeeded in doing so. Among them were lawyers, doctors, teachers, ex-bankers, journalists, ex-clergymen, civil engineers, architects, master mariners, accountants and others whose presence in the community tended to elevate rather than lower the moral standard of the people. At one time records existed in the prison of particulars of the crimes for which the convicts were tried and convicted in England. Those particulars, sometimes maliciously amplified, of every ex-convict's crime and punishment at times became public property, but on the inauguration of responsible government all those records were burnt. Hitchcock: 33-35.

Ticket of Leave: A ticket-of-leave was granted to a convict after a specified period, depending on his behaviour. Ticket-of-leave men could travel to the district of their choice, but had to report to the town magistrate on arrival and twice a year after that as well as carrying a pass from the magistrate to leave the district. Although they were allowed to work for themselves and others, own land and property and marry, they had to be indoors after 10pm and carry their ticket at all times. A conditional pardon could be granted after half the original sentence was served, allowing the former convicts to leave the colony if they wished, while a certificate of freedom at the end of the full sentence ensured the former convicts could live as free men. (Text from a City of Perth walking trail pamphlet)

Hitchcock 1919:
The convict system has been referred to so frequently in these notes that it maybe be well to mention that the class of men transported to this Colony bore no comparison to the desperadoes who were sent out to the New South Wales and Tasmania. Western Australia was made a penal settlement at its own request, and in the agreement made between the Home authorities and the Colonists it was expressly stipulated that no criminals of a reckless or dangerous class should be sent out, neither should any female offenders be transported to the Colony. The last condition was strictly carried out, but a proportion of the male prisoners proved “not up to specification,” and it was from these that he chain gangs were formed and recruited. The great bulk of the convicts, however, proved sincerely desirous of becoming good colonists, and succeeded. Among them were lawyers, doctors, teachers, ex-bankers, journalists, ex-clergymen, and others whose presence in the community tended to elevate rather than lower the ethical standard of the people. At one time records existed in the prison containing particulars of the crimes for which the convicts were tried and convicted in the old country. These particulars (sometimes maliciously amplified) of every ex-convicts crime and punishment became public property. On the inauguration of Responsible Government all these records were consigned to the flames. This was as it should be as the men who made good had expiated their misdeeds, and it would be unfair to them and their descendants that their antecedents should for ever be exposed to the scrutiny of every petty gaol official. Some of our pharisaical friends in the Eastern States lose no opportunity of reminding us of the stigma which rests upon us as a one-time convict colony, but if there is any stain upon our national record in this respect it is of no deeper dye than that which attaches to Tasmania and New South Wales of which latter colony Victoria then formed a part. As a matter of fact, we ourselves, transported our criminals to those places before we, in a time of stress, appealed to the Home Government to send convicts here. It should be remembered, too, that many men were sent here for very trivial offences, such as poaching, etc., that nowadays would be regarded as venial. Between 1843 and 1848 (which was before the convict era) about 150 boys were sent hither from the Parkhurst Reformatory. Most of them had merely been guilty of some boyish freak, and, having been taught useful trades, the great majority of them ultimately became some of the best and most estimable of our pioneer colonists.

Plan no. 1 is the Site Plan of the Convict Establishment that accompanied the Comptroller-General’s first report on the design of the permanent prison in August 1851. The surveyed town of Fremantle spreads around the South Bay from South Street to Arthur Head, and then up both banks of the river to North and East Fremantle. The site for the Convict Establishment fills in the triangle of the town plan on the limestone scarp rising to the east. PRO National Archives Plan MPGG 1/114/8, ALVA, UWA.

Entry from the catalogue in the National Archives Kew
Catalogue description
13 sheets, (6), (8)-(18) Western Australia: Fremantle. 1 map and 11 sheets of plans,
Reference: MPGG 1/114/6 and 8-18
Description: 13 sheets. (6), (8)-(18) Western Australia: Fremantle. 1 map and 11 sheets of plans, elevations and sections relating to the convict establishment, Fremantle. (6) Ground and upper-floor plans, elevation and section of a cottage barracks for the Pensioners' Guard. Scale: 1 inch to 10 feet [1:120]. (8) Plan of Fremantle, showing buildings, allotments, public reserves, the commissariat, and the convict depot. Reference table to buildings within the convict depot. Scale: 1 inch to 4 chains [1:3,168]. Compass indicator. (9) Plan of the prison building. Reference notes. Scale: 1 inch to 15 feet [1:180]. (10) Elevation of the prison building. Scale: 1 inch to 15 feet [1:180]. (11) Section of the prison building. Scale: 1 inch to about 7.5 feet. (12) Ground and upper-floor plans of the entrance building, comprising houses for the Principal Superintendent, Porter, Warder and Chaplain. Scale: 1 inch to 10 feet [1:120]. (13) Plan of a building containing the guard room, officers’ mess room and single officers' sleeping room. Scale: 1 inch to 10 feet [1:120]. (14) Plan, elevation and section of the chapel. Scale: 1 inch to about 17 feet. (15) Plan and section of a building comprising the wash-house, bake-house, cook-house and baths. Scale: 1 inch to 30 feet [1:360]. (16)-(17) 2 sheets bearing ground and upper-floor plans and sections of cottage accommodation for warders' families. Scale: 1 inch to 10 feet [1:120]. (18) Plan of cottage accommodation for two instructing warders. Scale: 1 inch to 10 feet [1:120]. All items signed: Captain E M W Henderson, Royal Engineers, Comptroller General.
Date: 1851
Held by: National Archives: Kew
Former reference in The National Archives: MPGG 1/114/6 and 8-18

Plan showing the tramway, from NLA. Image of the note follows. Thanks to Diane Oldman for sending them.

[[img/2033846392note.jpg|]]

[[img/convictestablishment2.jpg|]]

Henderson's 1851 plan for a tramway linking the prison with the commissariat and jetty on South Bay. From James Semple Kerr 1998: 27. >
I note that what is now Leake Street is shown as Lorne Street. It's probably merely a scribal error of EYWH or more likely Kerr.

References, Links, Notes

References

Books

Bosworth, Michal 2004, Convict Fremantle: A Place of Promise and Punishment, UWAP.

Bridge, Calliope et al. eds, 2017, Prisoners of the Past, Hesperian.

Broomhall, Frank H 1975, The Veterans: A History of the Enrolled Pensioner Force in Western Australia 1850-1880, Hesperian Press.

Campbell, Robin McKellar 2010, Building the Fremantle Convict Establishment, PhD, UWA (Faculty of Architecture). Available online to download (not from this site) as a 40MB PDF.

Campbell, Rob 2017, Henderson & Coy: Royal Engineers & the Convict Establishment Fremantle, WA, 1850-1872, Faculty of Architecture, UWA.

Clarke, Lorraine & Cherie Strickland 2017, Australia's Last Convicts: Reprobates, Rogues and Recidivists, Friends of Battye Library.

Convict Records of Western Australia: A Research Guide, 2016, Friends of Battye Library, rev. ed.; first publ. 1990.

Crawford, Ian, Anne Delroy & Lynne Stevenson 1992, A History of the Commissariat, Fremantle 1851-1991, WA Museum.

Derrincourt, William 1889, Old Convict Days, ed. Louis Becke, T. Fisher Unwin, London; repub. Penguin, 1975.

Dowson, John 2005, Fremantle: The Future is in the Past: Appreciating the Synagogue Site and its Surrounds, privately published.

Edgar, W.J. 2012, 'Lags': A History of the Western Australian Convict Phenomenon, Tammar Publications, Doubleview.

Gertzel C.J. 1949, The Convict System in Western Australia 1850-1870, Hons dissertation, UWA.

Gill, Andrew 2004, Convict Assignment in Western Australia: 'The Parkhurst Apprentices' 1842-1851, Blatellae Books, Maylands; republ. 2016, Hesperian, Carlisle.

Hasluck, Alexandra 1959, Unwilling Emigrants: A Study of the Convict Period in Western Australia, OUP, Melbourne; repub. A&R, Sydney, 1969; repub. FACP, 1991 [incl. bio of convict William Sykes].

Hitchcock, J.K. 1929, The History of Fremantle, The Front Gate of Australia 1829-1929, Fremantle City Council.

James, MS 2016, A Superior Body of Men, Authorhouse. [Adds further biographical information to the history of the military pensioners who were either discharged in the Colony of Western Australia, came as guards on the convict transports, or immigrated freely to the State.]

Kerr, James Semple 1998, Fremantle Prison: A Policy for its Conservation, Dept of Contract and Management Services for the Fremantle Prison Trust Advisory Committee, rev. ed.

Millett, P.R. 2003, A Mild but Firm System of Discipline: British Convicts and their Punishment in Western Australia 1850-1886, PhD dissertation, UWA.

Potter Sandra 2009, Pathways to Respectability and Upward Socal Mobility: Twelve White-Collar Convicts in the Swan River Colony, MA thesis, UWA. The twelve convicts are: Alfred Letch, John Acton Wroth, Stephen Stout, Miall Malachi Meagher, James Elphinstone Roe, Lionel Holdsworth, Joseph Horrocks, Thomas Palmer, Dr John Sampson, Herman Moll, James Coates Fleming, James Mugatroyde Hubbard.

Reece, Bob ed. 1991, Exiles from Erin: Convict Lives in Ireland and Australia, Macmillan.

Reeves, Noeline 1994, The Development of a Literate Society: A Case-Study of Western Australia 1850-1914, PhD dissertation, Murdoch.

Sherriff Jacqui & Anne Brake 2006, Building a Colony: The Convict Legacy, UWAP.

Trinca, Mat 1993, Convicts and the Controlling Space in Western Australia 1850-1870, Hons dissertation, UWA.

Articles and Reports

Conole, Peter & Diane Oldman 2016, 'Edmund Henderson: Comptroller-General of WA Convicts', Western Ancestor, vol. 13, no. 5 March.

Cullity, Olimpia 2016, 'Reform and punishment: Fremantle Prison, 1850 to 1891', Studies in Western Australian History, 31: 63-79.

Fremantle Hospital, (part of?) Development and Land Use Policy Manual, 1988 (pdf).

Gibbs, Martin 2001, 'The archaeology of the convict system in Western Australia', Australasian Historical Archaeology, 19.

Grassadonia, Silvana 1986, 'Nineteenth century limestone walls and steps in Fremantle', City of Fremantle, August, 44 pp.

Heseltine, William 2004, 'The escape of the military Fenians from Fremantle Prison: the warders' perspective', Fremantle Studies, 3: 26-45.

Hitchcock, J.K. 1919, 'Early Days of Fremantle: High Street 50 Years Ago', Fremantle Times, one of a series of articles on 'Early Days of Fremantle' publ. 21 March - 20 June 1919.

Megahey, Norman 2004, 'Adaptation and resistance: the reaction of Fremantle Prison inmates to incarceration', Fremantle Studies, 3: 14-25.

Megahey, Norman 2010, 'A community apart', Fremantle Studies, 6: 29-42. [on Fremantle Prison riot 1988]

Murray, Sandra 2007, 'Escape! Fremantle to Freedom: an exhibition on the Irish Fenian convicts and their bold escape from the Fremantle Prison to America', Fremantle Studies, 5: 74-86.

Taylor, Sandra, 'Who were the convicts? A statistical analysis of the convicts arriving in Western Australia in 1850/51, 1862/62, and 1866/68', part of an MAPrelim dissertation, History, UWA, 1978.

Trinca, Mat 1997, 'Controlling places', Studies in Western Australian History, 17: 13-34.

Winter, Sean 2013, Global, regional and local networks: archaeological investigation of the Western Australian Penal Colony 1850-1875, PhD dissertation, UWA.

Links

Notes

Thanks to Diane Oldman for providing the map and records obtained from the National Archives Kew, and also for the 1851 tramway plan from Kerr, and the one from Gibbs.

Freotopia

This page incorporates material from Garry Gillard's Freotopia website, that he started in 2014 and the contents of which he donated to Wikimedia Australia in 2024. The content was originally created on 6 October, 2016 and hosted at freotopia.org/organisations/convicts.html (it was last updated on 12 December, 2023). The donated data is also preserved in the Internet Archive's collection.

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