Details

Latitude

-32.0548

Longitude

115.754

Start Date

1855

End Date

1991

While Swan River Colony was initially established in 1829 as a 'free settlement', by 1850 the need for a larger labour force convicts led to the introduction of transportation of convicts from Britain to Western Australia. Fremantle Prison was established to provide accommodation for these overseas convicts; some locally-convicted inmates were also held there from 1858. Penal transportation to Western Australia ended in 1868 and the number of convicts under sentence in the colony then gradually declined, so the prison eventually came under colonial control in 1886. Locally-convicted men from Perth Gaol were transferred to Fremantle, and from 1887 female prisoners were also sent there. The discovery of gold in Western Australia in 1890s swelled the population and prison numbers, and in the early twentieth century the gaol was considerably enlarged. Nevertheless, in 1911 a Royal Commission into Fremantle Prison recommended closing the facility due to its outdated conditions, but this recommendation was not acted upon. During both world wars the prison was used for the detention of military personnel accused of crimes, as well as an internment centre for enemy aliens and prisoners of war. Female inmates were removed from Fremantle in 1970. Despite growing pressure for prison reform, Fremantle Prison was slow to modernise, eventually leading to a major riot by dissatisfied prisoners in 1988.?The prison closed in 1991 and today operates as a museum about the gaol's history.

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