Fremantle Prison

Layout Fremantle Prison was built on a land grant of about from limestone quarried on-site. A boundary wall encloses the prison grounds, with a gatehouse in the centre of the western wall, facing The Terrace. at the centre of the site, North of the main block is New Division, and west of that, in the north-western corner, is the former Women's Prison, The hospital building stands in the north-eastern corner, while the former workshops are located in the south-eastern corner, as well as to the north of the gatehouse. A system of tunnels, constructed to provide fresh water from an aquifer, runs under the eastern edge of the site. Number 10 is a double-storey house, initially built in 1853 for the chaplain, but taken over by the superintendent in 1878 and later used by the prison administration. An adjoining single-storey at number 12, finished in 1854, was the home of the gatekeeper, located on the north side of the gatehouse. Number 16 The Terrace, south of the gatehouse, is a double-storey house that accommodated first the superintendent, and later the resident magistrate. It remained in use as housing for prison officers until the 1970s. Number 18, the southernmost house on The Terrace, and number 8, the northernmost of the initial buildings, both featured two sitting rooms, three bedrooms, and two dressing rooms, as well as a kitchen, water closet and shed, but with mirrored layouts. Number 18 was expanded with additions built in the 1890s. Gatehouse The gatehouse and associated entry complex was constructed between 1854 and 1855 using convict labour. It was designed by Royal Engineer and Comptroller General Edmund Henderson, and constructed out of limestone. Iron that had been scavenged from shipwrecks was used to make the gate, while the clock at the top of the structure was imported from England. As the main entrance, the gatehouse has remained a significant feature and landmark; since the closure of the prison, it has housed a café and office areas. Restoration was carried out in 2005, preserving the original stone facade and removing non-original rendering. The main block also houses the gallows, solitary confinement cells, and two chapelsAnglican and Catholic. Women's Prison The north-western complex was originally a service area with a cookhouse, bakehouse and laundry, built in the 1850s. A place for women prisoners was needed following the closure of Perth Gaol and the transfer of prisoners to Fremantle. The buildings were converted to a prison, and a wall built around them, creating Western Australia's first separate prison for women. Population and crime growth led to them being extended in the 1890s and 1910s. The construction of Bandyup Women's Prison saw Fremantle's Women's Prison close in 1970, with the space used for education and assessment until the main prison's closure in 1991. Workshops The original workshop was a blacksmith's shop, one of the first buildings to be constructed on the prison site. Later known as the East Workshops, other workshops included carpenter's, plumber's and painter's, a printing office, and from the 1850s, a metal shop. The West Workshops were built at the start of the twentieth century, providing more work for prisoners through a paint shop, mat maker, shoe maker, book binder and tailor shop. In 1993 the four northern workshops were adapted for use as TAFE art workshops. In 1896, a town reservoir was constructed on Swanbourne Street, fed from the prison by a triple-expansion steam-driven pump that could take more than per day from the prison tunnels. Prisoners, relieved of manual pumping, were employed to supply wood and stoke boilers. though the groundwater continued to be used for the prison's gardens. In 1989, diesel leaking from nearby tanks was found to have contaminated the water; however, the pollution was largely cleared by 1996 through bioremediation. == History ==

19th century While the Swan River Colony was established as a "free settlement" (unlike the penal colonies on the east coast), by the 1840s demand for cheap labour overcame an early reluctance, and the colony agreed to accept some convicts from Britain. The arrival of the first convict ship Scindian on 2 June 1850 was unexpected, as a sailing ship that had been sent ahead had been blown off-course. The colony's Round House jail was full, so the 75 convicts had to be left on the ship Construction began in 1851, In 1868, penal transportation to Western Australia ceased, and the number of convicts in the colony gradually declined, down to 83 in the mid-1880s. This influx included desperate, dishonest people, from elsewhere in Australia and overseas, and Fremantle Prison was soon overcrowded. Following the urgings of the prison Superintendent George and various official enquiries, new workshops were built to provide increased useful employment for prisoners. Five spaces were designed for tailors, bookbinders, shoemakers, mat makers and painters. New regulations for prison officers were published in the Government Gazette of Western Australia in 1902, and a new Prisons Act 1903 was passed. While in theory the passing of the act should have resulted in significant prison reform, this did not eventuate. The legislation left much of the changes to executive regulation, at the discretion of the governor, and was described by the media as a feeble document. New Division, completed in 1907 and occupied in 1908, resulted from the 1899 commissioners' report recommending a modified version of the separate system. by a warder in a central tower. it was one of more than 50 military prisons across Australia holding a combined total of more than 12,000 enemy aliens and prisoners of war. Fremantle accommodated up to 400 military prisoners and up to 160 civilian prisoners by October 1945. The World War II takeover necessitated the commissioning of Barton's Mill Prison in 1942. and to reduce the overcrowding at Fremantle. restructured, and the position of comptroller general was replaced with director of the department. however, racial stereotypes are present throughout the report, and the testimony of Aboriginal prisoners was considered unreliable. The report also made recommendations regarding various aspects of prison life, including additional, independent, trained welfare officers. on the management of the site. Fremantle Prison hostel in 2024 == Staff and prisoners ==

Administration Western Australia's first comptroller general of convicts, Edmund Henderson, administered the convict establishment for thirteen years. The primary responsibilities of the comptroller general were to "direct convict labour and be responsible for convict discipline". responsible for all of the prisons in the colony. the responsibility of the prison itself lay with the superintendent. The pensioner guards were expected to help deal with any incidents of unrest at the prison. Fremantle Prison's officers were known as warders until the early 20th century. They lived in specially built terrace houses within walking distance of the prison, and their lives were just as regimented as the prisoners. In the 1890s warders still had stringent living and working conditions, including ten- to twelve-hour working days. Due to a high turnover rate, many had little knowledge of either official policies or unofficial rules and traditions. The warder's role, previously unwritten, only became clearly defined in 1902. As well as guarding against escapes and enforcing discipline, they oversaw prisoner work and instructed inmates in trades. The warders were also supposed to be moral role models for prisoners, while maintaining a formal, distant, relationship. The prison officer's role in the 20th century did not change much, with the job still entailing a boredom-inducing daily routine focused on security. Officer training became a priority under Campbell's administration, from the late 1960s. Training courses were set up for staff inductions and promotions, and seminars were started for senior officers. The most significant change in this period, however, was that prison officers achieved representation through the Western Australian Prison Officers' Union. The strength of the union was based on the ability to almost cripple the prison system through strike action, first taken in 1975. Prisoners Convicts were introduced into Western Australia for three main purposes: inexpensive labour, additional labour, and an injection of British government spending into the local economy. During the initial years of transportation, convicts were generally young, from a rural background, and of good character, having only committed minor offences – potential future colonists, after their sentence had been served. By the 1860s the majority were older, more serious offenders from urban areas, including political prisoners considered to be "difficult and dangerous". Following the transfer of Fremantle Prison to local control in 1886, it became Western Australia's primary prison. In the late 1880s and 1890s the number of inmates swelled dramatically. This increase predominantly comprised prisoners serving shorter sentences of under three months. The number of inmates in 1897 was 379, and Inspector of Prisons James Roe viewed the prison as "inconveniently full". Despite a large expansion of the prison system, the problem of overcrowding remained throughout the 20th century, as did Western Australia's high incarceration rate relative to the rest of Australia. The nature of prisoners changed, with three times the proportion of 16- to 19-year-olds in 1984 compared to 1898, and a growing over-representation of Aboriginal prisoners to nearly half the incarcerated population. Sentences also increased in length, such that in 1984 more than 80% of inmates were serving more than a year. In the 1970s and 1980s, there was an increasing number of people committed for violent crimes, but still a minority of the population. Both staff and prisoners, however, perceived a notable increase in violence during these years, coinciding with the rise of illegal drugs in prison, and of sentences for drug-related offences. == Prison operation ==

Routine In the Convict Establishment of 1855, the day began with the wakeup bell at 4:30 am, and the officers and prisoners assembled in the parade ground at 5:25 am. Prisoners were sent to work before and after breakfast (in their cells), before assembling for muster at midday. This was followed by dinner in the exercise yard or the work site, and more work throughout the afternoon, until supper at 6:00 pm in the cells. Night officers took over at 7:15 pm. The transfer of the Convict Establishment to the colonially-run Fremantle Prison saw little change, and no new regulations. Continued good behaviour could see the convict granted a ticket-of-leave, allowing private employment in a specified district of the colony, and eventually a Conditional Pardon, allowing most freedoms, except for returning to England. A Certificate of Freedom would only be granted at the end of a sentence. Misbehaviour would result in demotion through these levels of work, including returning to convict status within the prison. Re-offenders and captured escapees, after corporal punishment and time in solitary confinement, would be placed on a chain gang undertaking hard labour, typically on roads near Fremantle. By the 1880s, punishments also included a restricted diet of bread and water (for a short time span), time in irons, and a lengthening of a prisoner's sentence by a visiting magistrate. The gallows room was the only lawful place of execution in Western Australia between 1888 and 1984. Following a medical examination, the deceased was removed for burial. Moondyne Joe Joseph Bolitho Johns, better known as Moondyne Joe, was Western Australia's best known bushranger. In July 1865, Johns was sentenced to ten years penal servitude for killing a steer. In July 1866 he received a further six months in irons for trying to cut the lock out of his door, but in August Moondyne Joe succeeded in escaping again. However, the rock broken by Moondyne Joe was not removed regularly, and eventually a pile grew up until it obscured the guard's view of him below the waist. Partially hidden behind the pile of rocks, he occasionally swung his sledgehammer at the limestone wall of the prison. On 7 March 1867, Moondyne Joe escaped through a hole he had made in the prison wall. and settled in Boston. Later that year, pardons were issued to many of the imprisoned Fenians, after which only eight militant Fenians remained in Western Australia's penal system. The Fenians in America bought the whaling ship Catalpa, which on 29 April 1875 sailed from New Bedford, Massachusetts on a secret rescue mission. Coordinating with local Fenian agents, the escape was arranged for 17 April 1876, when most of the Convict Establishment garrison would be watching the Royal Perth Yacht Club regatta. Catalpa dropped anchor in international waters off Rockingham and dispatched a whaleboat to the shore. At 8.30 am, six Fenians who were working in work parties outside the prison walls absconded, and were met by carriages that raced south to where the boat was waiting. Abbott avoided capture until 1995, committing various robberies as he moved across Australia. He also escaped from a Queensland prison after two years Riots There have been various prisoner riots and other disturbances at Fremantle Prison over the years that it was operational. One of the earliest was in 1854, while major riots which occurred in 1968 and 1988 resulted in damage to the prison. 1988 On 4 January 1988, despite the heat, officers decided prisoners should remain outside in the exercise yards in the afternoon. As division 3 prisoners were let inside at around 4pm, a voice exclaimed "Let's take 'em", hostages, as flames quickly overran the building, spread into the rafters, and caused the roof to collapse. and officers were injured. In the aftermath of the riot, there was extensive media attention on Fremantle Prison, and investigative journalists uncovered prior warnings to the prison authorities of the risk of such an event. The government hastily initiated an enquiry into the incident, and a report was completed within six weeks. A trial involving thirty-three prisoners charged over the riot was also held, the largest in the state's history, which resulted in lengthened sentences for the prisoners. == Conservation ==

Heritage listing Fremantle Prison was listed in the Western Australian Register of Historic Places as an interim entry on 10 January 1992 and included as a permanent entry on 30 June 1995. Five years later, these locations were inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2010 as the Australian Convict Sites. The process of obtaining World Heritage listing focused historical interpretation and conservation efforts on the prison's convict era. This came at the expense of its more recent history, included use as an internment centre during World War II, and the imprisonment of Aboriginal prisoners. The prioritisation, evident from the first conservation plans from before the prison closed, is reflected in the branding of the tourist experience as "Fremantle Prison – the Convict Establishment", and through restorations that, while necessary to prevent damage and deterioration, strip away the site's recent history. Restoration Various parts of Fremantle Prison have had restoration works undertaken since the 1990s; a total of (equivalent to in ) was spent between 1996/97 and 1998/99 on works which included restoring the facade of the Anglican chapel. In 2005, work was undertaken on the restoration of the prison gatehouse area. Non-original rendering was removed and the original stonework was revealed. (equivalent to in ) project in 2006 and 2007. The gallows room was restored in 2013 to conditions at the time of the last execution, in 1964. == Tourism ==

Fremantle Prison receives international and domestic tourists, as well as ex-prisoners, former prison officers, and their descendants. 2007, 2008, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2018. Attractions include guided tours, a visitors' centre with searchable convict database, art gallery, café, gift shop, The Fremantle Prison Collection contains around 15,000 items associated with the prison's site, history, or the experiences of its workers and prisoners. It is also involved in preserving oral histories, with interview transcripts stored at Fremantle Prison and recordings archived in the Battye Library Oral History Collection. Recollections have been recorded since 1989, and include the experiences of authorities, staff, volunteer visitors, and prisoners. The Fremantle Prison records and collections, including archaeological, provide a substantial resource for researchers. Many cells and areas of the prison depict prisoners' artwork, This rule was relaxed in special cases – including, from 1976, long-term prisoners within their own cells – but only for work considered art and not graffiti. Other cells contain Aboriginal artwork, many by unknown artists. The Walmajarri artist Jimmy Pike started painting in Fremantle prison, having received tuition from Steve Culley and David Wroth. == See also ==