Historic Context

This historical overview of Fremantle Prison has been drawn from previous reports and historical sources including images and maps.

The Convict Period (1850–1886)

Some key dates for this period include:

1849 – Colony of Western Australia is declared a penal colony.
1850 – First ship, carrying seventy-five male convicts and fifty pensioner guards and families, arrives in Fremantle. Elevated site for permanent Convict Establishment is selected.
1851–53 – Construction of the southern wing of the Main Cell Block, Terrace houses and the Warders’ Cottages begins. East Workshops are constructed.
1854–55 – The Entry Complex – including the Gatehouse, entry court, military and civil guard houses flanking the inner gate – is constructed. Southern wing of Main Cell Block is constructed and the first convicts are transferred to site. Perimeter walls are completed.
1857–59 – Guard room, Hospital and carpenter shop are constructed. Northern wing of Main Cell Block is completed.
1859 – Fremantle Convict Establishment is officially opened on 31 December.
1867 – Fremantle Convict Establishment is renamed Fremantle Prison.
1868 – Transportation of convicts to Western Australia officially ceases. Nearly 10,000 convicts were transported to the colony.i

The transportation of convicts to Western Australia was commenced to address severe labour shortages in the struggling twenty-year old colony. Convicts were initially accommodated at the extended premises of the harbourmaster.ii In August 1850, a permanent site (Figure 9) for the Convict Establishment was selected, ‘at the hill at the back of the church … the locality is well adapted for securing the health of the prisoners’.iii Work began on the Convict Establishment in 1852 and was completed in 1859.iv The southern part of the Main Cell Block, with Association Ward, was completed by 1855 (Figure 10); with the northern block completed between 1855 and 1857. The Terrace, to the north and south of the Gatehouse, incorporated residences which accommodated Prison officials. These buildings can be seen in images of the 1850s (Figure 11) and 1860s (Figure 12).

The Fremantle Convict Establishment operated as a depot for the accommodation of convicts, who were housed in the complex and worked outside the Prison during the day. The convicts were variously employed in the construction of public infrastructure including roads, bridges and public buildings, as well as in agriculture and mining for free settlers.v The approach of the Western Australian government towards convicts in this period is considered to have been more enlightened than other colonies. There was a strong emphasis on instilling good habits and a focus on religious instruction, with convicts earning ‘marks’ for behaviour, access to the library and ‘gymnasium’, and the opportunity to earn their ticket-of-leave.vi The Refractory Cell Block, however, was a cruel form of accommodation and punishment for the most problematic and troublesome convicts, including some confinement in windowless (dark) cells.

The convict transportation system ended in 1868, and the numbers of convicts housed at the Prison subsequently declined.

Figure 10. Survey Plan of 1844, updated to show convict depot reserve (Source: Item 126, Fremantle 19R, Chauncy Fieldbook 8, State Records Office, Western Australia).

Figure 11. Undated early plan of Fremantle Prison, showing construction to c1855, including southern wing of Main Cell Block and Gatehouse complex. North is to the right of plan (Source: Fremantle Prison).

Figure 12. Watercolour of complete Convict Establishment, 1859 by Henry Wray (Source: National Library of Victoria).

Figure 13. Illustration of the Convict Establishment Fremantle, 1866 by T H J Browne (Source: State Library of New South Wales).

Figure 14. View of The Terrace, including residences and Gatehouse, c1860s (Source: State Library of Western Australia).

Figure 15. Convict working party returning to Fremantle Prison, c1870 (Source: Fremantle Prison Collection, as reproduced in World Heritage Nomination).

Figure 16. Detail of ‘Plan showing the more populous portion of the Town of Fremantle’, by Surveyor General’s Office, 1885, showing the development of the Convict Establishment just prior to its transfer to Colonial Government (Source: State Library of Western Australia).

Colonial/Early State Period (1886–1918)

Some key dates for this period include:

1886 – Control of Fremantle Prison is transferred to Western Australian Colonial Government.
1888 – Prisoners are relocated from Perth Gaol to Fremantle Prison. Gallows are built at the Prison, which is by now the only legal place of execution in the colony. A tunnels system for water supply is constructed.
1889 – Female Division (Women’s Prison) is constructed at north-west of site.
1898 – A Royal Commission is undertaken into the operation of the penal system.
1900s – West Workshops is constructed in 1900–1901; alterations are made to Main Cell Block and Exercise Yards. The New Division with radial exercise yards is constructed at north-east of site.
1911 – A Royal Commission into Fremantle Prison sees the implementation of additional reforms.

By 1886 only fifty convicts were imprisoned at Fremantle, in a prison designed to accommodate 1,000 people. That year, the British authorities transferred Fremantle Prison to the Western Australian colonial administration, marking the end of the convict system.vii Fremantle Prison became the colony’s main prison for men, women and children.viii The gold rush period of the 1890s also saw an increase in the prison population. Separate facilities for the incarceration of women were established in the north-west corner of the site.

In 1898, a Royal Commission was established to investigate the systems of punishment at the Prison including the classification of prisoners, sanitary conditions and the administration of the Prison. ix The report noted that the ‘structural arrangement of Fremantle Gaol [is] in no way adapted to meet the very varied purposes which it is now required to serve.’x One of the key recommendations was the abolition of dark cells (in the Refractory Cell Block) and that a proper system of prisoner classification be introduced. These recommendations resulted in the division of the Main Cell Block and associated yards into four sections, and the increase in cell size.xi

Employment for prisoners was also created within the Prison, ending the system of external work. As a result, the West Workshops were constructed, providing prisoners with experience in tailoring, bookbinding, shoe making, mat making and sign painting.

The Prison population again increased in the early 1900s, following the closure of the Rottnest Island Prison and relocation of its inmates. In this period, Fremantle Prison also began to be locally referred to as ‘the house on the hill’, and its inmates as ‘compulsory residents’, often in conjunction with reports on prison conditions.xii A new cell division (the New Division), for the separate accommodation of early stage prisoners and first time offenders, including a distinctive radial exercise yard, was constructed to the east of the Female Division, increasing the site’s overall capacity.

A Royal Commission in 1911 resulted in the system of ‘marks’ being reintroduced, which earned prisoners’ shorter sentences for good behaviour. Other changes introduced in this period relating to prisoner welfare and reform included leisure activities, prisoner-run vegetable gardens and increased educational opportunities.xiii Superintendent Hann, who had been appointed in 1911, was responsible for much of the reform in the 1910s, including the demolition of the radial exercise yards of the New Division, after only five years of use. Hann retired in 1919, following injuries received breaking up an altercation between a prisoner and a warden.xiv

Figure 17. View of rear (east) boundary of Prison, c1897.

Figure 18. Plan of Fremantle Prison, 1888 with updates c1910 to show Workshops (top right) and New Division with radial Exercise Yards (top left). North is to the left of plan (Source: Fremantle Prison Collection, as reproduced in Fremantle Prison: Heritage Management Plan, 2013, p. 89).

Figure 19. Cultivated gardens at south end of site, part of the reforms during the early 1900s, c1910 (Source: Fremantle Prison Collection).

Figure 20. The radial Exercise Yards of the New Division, c1907–1911, prior to demolition (Source: The Western Mail, 14 August 1909; https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/37591551/3450285).

Post–World War (1918–Present)

Some key dates for this period include:

1920 – A portion of the Prison is set aside as a reformatory prison.
1940–45 – A part of the Prison is occupied by the Department of Defence during World War II, and is returned to civil use after the war.
Post-1945 – A variety of structures is constructed on and below Knoll terraces.
1964 – Eric Edgar Cooke is the last man hanged in Western Australia.
1968 – Prisoners riot over conditions.
1970 – Inmates of Female Prison and staff are transferred to Bandyup Women’s Training Centre, and Female Prison buildings become part of the male prison.
1979 – Fremantle Prison Museum is established.
1988 – A fire occurs during a riot at the Prison.
1991 – Inmates are transferred and Fremantle Prison is closed as a penal institution.
1992 – Fremantle Prison opens to the public as a museum and cultural attraction.

Although Fremantle Prison operated until 1991, there was little in the way of major physical change at the site during this period, aside from the introduction of a new Prison reception and the introduction of shelters in the Exercise Yards. The absence of major change can be seen in the aerial photographs of 1935, 1947 and 1977 below (Figures 20-22). Generally, however, the twentieth century saw an overall deterioration in the buildings at the site, until the conclusion of prison operations and heritage protection in the 1990s.

A portion of the Prison was set aside as a reformatory prison, to separate first time offenders from reoffenders. The New Division was used by the Department of Defence in World War II for military prisoners, including enemy ‘combatants’ and ‘illegals’.xv The demographics of the Prison changed through this period, particularly in the second half of the twentieth century. Aboriginal prisoners were segregated from the rest of the Prison population until 1965. Female prisoners were relocated to a new facility in 1970.

A riot by prisoners in 1968 brought attention to the conditions in which inmates were accommodated. As noted in a newspaper article following the riot, ‘Prisoners still have a sanitary bucket in their cell at night … there are two or three prisoners crammed in many of the ‘single’ cells.’xvi In 1988, a riot involving 130 prisoners broke out over prison conditions and the mistreatment of a prisoner, with five officers taken hostage. The riot had been preceded by a sit-in protest of 120 prisoners in the previous weeks. Parts of the Prison were set alight and approximately $2 million of damage was caused to the Main Cell Block.xvii Although new security measures were put in place following the riot, it was this incident that ultimately brought about the Prison’s closure in 1991. The Prison was officially disestablished on 30 November 1991.xviii

During this period the heritage significance of the site was recognised, first by the National Trust (1960s-1980s), and then by its inclusion on the Register of the National Estate (1978) and the State Register of Heritage Places (1992). The first Conservation Analysis for the site was produced by James Semple Kerr in 1992. Fremantle Prison was included on the National Heritage List in 2005. In 2010, as part of a serial listing of 11 convict sites in Australia, it was inscribed on the World Heritage List. Fremantle Prison was opened as a museum and tourist attraction in 1992.

Figure 21. Aerial view of Fremantle Prison, 1935. Note clearly separated Female Division (Source: State Library of Western Australia).

Figure 22. Aerial photograph of Fremantle Prison, 1947 (Source: Landgate, Western Australia).

Figure 23. Aerial photographs of Fremantle Prison, 1977 (Source: Landgate, Western Australia).

Figure 24. Fire in Main Cell Block during 1988 riot (Source: Reproduced in West Australian, 13 February 2018).

Endnotes

Timeline drawn from chronology in Palassis, Fremantle Prison Conservation Management Plan, 2008, pp. 11–12.
James Semple Kerr, Fremantle Prison Conservation Management Plan, revised, 1998, p. 3.
The Perth Gazette and Independent Journal of Politics and News, 5 July 1850, p. 2 and 30 August 1850, p. 2.
James Semple Kerr, Fremantle Prison Conservation Management Plan, revised, 1998, p. 4.
Government of Australia, Australian Convict Sites, World Heritage Nomination, 2008, p. 46.
Government of Australia, Australian Convict Sites, World Heritage Nomination, 2008, p. 59.
Government of Australia, Australian Convict Sites, World Heritage Nomination, 2008, p. 46.
Fremantle Prison, Fremantle Prison: Heritage Management Plan, 2013, p. 42.
Fremantle Prison, Fremantle Prison: Heritage Management Plan, 2013, p. 43.
West Australian, 24 December 1898, p. 3.
Fremantle Prison, Fremantle Prison: Heritage Management Plan, 2013, p. 44.
See for example, Truth, 6 March 1909, p.3, Daily News; 29 January 1917, p. 6; Sunday Times, 25 May 1924, p. 10.
Fremantle Prison, Fremantle Prison: Heritage Management Plan, 2013, p. 45.
Daily News, 26 December 1911, p. 2 and West Australian, 8 November 1919, p. 7.
Fremantle Prison, Fremantle Prison: Heritage Management Plan, 2013, p. 46.
Tribune, 19 June 1968, p. 4.
West Australian, 19 February 2018, accessed via https://thewest.com.au/news/wa/how-a-riot-brought-the-demise-of-fremantle-Prison-30-years-ago-and-how-its-incorporated-in-new-tours-ng-b88744427z, 24 April 2018 and Canberra Times, 5 January 1988, p. 1.
James Semple Kerr, Fremantle Prison Conservation Management Plan, revised, 1998, p. 5.