Fremantle Prison

We thought it was appropriate to go visit the temporary accommodation of our previous ancestors that were shipped over to build this place back in 1850.

Fremantle Prison was built as a convict barracks in the 19th century and remained in continual use until 1991. The Prison was a place of hangings, floggings, dramatic convict escapes and prisoner riots. Inmates included imperial convicts, colonial prisoners, enemy aliens, prisoners of war and maximum-security detainees.

The first convict transport sailed into Fremantle Harbour in 1850. The Convict Establishment, as the prison was first known, was built by convict labour between 1852 and 1859 using limestone quarried on the site. The first prisoners moved into the main cell block in 1855.

The Establishment was renamed Fremantle Prison in 1867. Transportation ceased the following year when the Hougoumont carried the last convicts to Fremantle. Nearly 10 000 convicts passed through the ‘establishment’ between 1850 and 1868.

At first only imperial convicts were confined at Fremantle Prison. By 1886 less than 60 convicts remained inside a prison built to hold 1000 men. Perth Gaol closed and Fremantle Prison became the colony’s primary place of confinement for men, women and juveniles. With the population boom of the 1890s gold rush, Fremantle Prison became busy once again.

More space had to be found for a burgeoning prison population. After the Rottnest Island Aboriginal Prison closed in 1903, prisoners from Fremantle Prison were sent to the island to carry out public works. New Division was built and opened in 1907. During the Second World War, the Australian Defence Department sequestered part of the prison as a military detention centre. A large number of Italian Australians, identified as ‘enemy aliens’ were incarcerated at Fremantle during the war.

Following a series of prisoner riots and growing concerns with prison conditions, a royal commission in 1983 recommended the Prison’s closure. Female prisoners had already been transferred to a new facility at Bandyup Women's Prison in 1970. Fremantle was decommissioned on 8 November 1991 and its prisoners transferred to Casuarina Prison, replacing Fremantle Prison as the state's main maximum-security prison.

After its closure the WA state government embarked on a long-term conservation plan to ensure the Prison’s preservation for future generations. Fremantle Prison is one of the largest surviving convict prisons in the world today.

We thought it was appropriate to go visit the temporary accommodation of our previous ancestors that were shipped over to build this place back in 1850

1849 - ORDER OF COUNCIL
Included in the dispatches sent to the Colonial Office in London by Governor Fitzgerald were "a set of resolutions…demanding the formation of a penal establishment on a large scale" delivered to him by a deputation from a public meeting held in Perth on 23 February. Secretary of State for the Colonies in London, Earl Grey, had an Order in Council passed permitting the Governor to declare the colony "a place to which convicts could be sent". This allowed ticket of leave men to be included amongst transportees, but they "had to be connected with some kind of establishment". Unwilling Emigrants (1959) 

1849 - COLONIAL POLICE FORCE EST
The Western Australian Police Force was officially established by the Police Ordinance Act. This Act established a formal police force with a Chief of Police, supported by a legislated organisational structure

1850 - FIRST CONVICTS ARRIVE
Convicts in WA arrived off Fremantle with the first shipment of 75 transportees aboard the chartered Indiaman Scindian on 1 June. Early convicts were men selected because they had almost finished their sentences and were therefore less difficult to control. There were no female convicts sent to WA. The first Convict Establishment was situated in premises leased from the Harbour Master of Fremantle, Captain Daniel Scott, consisting of a wool shed and some other buildings which occupied the land about where the Esplanade Hotel presently stands; a limestone store was added by convict labour later. All the original buildings were demolished to make way for other structures over time. Convict Depots, to handle the distribution of ticket of leave men, were gradually established in metropolitan and country areas including Fremantle, North Fremantle, Freshwater Bay (Claremont), Mt Eliza (at foot of Kings Park, Perth), Guildford, York, Toodyay, Bunbury, Albany, Champion Bay District (near Geraldton), Port Gregory (coast north of Geraldton) and Greenough. Ticket of leave men were allowed to send for their wives provided they had the money for it.

1852 - CONSTRUCTION BEGINS
Ninety five sappers and miners, 20 Field Company, Royal Engineers arrived. Construction of the 4 two storey houses lining the west boundary wall at the front of the Establishment began; these were to house the senior officers of the institution and were all completed by 1857. A grand two-storey house, designed by Henderson (later to be known as ‘The Knowle’) was built slightly to the south of the Establishment. He moved into it with his wife and their young son when it was completed (this became the original premises of Fremantle Hospital when that institution was founded in 1897; it still stands in the Hospital grounds). In November the building of the Main Cell Block of the Convict Establishment began.

1855 - MAIN CELL BLOCK OPENED
Southern wing of Convict Establishment’s Main Cell Block opened for use – On June 1 first convicts transferred from temporary Establishment at Scott’s Warehouse. Boundary walls of permanent Establishment completed.

1859 - OFFICALLY COMPLETED
Convict Establishment project at Fremantle officially completed on 31 December.

1861-1864 - ASYLUM BUILT
Asylum at Fremantle (now the Fremantle Arts Centre) built by convict labour.

1868 - TRANSPORT ENDS
Transportation of convicts from UK to Western Australia (and to Australia) officially ended. The last ship carrying 280 convicts was the Hougoumont, which arrived on 9 January. "It is believed that 9501 convicts stepped onto Western Australian soil alive" conveyed here on the voyages of variously named vessels

1888 - ALLOWS BUILT
The gallows (execution chamber) built at Fremantle Prison — from this timeBandyupbecame the colony’s (and later the State’s) only legal place of execution.

1889- NW CORNER WALLED OFF
The north-west corner of Fremantle Prison was walled off and some extra buildings added; this became Female Division (Women’s Prison).


1964 - LAST EXECUTION
Tried and convicted for murder, Eric Edgar Cooke was hanged at Fremantle Prison. In Western Australia, he was the last man to face capital punishment (later officially abolished by an act of State Parliament in 1984). Cooke was a serial killer, and although he was tried for only one murder, that of John Stucke, evidence plus his own confessions suggest he killed others during his 3 or 4 year reign of terror in the suburbs of Perth.

1969-1970 - FEMALE PRISONERS TRANSFERED
Inmates and staff of Female Division (Women’s Prison) were transferred to Bandyup Women’s Training Centre a newly built medium security facility (about 16 km from Perth) in January 1970.Læs mere