‘ Gaol and Colonial Penality 1875 to 1888’

Taruia Tangaroa Nicholls

BEcon BCom BA(Murd) MCrimJus(Dist)(W.Aust)

This thesis is presented for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy of The University of .

Faculty of Arts, Business, Law and Education

School of Humanities and School of Law

2020

Declaration

I, Taruia Tangaroa Nicholls, certify that:

This thesis has been substantially accomplished during enrolment in this degree.

This thesis does not contain material which has been submitted for the award of any other degree or diploma in my name, in any university or other tertiary institution.

In the future, no part of this thesis will be used in a submission in my name, for any other degree or diploma in any university or other tertiary institution without the prior approval of The University of Western Australia and where applicable, any partner institution responsible for the joint-award of this degree.

This thesis does not contain any material previously published or written by another person, except where due reference has been made in the text and, where relevant, in the Authorship Declaration that follows.

This thesis does not violate or infringe any copyright, trademark, patent, or other rights whatsoever of any person.

This thesis does not contain work that I have published, nor work under review for publication.

22 July 2020

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Abstract

The dual aims of ‘ and Colonial Penality 1875 to 1888’ are to understand the role of Perth Gaol and its place within the wider Western Australian colonial carceral system, and to learn more about the Gaol itself, including its routine, the prisoners, and staff. As such, this thesis has compared Perth Gaol and in Western Australia, with the English local gaols and convict . Prisoners in local gaols had been sentenced to a short period of imprisonment for public order offences, whereas convict prisons held those who had been sentenced to penal servitude. During the 1820s and 1830s, English and American prison administrators began to adopt what was called the ‘’, which advocated keeping prisoners in . , as the colony’s convict prison, kept prisoners isolated for three months before they joined other prisoners either on work parties, or working around the prison. In keeping prisoners separated, it was hoped they would not be morally corrupted by others, and that the solitude would provide an opportunity for repentance.

In contrast, Perth Gaol held prisoners in association rather than being separated. In this way, Perth Gaol assumed the role of the local gaol, and held prisoners who had been remanded for trial, imprisoned for less serious crimes including public order offences, or who were to be executed. Prisoners being kept in association was a tacit acknowledgement that local gaols, including Perth Gaol, were not intended to be reformative, but rather, to act as a deterrent. Punishment was not just incarceration; every prisoner was also required to join a public works party to build roads, quarry stone or to work about the gaol. Crucially, convicts, who were either still under their original sentence or on a ticket of leave, remained the financial responsibility of the British Government, whereas those who had been granted their conditional pardon or became the responsibility of the Colonial Administration. Former convicts who re-offended were a financial impost on the Colonial finances.

This thesis has also examined Perth Gaol within a wider social history of colonial Western Australia. It has used reports from the Colonial administration, and prisoner authored stories, to follow prisoners, warders, contractors, clergy and their families as they negotiated the intersection of the free and incarcerated worlds through a strict daily routine, forced manual labour and the hope of an early release by petitioning for a remission in their sentence. This research will show that the typical prisoner was a former convict who had served a short sentence for being drunk and that, despite the Government’s best efforts, Perth Gaol had failed to deter criminal offending.

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Acknowledgements

This research would not have been possible without the love and support of va’ine Victoria, metua Taiura, metua va’ine Bethwyn and the matriarch, tupuna va’ine Gwyneth.

To my supervisors Dr Ethan Blue and Professors Harry Blagg, Jane Lydon and Neil Morgan, Graduate Research Coordinators Professors Camilla Baasch Andersen, Holly Cullen, Kieran Dolin, Alex Gardner and Dr Lara-Louise O’Sullivan. This research was supported by an Australian Government Research Training Program (RTP) Scholarship.

To my friends Associate Professor Anna Ferrante from and Professor Mark Israel from Murdoch University whose provision of scholarship references / food / drink / books (cross out whichever is not applicable) is greatly appreciated. Also to Mr Brian Purdue who spoke with me about his book ‘Legal Executions’ and the staff of the State Records Office who dutifully retrieved my five items, twice a day. To Dr Patrick Halloran from the Murdoch University College of Science, Health, Engineering and Education whose forbearance in the face of forever shifting deadlines is much appreciated.

My thanks also to UWA Publishing for permission to reproduce convict data found in R. Erickson, (Ed), Dictionary of Western Australians 1829-1914, vol. 2, Perth, Western Australia, University of Western Australia Press, 1979.

And to my friends Dr Lee Ah Loi, Janet Griffiths, Toby Whitnall, Kaaren Malcolm and Mike Rogers whose steadfastness and patience was surely tested over the past half decade, but who provided much needed respite from the daily regimen of prisons and databases.

iii Table of Contents

Contents Declaration ...... Abstract ...... ii Acknowledgements ...... iii Glossary ...... vii Introduction ...... 1 Research Background ...... 1 Research Objectives ...... 2 Research Focus ...... 3 Value of this Research ...... 8 Chapter One – Perth Gaol and Colonial Penology ...... 10 Introduction – Perth Gaol and the Colonial Carceral System ...... 10 The Rise of Imprisonment ...... 12 The Western Australian Colonial Criminal Justice System ...... 18 The Perth Gaol Building ...... 20 The Colonial Carceral System during the Operation of Perth Gaol 1875 to 1888 ...... 27 Separate (Fremantle Prison) and Silent (Perth Gaol) ...... 32 Houses of Correction and Local Gaols ...... 41 Conclusion ...... 48 Chapter Two - Colonial Crime and Imprisonment ...... 51 Introduction ...... 51 Colonial Crime Before Perth Gaol ...... 52 The Prisoners of Perth Gaol ...... 56 Perth Gaol Prisoner Classification ...... 58 Prisoner Status and the Morning State ...... 61 Prisoners Held for Trial ...... 64 Bodily Punishment ...... 65 Types of Offences and Sentences in Perth Gaol ...... 71 Statistics on the Male Prisoners of Perth Gaol ...... 76 Female Prisoners ...... 78 Indigenous Prisoners ...... 90 Juvenile Male Prisoners ...... 94

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Conclusion ...... 102 Chapter Three - The Routine of Colonial Perth Gaol ...... 105 Introduction ...... 105 Work Parties ...... 107 Internal Gaol Punishment ...... 114 Diet ...... 121 Sheriff, Gaoler, Warders and the Matron ...... 125 The Life as a Warder ...... 128 Perth Gaol Medical Officer ...... 134 Inspections and Visitors...... 138 Friends, Family, Clergy and Lawyers...... 142 Discharge from Gaol ...... 144 Remission of Sentence...... 145 Deaths ...... 156 Conclusion ...... 160 Conclusion ...... 163 Future Research ...... 168 Appendix: Data Methodology and Offence Classification ...... 169 Bibliography ...... 179

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Glossary

Committal A committal is classified as a single custodial sentence or a period of imprisonment and is a useful way to understand overcrowding in Perth Gaol. For ease of analysis, this thesis has determined that one individual prisoner who had been imprisoned three times would be a responsible for three committals.

This research has determined that 2,818 distinct individuals were responsible for 6,217 committals in Perth Gaol between May 1875 and March 1888.

Conditional Pardon Convicts who had served half of their sentence on probation and had been issued a ticket of leave could be granted a conditional pardon. This meant they were no longer restricted to a specified geographical district and could move freely throughout the colony, get married, serve on a jury, and own a firearm.

If a former convict did re-offend then the cost of the trial and any subsequent punishment fell to the Colonial Treasury, as he (Western Australia never received female convicts) was no longer under the control of the Convict Establishment, which was operated by the British Government.

Under pressure from other Australian Colonies who did not want convicts crossing the border, the system was amended in 1864, so those who had been granted a ‘Conditional release’ could not leave the colony until after the expiration of their sentence.

Convict A convict is someone who had been convicted of an offence outside of Western Australia for which he was subsequently sentenced to transportation. Those who arrived in Western Australia were initially part of the Convict Establishment at Fremantle. Perth Gaol imprisoned 1,224 former convicts who were responsible for 4,166 separate committals (See ‘Committals’).

The Convict Establishment, which consisted of the Imperial controlled administration and infrastructure including Fremantle Prison, also included convicts who were on a ticket-of-leave and the enrolled pensioner guards.

Convict Prison Convict Prisons in England, including and Pentonville, based on the American Penitentiary, were intended for the reformation of prisoners. Adopting the separate system of discipline, prisoners were confined in a single cell, in isolation, so they could use the solitude to facilitate their religious conversion. The initial eighteen months’ in solitary confinement was seen to be psychologically detrimental, so this period was gradually reduced to nine months.

vi At a time when transportation was becoming untenable as a system of punishment, these prisons were seen as a way to reform prisoners so that they were more palatable for the colonies still receiving convicts. Convict prisons held all prisoners who had been sentenced to transportation or penal servitude.

Expiree See ‘Local Prisoner’.

Fremantle Asylum On the recommendation of the Colonial Surgeon, and with the acquiescence of the Executive Council, prisoners from Perth Gaol were on occasion sent to the Fremantle Lunatic Asylum.

Fremantle Local Built in 1831, the Fremantle Local Gaol replaced the shipwreck of the Gaol Marquis of Anglesea as the colony’s only Gaol. It was colloquially known as ‘the Roundhouse’ because of its circular shape.

Fremantle Prison Fremantle Prison was built between 1852 and 1859 by convict labour and, originally contained more than 500 individual cells, plus association wards for an additional 320 prisoners. Those sentenced to a period of penal servitude (which replaced the punishment of transportation), would invariably complete their term of imprisonment at Fremantle Prison. The prison fulfilled the penitentiary role similar to that performed by Pentonville and Millbank Prisons in England.

Free Prisoners in Perth Gaol who had not been former convicts were classified as ‘Free’ in the ‘Perth Gaol Register of Prisoners’. It is likely this was only for British or Australian born prisoners, as non- Europeans were classified according to their ethnicity, for example ‘Creole’ or ‘Chinese’.

House of Correction The House of Correction, as it was used in England, was intended for prisoners serving short sentences. These included Holloway, Cold Bath Fields (for adult males), Tothill Fields (for juvenile males and adult women) and Wandsworth Common. These are also known as Correctional Prisons, and should be distinguished from Convict Prisons such as Millbank, Pentonville and Brixton, and from public works prisons such as Portland. These institutions were under the management of County Magistrates. Prisoners were likely to be put to labour for punitive reasons, rather than for profit.

House of Detention The House of Detention, as it was used in England, was intended for individuals who had been remanded for trial. Once sentenced, prisoners were transferred to a House of Correction (for short sentences of no more than two years), or to a Convict Prison (if they had been sentenced to transportation or a period of penal servitude). These included Clerkenwell, Newgate and Horsemonger Lane.

vii Local Prisoner Former convicts who had either received a certificate of freedom or whose sentence had expired and were subsequently held in Perth Gaol, were either classified as EXP (Expiree) or LOC (Local). In the Perth Gaol Register this classification was followed by their former Convict Number. The few prisoners who were on their ticket of leave were classified as such in the gaol register of prisoners.

Local Gaol County gaols, operated by the local government, like Perth Gaol, held prisoners both on remand and who had been sentenced. This thesis has used the phrase ‘local gaol’ to represent those institutions which included the dual functions of holding prisoners both on remand (the role of the House of Detention) and those who had already been sentenced to a short period of imprisonment (House of Correction). Like Perth Gaol, the local gaol did not hold prisoners who had been sentenced to penal servitude.

Penal Labour In this thesis, penal labour is used to describe labour performed by English convicts which was not useful or constructive. Penal labour was not intended to provide convicts with meaningful toil, or which would allow them to gain skills to be used upon their release from prison. Penal labour such as walking on a tread wheel for six hours a day or turning a crank handle with twelve pounds resistance usually served no real productive purpose. Penal labour was not used for adult prisoners in Perth Gaol; however juveniles and invalids did break rocks for the use on road projects.

See ‘Works Parties’.

Penal Servitude With the passing of 19th Victoria No 8 An Ordinance to Substitute other Punishment in lieu of Transportation in 1856, the sentence of ‘transportation across the seas’, was replaced with a period of imprisonment in the colony (called penal servitude). The legislation was regarded as necessary, because no Australian colony was willing to accept transported convicts, including those from Western Australia. Western Australian prisoners sentenced to penal servitude were invariably sent to Fremantle Prison, but had in the past, been sent to Van Diemen’s Land.

Penitentiary See ‘Convict Prison’. Perth Gaol The principal Colonial gaol in Western Australia between 1875 and 1888.

Prisoner Status and This thesis has identified two ways in which the Gaol administratively Prisoner separated prisoners; prisoner status and prisoner classification. The Classification status of a prisoner was identified at the morning muster and could change over the period of imprisonment, whereas the prisoner classification was determined when the prisoner was first received by the gaol, and which appeared to remain unchanged for the duration of their sentence. For example, Prisoner McDonald, was first admitted to

viii Perth Gaol on trial, was subsequently found guilty, and sentenced by the Supreme Court to be hanged. This was later commuted. As such, his prisoner status was changed from ‘Trial’, to ‘Condemned’, to ‘Colonial’, before he was transferred to Fremantle Prison to complete his imprisonment. Administratively, the main separation was between male prisoners who were former convicts from those who were classified as ‘free’, female prisoners, Indigenous prisoners, juveniles. Remission Prisoners at Perth Gaol may receive a remission of their sentence either through good conduct whilst on a works party, through directly petitioning the Governor, or both. Prisoners who had been on a works party for at least one month could be eligible for a remission of some of their sentence. Prisoners who were serving a sentence of less than one month were ineligible for remission for good conduct on the works. Roundhouse See ‘Fremantle Local Gaol’.

Rottnest Island Originally opened in 1838, the prison was temporarily closed between Native Prison 1849 and 1855, when it was re-opened following the arrival of convicts. It finally closed in 1901. The majority of Indigenous prisoners in Perth Gaol were transferred to to complete their sentence.

Ticket of Leave A ticket of leave allowed a convict who was still under sentence, to be at liberty in the colony (albeit with strict conditions). Tickets were usually granted once convicts had served their minimum sentence, but many were granted theirs upon arrival in Fremantle.

Ticket holders were assigned to a geographical district, where they could seek private employment. Those without work were sent to a hiring depot. Strict regulations governing their conduct meant that even minor infractions, could result in the ticket holder being returned to Fremantle Prison.

In 1862, the ticket of leave system was extended to those convicts who had been reconvicted. If they could avoid being reconvicted again, or become unemployed, they were eligible to be granted a conditional pardon.

Transportation See ‘Convict’ and ‘Penal Servitude’.

Works Party All prisoners at Perth Gaol were required to join a Works Party. Some parties lasted for the length of the Gaol, such as the steam dredge and working in the Domain. Other parties were only constituted for short- term projects, such as decorating the Town Hall or setting up the Girls’ School for student examinations. Works parties also operated inside the Gaol and included washing, sewing, cleaning and hairdressing.

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Introduction

Research Background

Built by convict labour on a hill overlooking the settlement’s capital, Perth Gaol was the principal colonial gaol in Western Australia between 1875 and 1888. Occupying the centre of an extensive carceral system for a colony with a relatively small population, Perth Gaol held prisoners who had been remanded for trial and those who had been sentenced to a relatively short period of imprisonment. Prisoners, who had been sentenced to a period of penal servitude, a form of long- term imprisonment which slowly replaced transportation as a punishment option, were instead sent to Fremantle Prison. Over the thirteen years that Perth Gaol was operational, 2,818 men, women and juveniles, were imprisoned there at least once. Perth Gaol also acted as a funnel through which all prisoners flowed, if not to their eventual freedom, then to other parts of the carceral system, including Fremantle Prison, the Boys’ Reformatory, the Asylum or the Rottnest Native Prison.

The dual aims of this thesis are to fill the considerable knowledge gap in the existing scholarship of the Western Australian criminal justice system by exploring the relationship between Perth Gaol and other components of the carceral system, and to investigate how the gaol operated as an institution. Existing Perth Gaol research is overwhelmingly archaeological and, whilst it is comprehensive, there is little information pertaining to the identity of individual prisoners. To rectify this omission, this thesis has engaged with archival sources to construct a series of datasets to better understand the offences of prisoners, how they were treated whilst imprisoned, who guarded them, and how they were discharged. Although there is some existing scholarship on transported convicts sent to the colony, there is no research specifically addressing the imprisonment of individual prisoners classified as ‘free’ (which includes European and non- European immigrants, indentured workers and those born in the colony), women, juveniles, or Indigenous prisoners in Perth Gaol.1

1 L. Bavin, ‘The Punishment Administered: Archaeology and Penal Institutions in the , Western Australia’, PhD Thesis, The University of Western Australia, 1994; O. Cullity, ‘Reform and Punishment: Fremantle Prison 1850 to 1890’, Studies in Western Australian History, vol.31, 2016, pp. 63-79; WJ. Edgar, ‘The Convict Era in Western Australia: Its Economic, Social and Political Consequences’, PhD Thesis, Murdoch University, 2014; R. Erickson, ‘What It Was to Be an Ex-Convict in Western Australia’, Westerly, no. 3, September 1985; M. Gibbs, ‘The Convict Places of Western Australia’, in J. Sherriff and A. Brake (Eds), Building a Colony: The Convict Legacy, Studies

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Existing scholarship into colonial imprisonment in Western Australia is also heavily reliant on aggregated prisoner returns from the Blue Book statistical returns, which were sent by all Colonial Administrations to the Imperial Government in . These returns fail to account for recidivist criminal offending, or identify whether the prisoners were either former convicts or defined by the colony as ‘free’. By using unit record data, it is now known that the 2,818 prisoners in Perth Gaol had been collectively found guilty of 7,371 separate offences and were subsequently gaoled 6,217 times. Of the adult male prisoners, 52 percent were former transported convicts; however, as a cohort, they were much more likely to re-offend and find themselves back in gaol than their free settler counterparts. Former convicts had a colonial re-imprisonment rate of 3.4 times compared to the non-convict rate of 1.57. On the female side of the Gaol, the 243 individual adult female prisoners had a reimprisonment rate of 4.64. The Gaol also held 72 individual Indigenous prisoners and 123 juveniles (118 boys and 5 girls). Prisoners were likely to have been sentenced for public order offences, such as disorderly conduct, public drunkenness or vagrancy.

Research Objectives

The overall aim of this thesis is to provide a specialist understanding of Perth Gaol and its role within the Western Australian criminal justice system.

The research objectives to achieve this aim are:

in Western Australian History, Perth, Western Australia, The University of Western Australia, 2006; B. Godfrey and D. Cox, 'The Last Fleet': Crime, Reformation and Punishment in Western Australia after 1868’, The Australian and New Zealand Journal of Criminology, vol.41, no. 2, 2008, p. 22; JHM, Honniball, ‘The Life and Times of Sir Frederick Palgrave Barlee’, PhD Thesis, The University of Western Australia, 1974; N. Hudson-Rodd and G. Farrell, ‘The Round House Gaol: Western Australia's First Lunatic Asylum’, Australian and New Zealand Journal of Mental Health Nursing, vol. 7, 1998, p. 10; W. Matthews, ‘A Means of Punishment: The Mount Eliza Depot 1878-1905’, Studies in Western Australian History, vol. 25, 2007; M. McPherson, ‘A Class of Utterly Useless Men’, Building a Colony: The Convict Legacy, Studies in Western Australian History, vol. 24, 2006; P. Millett, ‘[a] Mild but Firm System of Discipline: British Convicts and Their Punishment in Western Australia 1850-1880’, PhD Thesis, The University of Western Australia, 2003; P. Millett, ‘The Distribution of an Offensive Population: Classification and Convicts in Fremantle Prison 1850-1865’, Studies in Western Australian History, no. 25, 2007, p. 40-56; MP. Morison and J. White, ‘Builders, Buildings’, in CT Stannage (Ed), A New History of Western Australia, Perth, Australia, UWA Press, 1983; E. Russell, A History of the Law in WA and Its Development from 1829-1979, Perth Western Australia, UWA Press, 1980; S. Taylor, ‘Who Were the Convicts? A Statistical Analysis of the Convicts Arriving in Western Australia in 1850/51, 1861/62 and 1866/68’, Studies in Western Australian History, no 4, 1981, p. 19-45; JE. Thomas and A. Stewart, Imprisonment in WA: Evolution, Theory and Practice, Perth, Western Australia, UWA Press, 1978; M. Trinca, ‘The Control and Coercion of Convicts’, Ch.3, In J. Sherriff and A. Brake (Eds), Building a Colony: The Convict Legacy, Perth, Western Australia, Centre for Western Australian History, The University of Western Australia, 2006, p. 26-36; S. Winter, ‘Global, Regional and Local Networks: Archaeological Investigation of the Western Australian 1850- 1875’, PhD Thesis, The University of Western Australia, 2013.

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1. To evaluate and assess the silent and separate systems of prisoner discipline to understand the role of Perth Gaol within the wider criminal justice system; 2. To develop, construct and interrogate a unit record database to understand the aggregate prisoner population, and to identify the offending behaviour, and demographic information, of individual prisoners; 3. To explore and synthesise the archival records to understand the operation of Perth Gaol, which includes how prisoners were treated during their compulsory participation on work parties, their diet, inspections of the Gaol and, their visits with family, friends, clergy and legal representatives; and 4. To examine the archival records to identify and assess the individual stories of prisoners to enhance our understanding of life in Colonial Western Australia.

Research Focus

To provide an understanding of Perth Gaol and its role within the colonial criminal justice system, this thesis explores competing nineteenth-century theories of prisoner discipline and draws comparisons between the experiences of imprisonment in England with that of Western Australia. To better understand the role of Perth Gaol, it is necessary to investigate the role of Fremantle Prison, insofar as each institution imprisoned different classes of prisoner. Fremantle Prison held only (i) transported convicts who were still under their original transported sentence or who had either re-offended whilst on a ticket of leave or, (ii) or any male prisoner who had been sentenced by the colonial courts to a period of penal servitude. This prisoner population is then contrasted with that of Perth Gaol, which held all prisoners who had either been remanded for trial, or sentenced to a period of imprisonment not classified as penal servitude, regardless of age, sex or ethnicity. Perth Gaol was also the place where juvenile boys received , and where fourteen men were hanged.2

To understand the separate and silent regimes adopted by Fremantle Prison and Perth Gaol, this thesis will explore how they were used in English institutions at the time. The ‘separate system’ of prison discipline was adopted by the English convict prisons, and the ‘silent system’ was used by many (but not all) English local gaols. The separation of prisoners from each other, which included them eating, sleeping and working alone in their cell, was promoted by both prison administrators and penal reformers as a step forward in prisoner management, albeit for different reasons. Prison

2 T. Nicholls, Dataset: Perth Gaol Reports and Occurrences 1875-1883 - 1886-1888, Perth, Western Australia, 2016.; T. Nicholls, Dataset Cons1156 Items F3 + F4 Perth Gaol Register of Prisoners, Perth, Western Australia, 2014.; B. Purdue, Legal Executions in Western Australia, Victoria Park, Western Australia, Foundation Press, 1993.

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administrators saw that separation, facilitated by the building architecture, was a means to force prisoners to hear the words of God as they repented for their offences.3 Reformers, on the other hand, saw solitary confinement as a way to eliminate cross contamination between prisoners, so that the young and more impressionable could not corrupted by the lurid tales of the more criminally experienced.4

The silent system, where prisoners ate, slept and worked in association with each other and in complete silence, was adopted by small local prisons and gaols principally for reasons of cost, although it was argued that it was just as effective at managing prisoners as the separate system.5 The silent system forbade any form of communication with other prisoners. An appreciation of prison architecture is important, not only because single cells ensured prisoner separation and isolation, but because it helped to define the role of the institution. However as it was prohibitively expensive to modify the gaols that which existed prior to the advent of the separate system in the 1830s, they could adopt the silent system as a compromise.6 Of course both convict prisons and local gaols were expected to deter criminal behaviour, but institutions that were unable to separate prisoners could not possibly create morally sound individuals. At the time, it was thought that complete isolation was the key to prisoner reformation. As such, the role of the local gaol, which was more likely to have prisoners in association, was as a deterrent.7 A common complaint levelled against local gaols was that because they lacked the ability to separate prisoners, they did not possess the necessary ‘terror’ to reform or deter.8 The fact that Perth Gaol was built when prisoner separation was de rigueur, suggests that it was always intended to fulfil the local gaol role, leaving prisoner separation, and reformation, to Fremantle Prison.

In examining the imprisonment of former transported convicts, this research has uncovered the conundrum faced by the colonial authorities. From the prisoner register, it appears that former transported convicts (who had been granted their conditional pardon, certificate of freedom or if their original sentence had simply expired) who re-offended were sent to the colonial Perth Gaol

3 WJ. Forsythe, The Reform of Prisoners 1830-1900, Australia, Croom Helm, 1987.; WJ. Forsythe, Penal Discipline, Reformatory Projects and the English Prison Commission 1895-1939, Exeter, United Kingdom, University of Exeter Press, 1991.; URQ, Henriques, ‘The Rise and Decline of the Separate System of Prison Discipline’, Past and Present 54, February 1972.; RSE. Hinde, The British Penal System 1773-1950, London, United Kingdom, Gerald Duckworth & Co Ltd, 1951. 4 R. McGowen, ‘The Well Ordered Prison: England 1780-1865’, Ch.3, in N. Morris and D. Rothman (Ed), The Oxford History of the Prison, New York, United States, Oxford University Press, 1995, pp. 79-110. 5 H. Mayhew and J. Binny, The Criminal Prisons of London and Scenes of Prison Life. 6 H. Mayhew and J. Binny. 7 WJ. Forsythe, The Reform of Prisoners 1830-1900, Australia, Croom Helm, 1987.; URQ, Henriques, ‘The Rise and Decline of the Separate System of Prison Discipline’, Past and Present 54, February 1972. 8 MH. Tomlinson, ‘Penal Servitude 1846-1865: A System in Evolution’, Ch.6 In V. Bailey (Ed) Policing and Punishment in Nineteenth Century Britain, London, United Kingdom, Croom Helm, 1983.

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rather than the Imperial Fremantle Convict Prison. This is because upon the expiration of their original transported sentence, convicts were no longer seen as the financial responsibility of the British Government. However, as it was in England, if a convict on a ticket of leave re-offended, then they would be sent back to the Convict Prison to continue their sentence. Although it is true that half of the individual prisoners in Perth Gaol were former convicts, as a cohort they were more likely to re-offend. It is probable that the Colonial administration had expected, or at the very least desired, that all former convicts who did re-offend would be sent to Fremantle Prison, meaning the cost of their imprisonment would not fall to the local Treasury.9

To gain an understanding of Perth Gaol, it is not only necessary to have an appreciation of the system of prisoner discipline used, but also to identify the individual prisoners. To achieve this aim, three datasets were developed which utilised seven separate databases, created from information contained within eight different archival sources.10 These datasets replicated the ‘Perth Gaol Register of Prisoners’, the ‘Perth Gaol Reports and Occurrences’ and the Police Gazette, the last of which was used to understand female prisoners. The ‘Perth Gaol Register of Prisoners’ included every male prisoner’s name, age, whether they were a former convict, the offence(s) committed, their sentence, their religion, their occupation, whether they were literate, and when they were released.11 The use of individual identifiers in this dataset allows for specific individuals to be allocated multiple committals, which in turn has deepened our understanding of recidivist offending.

In order to categorise the 1,708 different offence descriptions contained within the narrative of the ‘Perth Gaol Register of Prisoners’, this dataset was enhanced by the application of the Australian

9 ‘Legislative Council’, The Perth Gazette and Independent Journal of Politics and News, 28 May 1858. 10 T. Nicholls, ‘Dataset Cons1156 Items F3 + F4 Perth Gaol Register of Prisoners’, Perth, Western Australia, 2014.; T. Nicholls, ‘Dataset Female Prisoners - Police Gazette Western Australia - No 1 January 1876 - No 52 December 1888’, Perth, Western Australia, 2016.; T. Nicholls, ‘Dataset: Perth Gaol Reports and Occurrences 1875-1883 - 1886-1888’, Perth, Western Australia, 2016.; ‘Cons1156 OCC 16 Perth Gaol Reports and Occurrences 1879 – 1882’, Gaols Department, Perth, Western Australia, State Records Office, 2016.; ‘Cons 1156 OCC 17: Perth Gaol Reports and Occurrences 1882-1883’, Gaols Department, Perth, Western Australia, State Records Office, 2017.; ‘Cons1156 OCC 18: Perth Gaol Reports and Occurrences 1875-1878’, Gaols Department, Perth, Western Australia, State Records Office, 2016.; ‘Cons 1156 OCC 26: Perth Gaol Women’, Gaols Department, Perth Western Australia, State Records Office, 2016.; "Cons 4189 Perth Gaol General Prison Records (Reports and Occurrences) 1886-1888, Convict Establishment, Perth, Western Australia, State Records Office, 2016.;’Perth Gaol Cons1156 Item F3 - Register Prisoners 614-4185 - 1876 – 1883, Perth, Western Australia, State Records Office, 1883.; ‘Perth Gaol Cons1156 Item F4 - Register Prisoners No 4196-6853 - 1883 – 1888’, Perth, Western Australia, State Records Office, 1888.; ‘Police Gazette Western Australia - No 1 January 1876 - No 52 December 1888’, Western Australia Police, Perth, Western Australia, State Library of Western Australia, 1876-1888. 11 ‘Perth Gaol Cons1156 Item F3 - Register Prisoners 614-4185 - 1876 – 1883’, Perth, Western Australia, State Records Office, 1883.; ‘Perth Gaol Cons1156 Item F4 - Register Prisoners No 4196-6853 - 1883 – 1888’, Perth, Western Australia, State Records Office, 1888.

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and New Zealand Standard Offence Classification framework.12 This framework, created by the Australian Bureau of Statistics and Statistics New Zealand, allowed for colonial offences to be sorted into broad divisions, which in turn permitted an analysis of offences committed by prisoners. In contrast to the considerable demographic information and offending histories of male prisoners provided through the ‘Perth Gaol register of Prisoners’, there are very few details