From the April 2025 issue of SROWA News - Djeran
The SRO has commenced a long-term project to catalogue all criminal trials that were held in the Court of Quarter Sessions / Supreme Court of WA for the period 1830-1947.
This work is part of a larger, ongoing activity to ensure each item in the State Archives Catalogue is individually listed and identified. We estimate over 95% of the archives are already listed, so we are approaching completion.
In reviewing the criminal files, we have noted a number of interesting matters, including:
- A number of people who were found guilty were sentenced to “Transportation Beyond the Seas”, to penal colonies such as Tasmania;
- This included a number of Aboriginal people who appeared in Court during the 1840s-1850s. This had us puzzled, as Rottnest Island had by that stage been established as a place Aboriginal prisoners were being sent to. Some further digging led us to an article in the newspaper “The Swan River Guardian” (5 October 1837) which notes “…to what colony are these [men] to be transported? The Government of Van Diemen’s Land will not receive them, as no Aboriginal inhabitants exist on that Island, and it is a question whether the sentence will be approved of in other Colonies, or in England.” The reality was these men ended up being sent to Rottnest Island, but it has made us wonder if that was considered a stop-gap measure at the time, given the sentences were often “Transportation Beyond the Seas” for close to 20 years;
- Children as young as 12 years of age would sometimes appear as defendants in the Court of Quarter Sessions;
- The most common crime for those being charged was larceny (i.e. stealing), with sentences ranging from one month hard labour through to 'transportation to another colony for life';
- In 1859, John Allison (of Bunbury, labourer) was found guilty of “selling his wife” and sentenced to 6 months imprisonment.
So far, the SRO has completed listing cases up to 1861. Work is continuing with a view that the criminal cases up to at least 1900 will be listed on our catalogue this year.
